Parties back Scottish culture bill as Greens promise to review ‘unethically acquired’ collections

As Scotland prepares to go to the polls this week, Museums Journal has taken a look at the promises made by the nation’s main parties on culture, heritage and the arts.

There are 129 seats up for grabs in the parliamentary election on 7 May, and a party will need to win at least 65 to secure an overall majority.

Scottish National Party

Slogan: “Always on Scotland’s side”

Scotland’s incumbent government since 2007, the SNP is hoping to squeak another election win with a raft of fresh promises, including a new Culture and Arts Bill.

“Wealth is about more than money in our pockets,” the party says in its 2026 manifesto. “We want a Scotland where creativity is encouraged and supported.”

Like many of the party’s culture pledges, the planned new legislation has been inspired by policies from the continent.

By the end of the next parliament, the SNP says it will “consult to develop a Culture and Arts Bill, learning lessons from other European countries with similar legislation”.

Another eye-catching promise is the party’s commitment to piloting a Scottish Artists Minimum Income, following the introduction of a similar initiative in Ireland.

“We believe pursuing a career in the arts and culture should be open to all, but we know that often comes at a considerable cost for equipment and the impact of unpredictable work,” says the party.

“That’s why we will pilot a Scottish Artists Minimum Income, learning from the experience in Ireland, to give targeted support to a number of practising artists and creative workers to give them the space to develop their craft, thrive professionally, and contribute to Scotland’s cultural life.”

Meanwhile, learning from Italy, France and Spain, the SNP says it will introduce a Youth Culture Pass by the end of the next parliament, enabling everyone who turns 18 to receive a ‘culture pass’ worth £200 that can be used for cultural pursuits.

“This will bring benefits both to the young people involved, but also to the creative industries.

The SNP pledges to deliver on its existing commitment to “a long-term funding settlement for the arts of an additional £100m annually for culture by 2028-29”. In addition, it will ensure that at least a further £50m is delivered for culture investment by the end of the next parliament.

On heritage, the SNP says it will, through its public sector reform programme, review the structures of Historic Environment Scotland and “take any necessary steps to ensure that the recent work of the new chair is supported and can be embedded for the future”.

The SNP will also explore merging the Register of Scotland and the National Records of Scotland “so that Scotland’s heritage of archives, registers and records can have a single structure”.

Following criticism that the government has abandoned Scotland’s second city, the SNP promises to provide support to Glasgow to “complete the refurbishment of the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens and see it reopened for the public”.

Scottish Conservatives 

Slogan: “Common sense for a change”

The Scottish Conservatives are also getting in on the call for cultural legislation, pledging a new Culture Act.

This new bill would enable the party to fulfil one of the culture industry’s key demands of the last few years and guarantee multi-year cash settlements, giving culture organisations “enough funding certainty to make long-term investment decisions”.

The legislation would “enshrine the principle of multi-year funding into law, but it would also take the legislative steps necessary to merge some of Scotland’s culture quangos in order to reduce the costs of running them and allow more money to be delivered to the frontline service offered, whether that be a museum, gallery or library”, says the manifesto.

The Conservatives also say they will “unashamedly promote our country at home and abroad”.

The party promises to strip “harmful” regulations and red tape, slamming the SNP for policies that “seem intent on damaging the industries that make Scotland stand out”, including the Visitor Levy, which it says has “hammered” the tourism sector.

The party promises to reform the embattled arm’s-length body, Creative Scotland.

“In 2024, the body funded a project that was effectively pornographic, so we would forbid this type of spending and instead encourage grants for arts and cultural endeavours that have broad popular appeal,” says the manifesto.

“Grants would also be tied to guarantees that free speech is upheld in the institutions that receive them.”

The party says it will retain other quangos, such as Historic Environment Scotland, but give them a complete organisational reset.

“The Scottish Conservatives have uncovered numerous scandals from this quango, including inappropriate use of heritage venues, careless spending of taxpayers’ money and poor leadership,” says the manifesto.

“We would overhaul their leadership and demand better from the body which is supposed to look after Scotland’s most important historic buildings.”

Scottish Greens

Slogan: “Let’s Demand Better”

“Scotland’s arts and cultural offering is truly world class,” says the Scottish Greens’ manifesto. “But if we don’t take action fast, access to the creative arts risks being the luxury of the wealthiest few.”

