SNP ignored T in the Park profits before giving f irm £150,000
FIONA Hyslop has sparked outrage by admitting she did not take T in the Park’s profits into account before handing over £150,000 of taxpayers’ money.
The beleaguered Culture Secretary also said DF Concerts is preparing an explanation of how the money was spent – but the Scottish Government will not publish it.
MSPs have demanded to know why a company which makes millions out of festival-goers and is sponsored by Tennent’s needed public funds.
DF Concerts has consistently posted pre-tax profits of more than £4.5million and last year that figure soared to above £6million. In 2013 it handed out dividends of £3.35 million to shareholders.
Liz Smith, Scots Tory culture spokesman, said: ‘Taxpayers will find it very strange that the Cabinet Secretary did not probe in detail whether or not there were other sources of money which could have been used to address the problem. It appears the grant was
‘Taxpayers will find it very strange’
awarded without the relevant questions being asked of DF Concerts as to why they it was essential they had government funding.’
The furore over the festival grant comes after Miss Hyslop was involved in a cronyism row as Jennifer Dempsie, a former aide to Alex Salmond, provided DF Concerts with access to Miss Hyslop and three other ministers – John Swinney, Roseanna Cunningham and Derek Mackay.
Miss Dempsie had planned to stand for Holyrood for the SNP next year but has since withdrawn her candidacy.
Miss Hyslop i nsisted DF Concerts’ huge profits were not r elevant to deciding whether to award the firm a taxpayer-funded grant.
In a letter to the committee, she wrote: ‘The question was not about the ongoing profits of the company but rather the future viability of the event as a multi-day, multi-stage event and the economic, cultural and reputational benefits T in the Park delivers for Scotland.’
Last time she appeared before MSPs, Miss Hyslop insisted it was right to prop up the festival as it was worth £15.4million to the economy.
But she later admitted she did not even read the report containing that figure, which had been commissioned by DF Concerts.
The Culture Secretary last month told the committee DF Concerts had threatened to pull out of Scotland if she did not hand over the cash. But in an interview DF chief executive Geoff Ellis later denied making such a threat.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s absurd that taxpayers’ money is needed at all to help fund a huge, money-spinning event like this. ’
MSPs have been demanding the Government publish a full business case to explain why taxpayers’ money was needed and what it was spent on.
Miss Hyslop’s l etter sug- gested that one is now being compiled – three months after the money changed hands – but will be kept secret.
‘I can confirm that DF Concerts are working their way through a post-event debrief process and that a report confirming how the money was
‘Company posted record profits’
spent, along with the outcomes and lessons learned from staging the event at the new Strathallan site, will be shared, on a commercial in confidence basis, with the Scottish Government,’ she wrote.
‘This report will be provided within the current 2015-16 financial year.’
Yesterday, MSPs said the letter had failed to satisfy their concerns. Lib Dem MSP and committee member Liam McArthur said: ‘It is astonishing that the Scottish Government were apparently happy to hand over a cheque with no questions asked over whether there were other avenues that could have been explored.
‘This is not about supporting major events – it is about giving £150,000 to a company which had posted record profits the previous year for reasons other than those included in their appeal for funding.
‘This letter leaves us none the wiser over why it was so urgent for the government to step in.’