a proposed merger of the public bodies, the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Screen, and Scottish Cultural Enterprise, into a private company

(Variant Magazine, 26 November 2008)

I’ve done a bit of research, and it all does look quite worrying: here’s the PDF of email correspondence and much else relating to the setting up of the Cultural Commission (the interim agency which would then, if I have this right, segue into Creative Scotland): http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/FOI/19260/CCPDF2

But, the core concern seems to be here, in a page I’ve pulled verbatim from the above PDF (See last bullet point in particular):

CULTURAL COMMISSION:
STEPS TO SETTING UP A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE
Key steps to establishing the Cultural Commission as a Company Limited by Guarantee:
• Executive general practice in these cases is to appoint an external firm of solicitors to set
up the company and make the necessary changes to the Company Memorandum and
Articles of Association. (OSSE can only act for Scottish Ministers. Also it makes sense
to have a single firm in there at the outset to get it set up and running).
• The Solicitors firm comes from the Executive’s call-off contract list (maintained by
OSSE, not Procurement).
• The Solicitors arrange to buy an “off-the-shelf-company” (usually from Oswalds) that approximates to what we require (Scottish Screen, the National Gaelic Resource Centre, and Bord na Gaidhlig (Alba) were all bought off the shelf as educational charities).
• The off-the-shelf company will come with a Company Memorandum and Articles of Association which will need modified to suit the Cultural Commission.
• We need a working idea of what the Company Memorandum and Articles of Association should say about the purposes and management of the company. Everything the Commission will be required to do must legally be provided for in these documents. It’s important to get these right from the outset, so it will be worth getting the thoughts on how the company will operate clear at the start.
• Actually getting the company up and running doesn’t take too long.
• The Solicitors find individuals to act as Promoters, Subscribers, Directors, Company
Secretary, and Shareholders in order to get things in place. Sometimes civil servants are appointed as Directors initially.
• We need to find people to own the shares and thus the company. This could be the Scottish Ministers, though that might not give the impression of independence and
impartiality

This all seems to be a worrying departure from the ‘arms-length’ principle of the UK’s Arts Councils. Privatisation of any public sector is a scary trend, and this is even more so; how can a private company effectively regulate, support and fund the arts in Scotland? Not to mention a private company with Scottish ministers on its Board and staffed by consultants and agency workers (as the PDF seems to say this is where staffing will be sourced from)?

And what if this could happen in England? It couldn’t, surely?

It probably doesn’t help that I’m reading Naomi Klein’s ‘Shock Doctrine’ at the moment which is a terrifying summary of how privatisation and free markets line the pockets of certain individuals (the usual suspects) at the expense of society in general.

I would welcome comments and more information if anyone has a better analysis of what’s going on here as this is a very initial response to what is news to me….