Scottish government U-turns on £6.6m funding cut for Creative Scotland

The Scottish government has reversed a proposed £6.6m cut in Creative Scotland’s funding.

Under the proposed slashed budget, Creative Scotland’s Grant in Aid budget for 2023/24 would have decreased from £63m to around £56m. At the time, Marion Sinclair, chief executive of Publishing Scotland, described it as "a blow".

Acting finance secretary John Swinney has now made a U-turn on plans to cut cultural funding, but on the reinstatement of Creative Scotland’s £6.6m he warned that that was the “absolute limit” of funding he could offer the organisation.

Creative Scotland said it "warmly welcome[d]" the announcement. Robert Wilson, chair of Creative Scotland, said: “Alongside the board and staff, I am very pleased to see this announcement about the Scottish government’s budget.

“It follows a great deal of work from Creative Scotland in setting out the impact and implications of the proposed budget reduction, and the enormously valuable advocacy work from people and organisations across Scotland’s culture sector and beyond. The board will now consider what this means for our budget and our funding in 2023/24 and we will announce more on this as soon as possible.”