Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has made a number of grant schemes available specifically for the cultural sector as a result of COVID-19, and in addition cultural businesses are able to apply to a range of other COVID-19 business support schemes. These funds are supported via a mixture of additional budget allocations to the sector and through repurposing of existing funding streams.

Specific cultural support:

Creative Scotland is providing the following support in response to the COVID-19 situation.

The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals (£4.0m); As of Monday 25 May, 1596 arts and creative bursaries have been paid.

The repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances (£7.5m). As at 25 May, there have been 176 individual applications and 86 applications from organisations to the Open Fund. These will be assessed at the end of May.

One-off bursaries through Screen Scotland to film and TV sector workers (£1.5m). 519 have been paid as at 25 May.

Screen Scotland has also announced that Scotland’s independent film and TV production companies are able to apply for newly ring-fenced development support fund of £1m for awards over the next 3-6 months to enable planning towards production when Government guidance allows.

Museums Galleries Scotland have formed the Urgent Response Fund (£700k) and the Digital Resilience Fund (£115k). As of 25 May 2020, 24 applications have been received for the Urgent Response Fund, with 20 assessed. Nine museums have been awarded funding, nine decisions have been deferred, two declined and four to be assessed. The Digital Resilience fund has received 46 applications, with 42 assessments and 40 awards having been made.

We are supporting the Edinburgh Fringe with a £500,000 initial package of support comprising a £400,000 interest-free loan from the Scottish Government and a £100,000 grant from the Council.

Wider funds which cultural organisations may be eligible to apply for include the £30 million Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, the £34 million Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund, the Third Sector Resilience Fund and the £120 million Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.

The Job Retention Scheme, which includes the furlough measure, and the Self Employment Income Support Scheme are both reserved to the UK Government under employment law.

There are a number of reasons why people may not be eligible for these schemes. Data on the uptake of the schemes, by different sectors including the creative industries, is a matter for the UK Government.

The Scottish Government is aware that the support packages available may not help with every individual circumstance. That is why we established the £30m Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, the £120m Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund and the £34m Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund.

Creative Scotland is also providing an expected total budget of £14 million of support through the Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals; the repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances; and one-off bursaries to film and TV sector workers.

Information on all of the support schemes, including the general schemes, is available through the Find Business Support website at https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/ .

In response to a request from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) for support to continue its operations, I suggested that it worked with Scottish Enterprise on the details of the case for support and agreed to meet the Trust. NTS indicated on 8 May that it was preparing to announce potential redundancies. It wrote to the Scottish Government on 11 May confirming its decision to put 429 of its staff at risk of redundancy, and announced the decision publicly on the same day.

I met with the National Trust on 15 May to discuss the financial impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak on its business, and the outcome of the early discussions with Scottish Enterprise on the case for Government support. In that meeting I questioned whether the Trust was making the maximum use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to mitigate redundancies. I also was clear that Scottish Government support would be difficult while the Trust was proposing to proceed with redundancy plans.

Following that meeting, a team from Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise has been asked to work with the NTS to explore its financial situation and provide recommendations which seek to ensure its long-term security while, as much as possible, protecting jobs and keeping properties open. This team held its first meeting with the NTS on 26 May.

We are committed to working with the Trust to explore the support measures necessary to ensure that it can carry on its valuable work, but are clear that any request for public funding needs to be focused on achieving maximum public value and must be accompanied by a clear case which demonstrates both the need for support and the public benefits that it will provide.

Scottish Ministers recognise the exceptional circumstances being experienced by the arts, culture and tourism sectors as a result of COVID-19, and the challenges these have created. We have significant and ongoing engagement with key stakeholders from these sectors including through the Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group and Creative Scotland’s Covid-19 response group which has been key in identifying and addressing many of the challenges for businesses, employees and the self-employed.

We have put in place a substantial package worth over £2.3 billion for businesses in Scotland, which includes the Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, and the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund. Creative Scotland is providing an expected total budget of £14 million of support in response to the COVID-19 situation including the Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals; the repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances; and one-off bursaries to film and TV sector workers.

Official data on the financial impact of COVID-19 on the arts, culture and tourism sectors are not yet available for Scotland.

In response to COVID-19, the Scottish Government has published an experimental Monthly Business Turnover Index. These provide an early indicator of business activity using the survey data held by the Scottish Government. The index for March 2020 was published on 13 May, and indicates a considerable proportion of companies in the Accommodation and Food Services and Culture, Recreation & Other Services sectors Scotland have reported lower turnover in real terms than 12 months ago. This publication is available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/monthly-business-turnover-index-march-2020/

The ONS has published initial UK-level data on the impact of COVID-19 by industry through its Business Impact of COVID-19 Survey (BICS). Data for Wave 4 of BICS (covering the period 20 April to 3 May) was published on 21 May, and includes data on the Accommodation & Food Service sector and the Arts, Education & Recreation sectors. This includes data on responding firms’ trading status, and impacts on their recent turnover.

