16 January 2006

Culture - Executive reaching for revolver

The Scotsman anticipates the Executive's culture announcement later this week:
"MINISTERS are expected to take direct control over the funding of Scotland's major art companies this week in the biggest shake-up of Scotland's cultural establishment since devolution.
Patricia Ferguson, the arts minister, will unveil the Executive's approach to the arts on Thursday, giving her long-awaited response to last year's Cultural Commission report into Scotland's artistic future.
She is expected to announce that the national companies, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, will no longer be funded by the Scottish Arts Council.
Instead, the arts companies expect to be funded directly by the Executive, but only after safety provisions have been agreed to prevent civil service interference."

If I were the head of an arts company, I would look very carefully at those safety provisions. Will Scottish Ministers be able to resist interfering in operational matters? The removal of the SAC buffer will place the arts companies directly in the firing line. Any hint that taxpayers' money is being misspent - always a danger for the arts - will lead straight to questions of Ministerial responsibility. After all, that is the reason for the SAC's existence - to divorce Ministers from day to day responsibility for decisions on funding and policy for individual arts companies. Direct rule, with annual reports and plans, financial audit and quinquennial reviews, will give Ministers lots of scope for intervention. Given the average Executive Minister's desperation for a headline, I do not expect "the safety provisions" to amount to much; indeed the more effective the safety provisions, the more likely Ministers are to be accused of neglecting their responsibilities. I wonder if Ministers have really thought through what they are proposing to do?

No comments: