Our response to the Scottish Budget 2024/25

The MA welcomes the £15.8m increase for culture in the Scottish budget for 2024/25, including £0.8m to sustain the V&A Dundee, as a first step in the Scottish Government’s commitment to investing £100m to culture by 2028/29.  

While this additional funding is welcome, we know that decades of funding cuts and rising inflation have put many museums in a vulnerable position of managed decline.

We will continue to advocate for much-needed strategic public investment to look after collections and buildings and to support learning, community engagement and health and wellbeing programmes.

Update January 2024: Since publishing this response to the Scottish budget, the MA has learned of further detail in the budget which proposes a 15.1% cut to capital funding available to non-national museums.

We are disappointed by this proposed reduction in funding, particularly at a time when independent and civic museums are under enormous financial pressure. We urge the Scottish Government to reconsider these cuts and to commit to investing in the museum sector.

Museums continue to deliver against Scottish Government policy priorities from improving health and wellbeing to communicating the impacts of climate change. However, urgent strategic public investment is needed to continue this work.