Data from ONS’s BICS is available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/
businessimpactofcovid19surveybicsresults

Public funding for the heritage sector is primarily distributed through Historic Environment Scotland’s (HES) grant programmes. Since 2015, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has been awarded two three-year Annual Maintenance Grants to support the conservation and repair of properties within its estate. The grant funding made available is set out in the following table alongside details of the amounts claimed by the NTS.

The Scottish Government is currently working closely with partners, agencies and stakeholders to understand the long term impact of the pandemic on the sector, and to prepare guidance to support safe working when it is possible for the sector to reopen.

Creative Scotland is collating information on an ongoing basis on the potential implications of the pandemic. It is gathering data from funded organisations and drawing on consultation and research undertaken by sector partners with a more detailed analysis currently being compiled for the Scottish Government. It has also undertaken data modelling to help assess the risk and resource requirements for Creative Scotland Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) and organisations consistently supported through Open Project Funding (OPF) or Targeted routes.

Furthermore, Creative Scotland will undertake research through 2020 to look at audience intentions to return to cultural activities, as well as monitoring the ongoing impact. This will seek to understand the demand to return to performance venues and events, and will explore the barriers and enablers to audiences returning including their expectations of hygiene, social distancing measures and transport.

The Scottish Government is also monitoring the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre’s research into understanding the changes to the way we consume culture at home during Covid-19.

The Scottish Government in collaboration with Creative Scotland have acted very swiftly in putting measures in place to support the sector and we are looking ahead to its safe restart.

The arts and culture sector is exploring ways to bring people together whilst ensuring safety, artistic integrity and economic viability. Many things need to be considered – particularly how physical distancing can be accommodated by performing arts organisations and within venues. We will continue to discuss with the sector looking ahead to guidance on re-opening and will consider potential support measures. As I mentioned to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee on 21 May I cannot yet comment on what the measures and resources could be, but these will be kept under consideration.

The Scottish Government does not hold details of the net annual economic worth and the jobs created by the pantomime season.

Similarly, the measurement of the impact of individual events outwith Scotland's Winter Festivals programme is not a matter for the Scottish Government.

Scotland's Winter Festivals 2018-19 was a great success delivering over 110 events and engaging 416,000 people across 17 Local Authorities and the Scottish Government is currently gathering information from delivery partner on the impacts of Scotland's Winter Festivals 2019-20.

“ Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis” published on 21 May sets out how we will look at the cumulative and overall impact of those measures, and of ongoing restrictions. The route map provides an indication of the order in which the Scottish Government will carefully and gradually seek to lift current restrictions, but does not attempt to specify dates for all of the different phases. Rather as we move beyond the first phase, future phases will be based on meeting particular criteria.

In the meantime the Scottish Government moved swiftly to support (a) venues and (b) staff by investing £2.3 billion into support for businesses and employers, with hardship funds for self-employed people and the creative and tourism sectors plus funding has been made available for tourism, hospitality and creative industry businesses that are experiencing hardship as a result of COVID-19 and are not eligible for other sources of support (except UK Job Retention Scheme).

Further information on the full package of UK and Scottish Government support to help events businesses through the coronavirus pandemic is provided at:

https://www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/advice/coronavirus

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, we are in regular contact with the sector, as well as those who represent the sector, to monitor the ongoing impact of the current situation, which is changing quickly. We are also monitoring the uptake of the various support measures that are available. We will work with Creative Scotland and the enterprises agencies to understand how many venues applied for funding and how many were successful.

We are aware that the impact on venues in the entertainment sector has been particularly challenging, and we will continue to work with the sector to respond to the long-term impact.

The Scottish Government has been having ongoing discussions with all parts of the culture sector through a variety of channels, including independent performance venues across a range of sectors such as theatre and live music. This has helped identify the scale of the impact COVID-19 has had on different parts of the sector, and inform the support the Scottish Government has provided.

Through the Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Fund we have made
‎ £40 million pounds available to small Scottish creative, tourism and hospitality businesses who have experienced at least 50% loss of current or projected revenue as a result of COVID-19. This fund recognises the importance of these sectors, and the specific challenges they face. In addition to this fund, there are a range of other support mechanisms open to independent performance venues, including rates relief for 2020-21, the Job Retention Scheme and access to the UK Government’s bounce back loans. Some may also have been eligible for the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.

We continue to engage with the sector to monitor the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and to consider how such businesses will be able to reopen when they are able to do so.