Minister attentive to anomaly of Scots

On 8 October 2008 members of the Scottish parliament’s Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committe quizzed Culture Minister Linda Fabiani regarding the budget for new organisation Creative Scotland. During the course of the committee discussions the subject of support for the Scots language was again raised. The Scots Language Centre and Scottish Language Dictionaries had recently received a six month ‘lifeline’ from the Scottish Arts Council but committee convenor Karen Whitefield asked the minister for future assurances. Fabiani stated she was committed to reviewing the funding mechanism for Scots, describing its position as an ‘anomaly’. She further stated that it was indeed strange that our own indigenous cultures had no guaranteed funding and, although she welcomed the lifeline from the Arts Council, she would look at the whole structure once the government audit on the Scots language had reported in November.