- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the Centre for the Moving Image reportedly entering into administration, and the impact that this will have on ensuring Scotland’s festivals maintain a "global competitive edge", in line with the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment.
Answer
With regard to the Centre for the Moving Image entering into administration, it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on ongoing legal proceedings, but the Scottish Government is engaging with Creative Scotland, as well as Aberdeen and Edinburgh City Councils, to provide support where possible.
The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring Scotland’s festivals have a global competitive edge. Our Festivals continue to be one of Scotland’s world-leading cultural brands, and we want them to retain their world-class status and continue to offer widespread accessibility to culture for community and education settings. We have and will continue to support our festivals and performers to get back in the international spotlight, backing our major festivals in Glasgow and Edinburgh, to ensure they stay globally competitive.
The Scottish Government will continue to work with the Culture sector to identify barriers to immediate and long-term recovery, and we will continue to do everything within our powers and resources to help those most affected by current economic challenges.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) artists and (b) communities have received funding from its Culture Collective Programme in (i) 2021-22 and (ii) 2022-23, broken down by how much funding has been awarded in each year.
Answer
The Culture Collective programme was awarded £5,891,553 in March 2021 and £4,241,918 in March 2022. This is supporting 26 projects in communities across Scotland and has, to date, created over 320 opportunities for creative practitioners.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how much funding it has invested in the sustainable development of Scotland’s historic estate in (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23, in line with the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment.
Answer
The Scottish Government delivers support for the Historic Environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and we continue to invest and support the sustainable development of Scotland’s historic estate.
In 2021-2022 we provided HES with £75.9m of Grant in Aid funding which included £20m in Covid emergency funds. In 2022-23, we have provided £68.9m of Grant in Aid funding to support Historic Environment Scotland, maintaining our enhanced support given the impact of the pandemic on HES’s commercial income. This funding is still substantially more than the £42.8m funding provided to HES pre pandemic.
Sustainable development and protection of the historic environment is a vital area of work that HES delivers. More specific detail on the HES’s delivery of this work is available in their Annual Operating Plan 2022-23 | Historic Environment Scotland.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government in what ways it has increased funding available to artists in line with the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment.
Answer
Artists are a significant part of Scotland's culture sector and the Scottish Government is committed to seeing them thrive.
Since April 2021, Creative Scotland has distributed 491 awards to individuals through the Open Fund, totalling £6.2m.
They also distributed 3,923 awards to individuals through the Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers, to the value of £7.5m in the same period.
Further information on the delivery of SG emergency Covid19 funds by Creative Scotland is available in the Evaluation of Creative Scotland COVID-19 Emergency Funding Programmes | Creative Scotland which covers the 2020-21 emergency funding. A further report on the delivery of SG’s emergency funding by Creative Scotland from late 2021-2022 is currently in preparation.
Creative Scotland is also working on a new approach to funding organisations over multiple years as set out in their Future Funding Review. This aims to offer organisations greater certainty in planning which will improve opportunities for the many freelance artists that are pivotal to their work and who make up over half of the workforce in the arts sector.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it made support through its Festival Expo Fund available to the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) prior to the organisation reportedly entering into administration, and, if so, how much funding was awarded to CMI in each year since 2007.
Answer
The Scottish Government has supported the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) in the production of Edinburgh International Film Festival through our Festival EXPO fund since the fund’s inception in 2007. The amounts awarded are as follows:
2008-09 - £60,000
2009-10 - £110,000
2010-11 - £180,000
2011-12 - £100,000
2012-13 - £150,000
2013-14 - £110,000
2014-15 - £125,000
2015-16 - £115,000
2016-17 - £110,000
2017-18 - £110,000
2018-19 - £104,000
2019-20 - £100,000
2020-21 - £75,000
2021-22 - £50,000
2022-23 - £110,000
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm how many (a) core funded and (b) non-core funded cultural organisations have received three-year funding settlements.
Answer
The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with the culture sector, to understand the impacts that the current cost crisis, and wider pressures, are having on the sector. Due to the dynamic situation we are still assessing multi-year settlements for core funded cultural organisations. For non-core funded cultural organisations Creative Scotland is working on a new approach to funding Regularly Funded Organisations as set out in their Future Funding Review.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced three-year funding settlements for Scottish Government core funded cultural organisations, in line with the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment.
Answer
The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with its core funded cultural organisations, to understand the impacts that the current cost crisis, and wider pressures, are having on the sector. We will be looking at the potential for three-year funding settlements in preparations for the 2023-24 budget.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost each year has been of consultancy fees relating to Transport Scotland’s work on developing long- and medium-term resilient routes to replace the existing A83 Rest and Be Thankful corridor.
Answer
Since the announcement in August 2020 to develop a resilient long term solution to the landslide issues at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, Transport Scotland has spent approximately £5 million in consultancy fees for both the medium term and long term solutions.
Financial Year | Spend (inc. VAT) |
2020-21 | £1,157,851.95 |
2021-22 | £2,804,916.38 |
2022-23* | £1,013,000.99 |
* up to and including July 2022.
This has allowed the environmental and engineering assessment work on eleven different corridor options to be concluded with the preferred route corridor being announced in March 2021.
Design and assessment work has subsequently progressed on five long term solution options within the preferred corridor comparing the relative merits in terms of engineering, environmental and economic criteria. All options are technically complex ranging from traditional roads with structural rock shelters, to tunnels through the hillside and viaducts options crossing through the Glen Croe valley.
At the same time, consultants have been undertaking design and assessment work on a number of medium term options to improve resilience of the route while the long term measure is being developed.
To inform the design, consultants have undertaken a wide range of activities including the development of 3D road models for each option, rock and channel mapping of the hillside, landslide hazard assessments, constructability reviews as well as flood risk and flood mapping. They have also prepared contract documents and supervised the £1.8 million ground investigation and undertaken a range of environmental and topographical surveys.
All consultation, design and environmental assessment reports completed to date, and further details of the data gathering and design activities are available on Transport Scotland’s website: Access to Argyll and Bute (A83) (transport.gov.scot)
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 21 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to introduce the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment for a Percentage for the Arts scheme.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11288 on 19 October 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility of which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 October 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what additional funding (a) is currently available and (b) it will make available to local authorities to assist them in the clearance of bird carcasses in the event of an outbreak of an avian disease.
Answer
With regard to the safe collection and disposal of dead wild birds suspected of having been infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), current government disease control guidance is for carcases to be left in situ, unless the local authority deem it necessary to remove them, e.g. for environmental health concerns. The Scottish Government, following consultation with Public Health Scotland, has issued guidance to all local authorities in Scotland on the safe collection and disposal of dead wild birds suspected of having been infected with HPAI H5N1, including information on Animal-By-Products Regulations and public health, should local authorities wish to remove them.
As yet, there is no scientific evidence that the removal of carcases significantly reduces the risk of onward spread of the current strain of HPAI H5N1 amongst wild birds. However, this matter continues to be under review, including currently being the topic of a veterinary risk assessment carried out by the Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks (EPIC), commissioned by the Scottish Government.
