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Police Scotland regularly review and check whether its approaches and structures provide the most efficient and effective mechanisms to ensure that the high quality delivery of policing in Scotland is maintained and enhanced.

Police Scotland undertook a review of front counter provision across Scotland in 2013. No police stations were closed as a result of this review. Any future assessment of the community impact of this decision is a matter for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

The outgoing First Minister announced on 14 November that £1 million funding was being provided by the Scottish Government and Clyde Blowers to support the Scottish Youth Theatre and allow all the national youth companies to take centre stage in the countdown to the Year of Young People in 2018. This secures the future of Scottish Youth Theatre and delivers improved engagement of young people in culture and the arts.

We are committed, together with our partners Scottish Enterprise and Creative Scotland, to secure a permanent film studio for Scotland. We are also considering how we can build on our existing support for the film sector and will make an announcement as soon as possible.

Creative Scotland’s funding decisions are a matter for the Creative Scotland board and we accept those decisions made following a robust assessment process. Difficult decisions had to be made with £212 million worth of applications for a final fund of just under £100 million over three years.

The Scottish Government is working with Creative Scotland to implement new funds of £1 million to secure the future of the Scottish Youth Theatre and ensure all the national youth companies deepen youth arts participation in the run up to Scotland’s Year of Young People in 2018. Scottish Ministers are prevented by statute from interfering in the artistic decisions of Creative Scotland.

Creative Scotland provides significant support to youth arts organisations in Scotland in the following ways:

On 14 November 2014 the Scottish Government announced a £1 million package of public and private funding to engage more young people in culture and the arts. The three year investment will support the Scottish Youth Theatre, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and YDance to deepen youth arts participation in the run up to Scotland’s Year of Young People in 2018. This will secure the future of the Scottish Youth Theatre. The funding will strengthen and support the national youth arts companies’ work to deliver the ambitions set out in Scotland’s first ever youth arts strategy, Time to Shine. Creative Scotland will take this work forward alongside its other work on youth arts.

Through implementation of Time to Shine, Scotland’s youth arts strategy which is supported by funding of £5 million from the Scottish Government. Since the launch of the £3.5 million Hub Development Fund earlier this year, nine new Youth Arts Hubs have been established to improve youth arts provision in 10 regions of Scotland and to engage with over 40,000 children and young people.

On 2 October 2014 a new fund was launched which seeks to nurture young artistic talent. The £40,000 Nurturing Talent - Time to Shine Fund will offer awards to young people aged 14-20 years who demonstrate ambition, enthusiasm or talent in their chosen art form and require financial support to develop this further.

Funding of over £4.9 million over the next three years across those organisations in Creative Scotland’s portfolio of Regularly Funded Organisations, announced on 30 October 2014, which are dedicated to working with young people across a range of art forms such as Drake Music Scotland, YDance, the National Youth Choir, National Youth Orchestra and Youth Theatre Arts Scotland as well as organisations dedicated to creating work for presentation to younger or multi-generational audiences such as Visible Fictions, Catherine Wheels and Imaginate.

Alongside this, many of the most established and vital building based organisations across Scotland also have extensive youth arts programmes, including the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, Dundee Rep Theatre and Dundee Contemporary Arts in Dundee, as well as the Centre for the Moving Image and Glasgow Film who also deliver programmes for young people and film. Creative Scotland will provide over £18 million to these organisations over the next three years to support their full programmes of work, part of which reaches young people.

Through the delivery of the Youth Music Initiative, for which the Scottish Government provides £10 million per annum to Creative Scotland to manage, which gives many young people their first opportunity to engage in music-making.

Through youth arts initiatives as part of CashBack for Communities and through Creative Scotland’s creative learning strategy.

Creative Scotland provides a detailed written assessment of the outcome of the decision-making process to those organisations which were unsuccessful in their applications for regular funding.

Creative Scotland also offers face to face meetings to all unsuccessful applicants for regular funding to explain the decision and to explore next steps.

Creative Scotland’s website provides a comprehensive summary of its decisions by art form and regional impact with commentary at:

http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/latest-information/funded-organisations/regularly-funded-organisations-2015-18/the-portfolio

A number of alternative funding routes are available to organisations that bid unsuccessfully for regular funding from Creative Scotland. These include:

Creative Scotland’s new open project fund

(http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/funding-programmes/open-project-funding), which opened to applications on 31 October 2014 and will disburse around £30 million over the next three years on a rolling basis. Some organisations unsuccessful in the regular funding round have already applied for these funds.

Creative Scotland’s suite of targeted funds

(http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/funding-programmes/targeted-funding),

if appropriate. Targeted funding addresses specific activities and development needs in a sector, specialism, and/or geographic area, and can be shaped in response to a sectoral review, strategic planning or consultation with external partners. These include a number of ‘devolved funds’ which are delivered by Creative Scotland’s partner organisations. Examples include the National Youth Arts Fund, the Creative Place Awards and the Film and Television Funding Programme.

Creative Scotland’s website also offers information on other sources of funding, including Arts & Business Scotland, Central Station and Business Gateway

(http://www.creativescotland.com/resources/professional-resources/other-sources-of-support) and funds delivered by partners, including the CashBack for Creativity Open Arts Fund, Live Literature and Starter for 6, to mention only a few

(http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/funding-programmes/funds-delivered-by-partners).

External funding officers in local authorities, whose contact details are available on the relevant local authority’s website, can also advise organisations on further alternative sources of funding.

No. Creative Scotland do not publish details of unsuccessful applicants to any of its funding programmes and this includes applicants to the regular funding programme for 2015-18. Creative Scotland advised applicants that they would not publish a list of all organisations that were unsuccessful in this process. We respect that position as publishing details of unsuccessful applicants may impact on their ability to source funding from elsewhere. In some cases, these organisations may be successful with a subsequent application following feedback.

The Scottish Government fully supports the Living Wage campaign. We recognise the real difference the living wage makes to the people of Scotland. (The current rate is £7.65 per hour for pay settlements from 1 April 2014. On 3 November 2014 it was announced that this will increase to £7.85 per hour for pay settlements from 1 April 2015.)

The Scottish Government is not able to set pay levels in the private sector, or indeed the wider public sector in Scotland where employees are not covered by our pay policy, however we encourage all public, private and third sector organisations to ensure all staff on lower incomes receive a fair level of pay.

Grants awarded by Creative Scotland use public money. Any grant payments Creative Scotland make need to be compatible with state aid rules which requires Creative Scotland to consider the merits of each case individually.

Creative Scotland is working to encourage the organisations that it funds to develop clear policies to ensure that trained, practicing artists and creative practitioners are always paid fairly.