News – Spotlight falls on Scottish arts spending

Cultural expenditure by Scotland?s councils in 2003/04 amounted to £100 per person, according to an in-depth and independent survey by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and is expected to increase to £103 per person by 2004/05.

Over half of the £509m spent on culture went to support sports activity (£139m) and parks and open spaces (£119m), while the arts attracted only 6.5% of the total, amounting to £33m. A further 10.5% (£53.6m) was spent on community and recreation, including community halls and festivals, and 7.7% (£39.3m) on heritage, museums and galleries.

CIPFA?s findings have been published at a sensitive time for culture in Scotland, following the recent call by the Scottish Cultural Commission for an injection of £100m a year into cultural provision, and the establishment of a new body with overall responsibility for culture, including the arts (AP issue 101, 4 July). The Commission?s recommendations, made public just days before the Scottish Parliament?s summer recess, are due to face a full Parliamentary debate next month, but are already proving controversial among the arts community. According to The Scotsman, which applied for letters to be released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Cultural Commission?s 500-page report was only published following a request for extra cash from the Executive, including £4,000 to pay for an editor to trim it down. It has been heavily criticised for including inappropriate levels of detail. A number of suggestions, including aligning the dates of the Edinburgh International Festival with those of the Fringe, have been met with bemusement by festival Directors, who have implied that the research under-pinning some aspects of the report is flawed.