The Scottish Government has committed through its 2024 Programme for Government to review the way the culture sector is supported. This ongoing culture sector support programme will, amongst other things, explore alternative and additional funding mechanisms to grow the overall funding pot for culture in Scotland. A Percentage for the Arts scheme is one of the mechanisms that will be considered as part of this programme.

The purpose of the meeting on 26 February 2025 was to update myself and the Minister for Climate Action on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, the reform options being considered by UK Government, and the potential impact of those options for Scotland.

The briefing paper for this meeting, and list of attendees, including ministers, have already been released under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). It is standard procedure for names of officials to be redacted in all FOIs under Section 38(1)(b), due to protections around the sharing of Third Party Data, whereby personal data is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR and in section 34(1) of the DPA 2018.

Upon review of the FOI, section 29(1)(a) was not cited as a redaction used. Information has been redacted under 30(b)(i), however, was redacted due to it relating to the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers to have space within which to seek advice and views from officials before reaching a settled public position.

In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded.

The purpose of the meeting on 26 February 2025 was to update myself and the Minister for Climate Action on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, the reform options being considered by UK Government, and the potential impact of those options for Scotland.

The briefing paper for this meeting, and list of attendees, including ministers, have already been released under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). It is standard procedure for names of officials to be redacted in all FOIs under Section 38(1)(b), due to protections around the sharing of Third Party Data, whereby personal data is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR and in section 34(1) of the DPA 2018.

Upon review of the FOI, section 29(1)(a) was not cited as a redaction used. Information has been redacted under 30(b)(i), however, was redacted due to it relating to the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers to have space within which to seek advice and views from officials before reaching a settled public position.

In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded.

The Scottish Government endeavours to provide information in response to requests wherever possible. The provisions of section 29(1)(a) (formulation or development of government policy) or other exemptions under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) should only be applied in order to withhold information where necessary, in the public interest.

Anyone who has made a request for information has the right to ask the Scottish Government to carry out a review if they have concerns about the handling of their request. The Scottish Government has a statutory obligation to carry out such a review and provide a further response to the requester within 20 working days. The review will be carried out by a Scottish Government official who was not involved in the decision-making process for the original request, and who can therefore consider afresh any matters of concern raised by the requester - including whether exemptions from disclosure have been appropriately applied. Following the review, the requester has the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision on their request, if they remain dissatisfied.

Outside of the statutory process for individual reviews described above, there is no requirement for the Scottish Government to proactively revisit FOI responses previously issued to see if the sensitivity of information has changed over time in a way which would mean exemptions no longer apply. As the Scottish Government responds to over 5,000 requests per year, it would be impractical to do so.

However, the Scottish Government is also committed to making information about all areas of its work proactively available, for example through its frequent planned publications on the Scottish Government website.

We are working with the UK Government to consider options to potentially streamline Growth Deal governance whilst continuing to ensure a level of scrutiny appropriate to the £3.4 billion of public funding we are collectively investing in the programme. Any changes made to Growth Deal governance would require joint Government endorsement.

We have put a number of measures in place to ensure transparency and accountability in the Growth Deals.

The activities supported by Regional Growth Deals are designed by Local Authorities in consultation with the communities they serve. The decision-making structures supporting the Deals include elected members chosen by communities to serve their areas.

Information on Deal delivery is provided through published annual reports and regular updates on specific projects and programmes, all made available on each individual Growth Deal’s website.

Enforcement of the Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (Scotland) Order 2007, which is the legislation under which the requirement for bird keepers in Scotland to notify the Scottish Ministers (in writing) in relation to the premises where birds are kept, was extended from those with 50 or more birds to all bird keepers from 1 September 2024. Enforcement is the responsibility of Scotland’s Local Authorities. The measures were enforceable from 1 December 2024. The principal aims of the introduction of the Scottish Kept Bird Register was to communicate risk and best practice to Scotland’s bird keepers, whilst allowing for more efficient and effective surveillance during disease outbreak periods, thereby promoting animal welfare and public health.

This information was previously not available to government and so compliance figures cannot be ascertained by way of a comparison with an established baseline of kept bird numbers, established before the register was extended.

However, prior to the extension of the register to include all keepers, an extrapolation was made from surveillance figures for kept birds, gleaned in previous outbreak periods, and current bird registration numbers are broadly in comparison to these initial estimated number of keepers.

Compliance will continue to be assessed over time as local authority activities disclose non-compliance within their council areas and government communication campaigns encourage those still unaware of their legal requirements in this respect to register their birds.

Each Deal is required to produce a Benefits Realisation Plan setting both quantitative and qualitative objectives and measures for the programme. Each Deal produces an annual report detailing progress made on the delivery of agreed projects and programmes and on their intended outputs and outcomes. We monitor progress on outcomes on a regular basis via Annual Conversations which involve senior staff from both governments and local authority partners to review the past year’s activity and look ahead to future milestones. Annual reports for all deals are made publicly available on each deal’s website enabling visibility of what is being achieved.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-36304 on 9 April 2025 and S6W-37060 on 30 April 2025. The Scottish Government has concluded that, as the primary issue with the functioning of FMAC appears to lie with its current structure, the decision to split the FMAC group should make the group more effective and help address the issues raised within the stakeholder survey.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

In financial year 2025-26, City and Regional Growth Deals have a combined budget of £215 million. We are working with individual deals to finalise allocations for the year ahead, aligned with the anticipated profile for programme delivery. We expect to conclude discussions and confirm allocations by the end of May.