Creative Scotland should explain why grant was made to explicit project – MSPs

A Holyrood committee has sought clarification on Creative Scotland’s decision to award almost £85,000 to a “hardcore” sex project.

The public arts body has since withdrawn the public funding and will seek reimbursement for the Rein project, which was recruiting actors to participate in real, explicit, sex scenes.

However, the Scottish Parliament’s Culture Committee has written to Iain Munro, chief executive of the public arts body, to express a “legitimate public interest” in how the decision was made.

In a letter to Mr Munro, the committee also states it believes it is in the “interest of accountability and transparency” that Creative Scotland should consider publishing the original funding application.

In January, the project received £84,555 through the National Lottery Open Fund, however, Creative Scotland said the original application did not have the explicit acts listed and has argued they breached the conditions of the funding award.

Clare Adamson, committee convener, said “public concern” had been noted, adding: “While we recognise that it would not be appropriate for the committee to be involved in individual funding decisions, there is nevertheless a legitimate public interest in how public money is spent.”

She said the committee was seeking clarification on how much money has been allocated to the project to date and details of the process for seeking recovery of the cash.

The committee also sought additional details on the criteria and process for considering funding applications and told Mr Munro he may be invited to give evidence in future.

The letter added: “The committee also believes that, in the interest of accountability and transparency, consideration should be given to publishing the original funding application.”

Creative Scotland previously said it could not publish to full application details due to “business confidentiality”.

However, in its decision to withdraw funding, the arts body said there had been a “significant change” to the project since it applied for funding.

The contract for the fund said “no changes may be made to a project without prior written permission”.

Creative Scotland has been asked for additional comment.