During our three days in residence at the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish
Artists Union
sought to focus the attention of parliamentarians on the government's plans to
reintroduce Creative Scotland to their legislative programme. Neither the
Minister for
Europe, external Affairs & Culture Linda Fabiani, who failed to steer the
Creative Scotland
Bill through parliament in June, nor Secretary of Finance & Sustainable Growth
John
Swinney, who will introduce the new Public Services Reform Bill in January, made
themselves available to our Executive Committee members.

However the First Minister Alex Salmond spent some time with us and seemed
surprised
by artists' objections to the new agency. When SAU President Terry Anderson
asked him
whether he agreed Creative Scotland should remain a matter for scrutiny he
stated "We've
had that debate", and that the only reason the previous bill failed was because
of one
small point of confusion over the new agency's relationship with Scottish
Enterprise. It is
this point alone that the new bill will address. However the First Minister
said that its
introduction will coincide with a wider cultural policy statement that he
confidently
predicts will allay the fears of the sector, fears he has been made well aware
of by the SAU
and others.

We await the details of the new bill and accompanying statement with interest,
but
meanwhile have identified MSPs from all parties who are deeply concerned about
the way
in which the government is handling the inception of Creative Scotland. The SAU
will use
this as a platform of support from which to oppose or amend the bill if the
confidence of
the First Minister proves unfounded.

The Executive Committee thanks all SAU members who forwarded examples of their
work
for use during these three days of parliamentary activity. We wish everyone a
Merry
Christmas and a prosperous New Year.