Question reference: S5W-30600
- Date lodged: 9 July 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 July 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been made to the (a) Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund and (b) Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund by organisations in the music sector, and how many were successful.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to support Scotland’s businesses by passing on every penny we receive from the UK Government for this purpose, and more, directly to businesses. Our approach to supporting businesses is tailored to Scotland’s economic needs and we have developed a package of measures that reflects that Scotland’s economy and consequentially we are providing support which is unavailable elsewhere in the UK.
On the 30 April, the Scottish Government announced the Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund. This scheme is being managed by the Enterprise Agencies with support from Creative Scotland and VisitScotland and the criteria for the scheme are published on the findbusinesssupport.gov.scot website.
The Scottish Government will be publishing information on this scheme in the coming weeks which will provide the number of applications and a breakdown of successful applications by sector.
The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursaries for the Arts and Creative Sector were designed for individuals rather than organisations. The Bursaries ran from 30 March to 2 April and from 20 to 25 April. They were aimed at supporting freelance artists and freelance creative practitioners working in the not-for-profit sector in Scotland who were experiencing immediate financial difficulty due to the loss of income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This fund offered a one-off bursary to provide a financial bridge for those people in Scotland most deeply impacted and disadvantaged by the cancellation of work as a result of the emergency situation.
Of all Bridging Bursary applications from individuals, 548 applicants came from the music industry and 458 of those were approved. They received £871,427 in awards from a total of £2.9m across all art forms. This represents 29% of all Bridging Bursary awards. Music was the largest category of awards by art form.
Further information is available at the following link: https://www.creativescotland.com/funding/archive/bridging-bursary .