From porn films to galleries at risk, how Scotland’s culture sector is being damaged under SNP
The Scottish Government has been crowing about its support for the culture sector in the draft Scottish Budget for the coming financial year. Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has talked about a “game-changing increase” of some £34 million to support arts and culture, much of which will go into under-fire funding body Creative Scotland.
These additional funds are of course welcome, coming on the back of a very difficult period for culture funding. In the last financial year, there was a cut of nearly £5m in the budget allocation for arts and culture, so the proposed funding for 2025-26 not just replaces that but does provide a substantial uplift.
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Hide AdThe culture sector is important to Scotland in itself, as an expression of our national identity and in allowing people’s participation in the arts. There is also an enormous economic benefit, with the creative industries estimated to be worth around £5.8 billion to Scotland, supporting tens of thousands of jobs.


Books that can’t be balanced
From local events such as the Highland Games in summer to the outstanding quality of our national companies such as Scottish Opera, the arts are there for everyone and help attract visitors from around the globe, contributing to economic growth.
But whilst the increased funding will help, it only tells part of the story. Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Culture Committee last week, the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) warned that budget pressures might lead to it having to shut one of its buildings, which comprise the Scottish National Gallery and the Royal Scottish Academy on the Mound, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
Although the Scottish Budget for 2025-26 gives NGS a 9 per cent rise in funding, higher staffing costs, partly driven by the UK Government’s increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, and partly by SNP policies to cut the working week for state employees from 37 to 35 hours and prohibit compulsory redundancies, means the books simply can’t be balanced.
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Hide AdAnne Lyden, NGS director-general, told the committee that she was having to look at restricting opening hours, or even closing one of the sites entirely, to save costs. In the same session, Historic Environment Scotland said it was having to look at introducing entry fees on some sites which are presently free, to address its budget blackhole.
Libraries face closure
It is not just at a national level that we see these financial pressures. At the weekend, I attended, along with hundreds of other locals, a rally in Perth where representatives of communities across Perth and Kinross were there to show their support for local libraries under threat of closure.
In order to address a funding gap, Culture Perth and Kinross, an arm’s-length body wholly funded by Perth and Kinross Council, has proposed shutting five local libraries. We heard time and time again from speakers at the rally that these libraries were not just a resource for borrowing books, but important hubs for community life, and their loss would have a devastating impact, particularly on the young, the elderly and the disadvantaged.
We see this pattern repeated right across Scotland, with councils having to look at reducing services and closing facilities. Libraries in Moray and Aberdeenshire are under threat. Cultural venues face closure, with Dundee Contemporary Arts, for example, warning that its financial future is still unclear as Dundee City Council seeks to make savings of £15m.
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Hide AdIn Stirling, the council’s Labour administration is looking at scrapping music tuition in schools, a vital cultural resource which is an important component in helping deliver well-rounded educational opportunities, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds whose parents might not be able to afford private tuition.
There are pressures elsewhere too. Music venues were given 40 per cent business rates relief in the recent budget, but this only applies to those with a rateable value up to and including £51,000. According to the Music Venue Trust, this excludes one third of their members, which are put at a competitive disadvantage compared to similar venues south of the Border. The likes of the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh, NiceNSleazy in Glasgow, or Hootananny in Inverness will get no financial benefit, at a time when they see rising costs.
Creative Scotland under pressure
While all this is going on, Creative Scotland faces serious questions about its own future. The decision last year to award the Rein project over £80,000 in public money is nothing short of a scandal. It transpired that what was being produced was effectively a pornographic film featuring live sex, and the explanations from Creative Scotland as to what due diligence was done before the funding award have been unconvincing.
The funding body was also rocked by the disclosure that a member of staff had urged a shop not to stock gender critical books, and specifically a publication by the poet and performer Jenny Lindsay. Though the staff member in question was disciplined, it does raise serious questions about the culture within the very body that is supposed to be encouraging free speech and expression within a diverse Scotland.
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Hide AdCreative Scotland is now under review by the Scottish Government, and we await details of how that will be conducted and the likely timescale. For its critics, it is not the principle of having an arm’s-length arts funding body that is in question, but rather whether, given its history of errors, Creative Scotland really is a body fit for purpose which can have the confidence both of the culture sector and the wider Scottish population.
So whilst the SNP might crow about the additional funding in the coming year’s budget for culture, the serious problems facing the sector are not going away. Unless we start to address them, and particularly the loss of local facilities throughout Scotland, this country’s cultural offer, both to our own population and to visitors, will be diminished.
Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife
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