Culture Act for Scotland to feature in Scottish Conservative manifesto
The culture hustings was hosted by organisations including Culture Counts
A call for a culture act for Scotland is set to be included in the election manifesto of the Scottish Conservatives, an MSP has said.
Scottish Tories’ culture spokesman Murdo Fraser said it was likely that a “reference” to the concept of such an act would appear in the publication of its policies ahead of the Holyrood election in May.
At a hustings event held in Edinburgh and chaired by journalist and broadcaster, Halla Mohieddeen, Mr Fraser also called for the BBC’s charter renewal to to be dependent on a clause requiring more TV productions to be filmed in Scotland with Scottish production staff.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour’s culture spokesman Neil Bibby said he believed trade union representatives should sit on the board of Creative Scotland to protect fair work principles in the creative industries.
He said: “We have trade union representatives on boards of things like ScotRail, why not have trade union representation on the board of Creative Scotland?”
The hustings was held by arts network Culture Counts, the Federation of Scottish Theatre, Scottish Contemporary Arts Network, Festivals Edinburgh, Equal Media and Culture Centre, and Campaign for the Arts.
Culture Counts, which is made up of arts, heritage and creative industries organisations, has campaigned for a Culture Act for Scotland.
Mr Fraser said: “I think there’s something in that [a culture act], in trying to embed culture right across the public sector in Scotland. If we’re going to see the security in funding that everyone wants to see, then underpinning that with a culture act would be very useful.”
He added: “When you see the Conservative manifesto for the election in May, you might notice a reference to a culture act.”
The Scottish Government’s culture secretary Angus Robertson also said he would back a culture act - something First Minister John Swinney has also said he would consider - while Scottish Green Party representative, artist Q Manivannan, added their voice to calls for culture legislation.
However, Malcolm Offord, leader of Reform in Scotland, said he would not support the creation of a culture act, while councillor Euan Davidson , spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said there were “multiple things we can do to embed [culture] without going down a legislation route”.
Mr Offord said: “If we need to rely to legislation to create culture, we’re in a bad place. Culture comes from people and communities and Scotland is full of that, with vibrant culture and vibrant communities and I don’t think we need to be legislating for that.”
Mr Fraser said more needed to be done to attract economic growth to Scotland through creative industries such as film and TV.
He pointed to the upcoming renewal of the BBC’s charter, saying that production companies were filming in Scotland, but a lot of more lucrative production work was taking place south of the border.
He said: “I think it’s quite logical for us to say as a country and as a government, we have got to have more productions here in Scotland and create more jobs here.”
The organisers if the event said: “Culture is essential to improving our individual and national wellbeing, community cohesion, our economy, and our international profile.
They added: “We are grateful to the representatives of Scotland’s six main political parties for sharing their priorities for the sector in the next parliamentary term.
“However, the sector needs much more than just warm words. We need politicians to commit to the call for a Culture Act for Scotland to strengthen our sector and scale our impact for the benefit of all. We look forward to working with all MSPs and the next Scottish Government to make this happen.”
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