Exclusive:Creative Scotland delays funding decisions for ‘risk’ checks in wake of sex film row

Applicants facing delays of up to four weeks for crucial decisions

Scotland's national arts agency has put crucial funding decisions on hold in the wake of the controversy over a decision to support a “hardcore” sex film project.

Creative Scotland is carrying out additional "due diligence" and “risk” checks on dozens of applications made in recent weeks after pulling the plug on director Leonie Rae Gasson's project when it emerged she was planning to film performers having 'non-simulated' sex for a planned installation.

Applicants face having to wait up to additional four weeks to find out if they have been successful under the tightened decision-making procedures, which are expected to red-flag potentially problematic projects and proposals.

Leonie Rae Gasson was awarded £84,555 by Creative Scotland for her moving image installation project Rein. Picture: Julie Howden

Creative Scotland said the decision-making delay on recent applications was a “temporary” measure while it reviews its funding process and insisted it would not affect projects that had received final confirmation of their funding in recent months.

The moves have emerged days after Creative Scotland announced it would be withdrawing its funding to Gasson, who has worked with many of Scotland’s leading arts organisations, including the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, Dance Base and the Take Me Somewhere festival.

Extra layers of scrutiny have been ordered within Creative Scotland on its funding applications after Scottish culture secretary Angus Robertson told the Scottish Parliament there was "no way" that Gasson's project should have received public funding.

Creative Scotland later said it would be seeking to claw back the £84,555 it awarded Gasson - more than 10 per cent of its available "open fund" budget in January.

Angus Robertson is Scotland's culture secretary. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

It has suggested that Gasson – who previously received a via the same fund to develop her project – has breached her funding conditions by making “significant” changes to the project just a few weeks after it got the green light, including the central role of “non-simulated” sex acts, and claimed that she did not seek approval for how it was described on her website.

However Creative Scotland, which receives more than £68m in funding from the Scottish Government each year, had publicised a recruitment drive on its own website setting out how Gasson’s project was looking for performers with "experience of sex work, particularly in porn contexts" for a 45-minute installation. Creative Scotland has refused to say whether it has been able to recoup any of the

Individual applicants can request up to £100,000 in National Lottery funding from Scotland for the one project, but the decision time on all applications has now been extended by up to four weeks.

The new “due diligence” put in place by the funding body are measures are understood to include checks on “whether the proposed project is within Creative Scotland’s risk appetite.”

Leonie Rae Gasson was awarded £84,555 from Creative Scotland for her multi-screen film installation project Rein. Picture: Pixabay/Tracy Smith

Staff have also been ordered to alert its communications team to any potentially risky themes or aspects of projects that Creative Scotland may be asked about in future.

A spokesman for Creative Scotland said: “We are reviewing the process for our open fund for individuals to identify where improvements can be made.

“In the first instance, there will be a short, temporary extension to existing timelines to enable additional assurance on applications that are recommended for funding.

“Our review will include the decision-making process at application stage, terms of contract once a project is awarded funding and subsequent project monitoring.

“We aim to minimise the impact on applicants as much as possible during this temporary review period.

"We cannot comment further on Rein at this point as this is an ongoing process.”