Question S4W-28264: Mary Scanlon, Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Date Lodged: 04/11/2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has a ringfenced traditional arts budget to fund Scottish music and song.

Answered by Fiona Hyslop (18/11/2015): The Scottish Government supports arts and culture primarily through Creative Scotland, and does not have its own ringfenced traditional arts budget. Creative Scotland and its predecessor body the Scottish Arts Council had a number of ringfenced funds for the traditional arts. Creative Scotland has now significantly simplified its funding model for applicants and all applicants apply directly to the regular or open funds, following feedback from the cultural sector. Since Open Project Funding was launched in October 2014, it has awarded £1.4 million to 156 individuals, organisations and projects whose work falls within the traditional arts, including support for Gaelic and Scots.

This includes writers, musicians, theatre makers, festivals and creative organisations across Scotland, such as major events like Heb Celt Festival and the Celtic Media Festival, arts organisations such as Proiseact nan Ealan, through to musicians such as Ross Ainslie and Breabach.

Creative Scotland's portfolio of Regularly Funded Organisations, who receive funding over a period of three years, consists of many organisations who are active in the traditional arts, Gaelic and Scots or wholly focussed on this area of creative work. This includes Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland including the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Feisean nan Gaidheal, An Lanntair, Taigh Chearsabhagh Trust, The Gaelic Books Council, The National Piping Centre, Feis Rois, Celtic Connections, Hands up for Trad, the Scottish Poetry Library and other organisations whose work supports traditional artists working across Scotland.

Creative Scotland has also devolved £35k funding to Fèisean nan Gidheal to deliver the Traditional Arts Small Grants Fund which offers grants of up of £1,000 to organisations and individuals involved in Scottish traditional arts to support them to create, perform, tour and showcase work.

Now that they are no longer limited to a ringfenced fund, our traditional arts compete very strongly and are able to access greater funding and are having greater success in securing funding from Creative Scotland.

Question S4W-27290: Alex Salmond, Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 02/09/2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to (a) schools and (b) local authorities in North East Scotland to (i) promote the heritage and (ii) help secure the future of the Scots language.

Answered by Alasdair Allan (16/09/2015): Education Scotland currently provide Scots language CPD to teachers across Scotland, including in the North East. They have paired nine Scots ambassadors with schools in the North East area and have developed a suite of new Scots language resources for schools, some of which are specifically tailored to the North East variety of Scots.

Following the publication of the Scottish Government’s Scots language policy, we will look to provide practical advice to local authorities, by means of a Scots language plan, on how they can actively encourage and include Scots within their daily activity.

Question S4O-04501: Colin Beattie, Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 17/06/2015

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking to support and develop the use of Doric and Lallans Scots.

Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24/06/2015.

The Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages (Dr Alasdair Allan): The Scottish Government is a strong supporter of the Scots language in all its forms, including Doric and Lallans. We have appointed a team of Scots language co-ordinators to support Scots in schools throughout Scotland. Later this year we will publish our policy on the Scots language. We have encouraged and continue to encourage, by means of Education Scotland, the study of Scottish texts in schools. We continue to fund key organisations including Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, the Scottish Book Trust, the Scottish Poetry Library, the National Library of Scotland, Scottish Language Dictionaries and the Scots Language Centre. The Scottish Government also values Scots as a language of everyday communication and, like Creative Scotland, will accept any form of correspondence in Scots.

Colin Beattie:  Given the increasingly successful support and recognition that has been given to Gaelic as a native language, are there any plans to support similarly use of Scots as a mainstream language in education and culture?

Dr Allan: As I indicated, the Government and I have made a strong commitment in the area. The fact that the Scottish Qualifications Authority has developed a Scots language award is testimony to its dedication. As well as providing pupils with the opportunity to learn Scots, the award touches on the history of Scots and its dialects. Education Scotland’s Scots co-ordinators have also developed a series of training sessions for teachers who wish to learn how to teach about the Scots language in schools. Scots could be studied in many other areas, for example in Scottish studies awards and through Scots texts in the national 5 and higher English exams. Together with the work that we are doing for the Scots language in the community, that represents a strong commitment from the Scottish Government.