John Swinney: Culture investment is the smart thing to do

Investing public money in the culture sector is the "smart thing to do", First Minister John Swinney will say today.

The SNP leader will be at the Edinburgh International Festival Hub today to give a speech on the importance of the creative industries.

The intervention comes as the city braces for the annual Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe, which bring thousands of artists to Scotland every summer and attract audiences in their millions.

An economic impact study published in 2022 put the gross economic impact of the showcases at £492m for the local economy and £620m for Scotland more broadly.

Swinney is expected to reaffirm Scottish Government support for arts and culture and to champion the soft power it offers.

The SNP administration has committed to invest at least £100m more in the sector by 2028-29. This year the increase was £34m, including a £4m uplift for festival funding.

Swinney is expected to say that culture "gets to the very heart of our shared history and national identity" and offers a means to "make sense of this increasingly dangerous, angry and uncertain world".

He will say that culture "allows us to see Scotland as it truly is, in all its glorious diversity" and helps us to "appreciate the things we have in common but also to build bridges between us".

Swinney will say: "Scotland's creative economy enhances our reputation globally and is our unique selling point – every bit as powerful as our landscapes and food and drink.

"I want to do all that I can to help our interlinked culture and creative industries flourish because it is the right and the smart thing to do."

The speech follows the expansion of the independent review of national arts body Creative Scotland. Its leadership, performance and funding schemes will be examined in the probe, which itself comes in the wake of a grants row related to a sexually-explicit film.

In October the Scottish Parliament's culture committee said the relationship between Creative Scotland and the government must be "substantially improved".