MGS welcomes uplift in funding for heritage and culture

As the national development body for the museum sector, we welcome a proposed uplift in funding from the Scottish Government’s draft budget for 2025-26.

Within the culture portfolio, the funding for non-national museums, which makes up the bulk of the 450 museums and galleries in Scotland, is set to rise from a total of almost £4million in 2024-25 to almost £5.5million in 2025-26.

This provides funding for museums and galleries across Scotland via MGS, and direct funding for the Scottish Maritime Museum, National Mining Museum Scotland, and Scottish Fisheries Museum.

The culture budget also includes a further £4million for a new Scottish Culture & Heritage Capacity Fund. This fund recognises the significant challenges faced by heritage and culture organisations across Scotland.

As our recent sector survey showed, the sector’s finances are increasingly fragile, with 11% of organisations fearing they are at risk of closure. And increasingly we are seeing local authorities and arms-length organisations reviewing museum services to cope with financial pressures.

MGS has worked hard to make the case that museums and galleries deliver incredible impact for Scotland’s communities, by way of visitors spending in the economy, outreach programmes that improve educational attainment, and the well-understood benefits to public health and wellbeing from visiting museums and galleries.

We will be exploring the detail and implications of the proposed budget with sector stakeholders, and we are well-placed to step up our support of the sector, which the new capacity fund recognises is facing significant challenges.

View the Scottish Government’s budget proposals for culture.