The party makes several specific references related to museums and heritage, promising to:

• “Protect free access to Scotland’s museums and cultural assets, and review national funding to ensure a fair distribution across the country”. The party says it will establish an emergency fund to protect local sites from cuts, closures and reduced hours.
• “Support greater community involvement in the management of Scotland’s historic and cultural sites, through the creation of community oversight boards, particularly in rural and island communities.”
• “Introduce new conditionality of public funding to Scotland’s museums and cultural assets so that, where appropriate, all recipients should commit to research, interpret, and share the histories of Scotland’s links to empire, colonialism, and historic slavery.”
• And “review items in the Scottish public collections with the aim to support the restitution and repatriation of looted or unethically acquired items”.

The manifesto promises “transformative investment in our arts and culture, to support the next generation of future artists, makers and creative thinkers,  and to make sure everyone has access to affordable arts and culture in Scotland”.

The party says it wants to fix deep inequalities in the industry, “improving access for underrepresented groups, whilst protecting our cultural institutions from the fake outrage of anti-equality forces in politics and the media”. 

The Greens say they will also improve the rights of cultural workers to ensure better pay, conditions and job security, adding greater conditionality on public funding to ensure all workers receive the Real Living Wage.

“And we want to make sure that Scotland’s arts and cultural output reflects the true diversity of our country – platforming all the languages of Scotland and celebrating the work of New Scots,” adds the manifesto.

To achieve all of this, the Greens are also promising to “bring forward a Culture Bill to make the legislative changes needed to deliver our ambitious programme to rebuild our cultural sector, including provision of ongoing and long term multi-year funding”.

“We will legislate for local councils to have the powers to administer the levy and collect funds, and will consult on a redistribution mechanism to ensure smaller and rural councils do not lose out on crucial funds,” adds the party.

The Greens say they will give every primary pupil “the opportunity to learn and develop through expressive arts such as music, drama, visual art and dance”.

The party will also demand “urgent regulation of the use of generative artificial intelligence and copyright laws” and “use all available devolved powers to protect creators’ work from big tech’s plans for expanded data scraping”.

The Greens say they want to support greater representation of people from minority ethnic backgrounds working in the arts, including by guaranteeing interviews and directly funding internship and apprenticeship schemes.

Scottish Labour 

Slogan: “Change for every part of Scotland”

Reform of Creative Scotland is also on Scottish Labour’s agenda. The party says it will “improving transparency and accountability so it is representative and responsive to people from all backgrounds”, and introduce new objectives to “ensure creative funding is put in the hands of artists, supports fair work, and delivers for the sector”. 

A designated creative capital fund will be created to deliver financial support to “upgrade and protect venues across the country”.

The party will establish a Major Events Bureau to position Scotland as a “leading destination for world-class sport, culture, and international conferences”. 

It will also pilot a creative entrepreneur’s allowance, “supporting up to 1,000 creatives and artists who have a commercial business plan with their living costs as they establish their enterprise”. 

Scottish Liberal Democrats

Slogan: “Change with fairness at its heart”

The Scottish Lib Dems promise to maintain “free access to national museums and galleries”. 

Echoing other opposition parties, the Scottish Lib Dems say they will promote creative industries and culture by “taking away the needless bureaucracy faced by those applying for funding through Creative Scotland and taking forward the recommendations of the Leitch Review”.

The Lib Dems say they will also tackle the “big city bias that exists in how culture money is distributed to nurture and promote talent in every corner of Scotland”.

They also want to tackle post-Brexit regulations that “have made touring unviable for many artists and resulted in lost earnings”. 

The party adds that it will support the creation of Dundee’s Eden Project. 

Reform UK 

Slogan: “Scotland, it’s time for Reform”

Unlike its Welsh manifesto, Reform UK’s Scottish branch does not explicitly mention culture or museums.

However, the museum and heritage sectors would undoubtedly be impacted by the major overhaul of local authority powers planned by the party, which says it will “implement real devolution within Scotland by pushing decision making down to local authorities in stark contrast to the centralised, command-and-control model of the SNP”.

The party says it will review the 32 local authorities for “duplication and efficiency” and “thereafter, they will raise their own revenue, decide their own spending and keep their own surpluses”.

Reform UK pledges “properly funded local services” and the phasing out of business rates.

“Rather than having to go cap-in-hand to central government for bailouts and top-ups, councils will instead be enabled to support themselves,” says the party.

At the same time, Reform UK says it will conduct a “wide-ranging review of the unfunded statutory obligations placed on councils by central government, so that they are given greater control over their own expenditure, returning control to democratically elected councillors”.