Independent Culture Fair Work Task Force Report and Recommendations

Report

Introduction

1. Scotland’s creative industries make a unique and vital contribution to society and the economy. Creative production and content enrich peoples’ lives, brings people together and reflects diverse experiences.

2. Culture is an investment. The creative and cultural industries play an active role in stimulating the wider Scottish economy, demonstrated by the sectoral statistics highlighted in Annex D. Cultural events generate income for other sectors including transport, retail and hospitality in Scotland. This, in turn, generates greater taxable revenue for the Scottish Government and wider community wellbeing.

Policy Background

3. The basis for the Culture Fair Work Task Force is:

“In 2022, a Review of Fair Work in the creative and cultural sectors in Scotland, conducted by Culture Radar^[1] and commissioned by Creative Scotland, was published. The key recommendation for the Scottish Government was to establish a Creative and Culture Sector Fair Work Task Force.

This recommendation aligns with the Programme for Government commitment to introduce: “sectoral Fair Work agreements, and improving outcomes by delivering the Fair Work Action Plan.”

The Scottish Government therefore will establish a Task Force with the remit to set the direction of implementing Fair Work in the [Creative Industries] sector, potentially through agreeing sector standards through development of a Fair Work Charter”.^[2]

Culture Task Force - Terms of Reference

4. Reflecting the wider work on Fair Work First within Scotland^[3], the Terms of Reference for the Culture Fair Work Task Force were set as:

“to set the direction of Fair Work through recommending a set of priority actions to further the adherence to Fair Work principles in the sector [as defined within “A Culture Strategy for Scotland^[4]”], including consideration of the form and content of a sectoral Fair Work agreement.”

5. The Task Force has benefitted from the attendance and contribution of a number of groups and individuals – as well as Scottish Ministers at appropriate stages of discussions. Those discussions included attendance from outside organisations and the Task Force periodically forming sub-groups to further facilitate discussion.

6. Those discussions and working papers, including those of relevant subgroups, are all available using the URL Culture Fair Work Taskforce - gov.scot

7. This report can only capture some of the discussions and research that has been undertaken and the Task Force encourages a study of their wider work and discussions and welcomes the input from all who took part in our deliberations - whilst stressing that these recommendations remain those of the Task Force.

Interconnecting portfolio linkages

8. The Terms of Reference set for the Task Force clearly spanned multiple Ministerial Portfolios, reflecting the complex and interconnecting nature of the issue.

9. The discussions have also confirmed that multiple reserved and devolved legislative issues impact, and will continue to impact, on the delivery of Fair Work within Scotland’s Culture and Creative Industries.

10. Whilst the report highlights where the legislative boundaries would appear to lie, together with relevant policy levers, the recommendations for devolved action (including legislation) do not single out individual Ministerial portfolios for actions – reflecting the collective responsibility of the Scottish Government.

11. The Taskforce also notes the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion – not only in continuing to promote access to culture and creative outputs but improving access to, and conditions of, working within all aspects of the industries.

12. As part of their Good Work Review Policy and Evidence Centre Research (led by NESTA)^[5] in particular highlights concerns across a range of issues and areas experienced across the industries. These include:

• higher levels of required part-time working amongst workers from ethnic minority backgrounds;^[6]
• high levels of anxiety^[7] - especially amongst disabled workers and workers of Black/Black British origin;^[8]
• significant under representation of women;^[9]
• significant under-representation of disabled people;^[10]
• significant lack of any evidence of racial diversity; and
• the most pronounced class-based exclusion within any UK economic sector.^[11]

Further detail of this evidence is shown in Annex D.

Individual National Outcomes:

13. Whilst the National Performance Framework is undergoing reform^[12] the Task Force noted the most relevant of the 11 Outcomes still in operation (as below) and the current duty on public bodies to have regard to them under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The most relevant outcomes being:

• We have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and Fair Work for everyone.
• We are creative and our vibrant and diverse cultures are expressed and enjoyed widely.

14. The Task Force further noted the strong linkage between the last-cited UN Sustainable Development Goals within the Scottish Government National Performance Framework (i.e. UN SDG 5 Gender Equality, 10 Reduced Inequalities and 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities) wider work by the UN regarding the UNESCO definition of the artist and examines these later in paragraph 42.

Additional Policy Activity

15. Since the Task Force began our work, in May 2025 Scottish Ministers commenced an Independent Review of Creative Scotland.^[13] Recognising the separate nature of the review, the Task Force nevertheless considered that it would be appropriate to highlight relevant issues identified as part of the Task Force work (to date) to the Creative Scotland Review, as part of that separate consultation process.

16. This is expanded on in paragraph 53 later, with a copy of the letter, endorsed by some members of the Task Force, reproduced at Annex A.

Creative Industries definition and available data

17. In defining the Creative Industries in Scotland the Task Force has retained the 16 sub-sectors^[14] defined in the 2019 Scottish Government Policy Statement for the Creative Industries.^[15] The key definitions used to define Creative Industries within Scotland are set out by the Scottish Government, Office of the Chief Economic Adviser’s regular Key Statistics Report.^[16]

18. As is the case with several other sectors (and is also acknowledged in the UK Government Creative Industries Sector Plan^[17]), the availability of data presents a challenge: there is considerable overlap between sub-sectors and some of the work considered to be undertaken within one sub-sector may actually take place within another sector e.g. events, tourism, hospitality etc.

19. The further challenges of these inter sub-sector relationships, and the absence of regional data has long been noted.^[18] This further highlights that, for some areas of the overall Fair Work framework, statistics for the creative industries in Scotland are not available and can only be disaggregated imperfectly at UK level.

20. In addition, some sub-sectors have a commercial focus while others are community led – irrespective of status within each and every sector, all share an absolute entitlement to be treated fairly and in line with agreed best practices, noting the especial challenges associated with evidence gaps with regard to self-employed workers^[19], the prevalence of unpaid overtime^[20] and unpaid internships.^[21]

21. The Task Force therefore welcomes the commitment from the UK Government to improve the available data in respect of Creative Industries^[22], and the ongoing work by the Office For National Statistics in respect of Standard Industrial Classification Codes.^[23] Nevertheless the Task Force urges the Scottish Government to work with partners across Scotland to provide as detailed an analysis of the sector as soon as possible, from existing resources. This recognises the changing nature of the Creative Industries sectors, including significant advances in non-broadcast and audio.

22. The Task Force outlined that the Scottish Government’s Culture Strategy Action Plan in regard to data and aggregation already notes the importance of working closely with expert partners to develop and implement a long-term strategic approach to making improvements to the data landscape for culture.^[24]