A report into the operations of Creative Scotland last November found serious failings in its structure and ways of working, The Herald's FOI inquiry also finds.

It reveals the interim report from a board sub-group, led by board member and journalist Ruth Wishart in November.

She led the writing of a report into the body's operations. In the report, she lists a series of deficiencies with the body. She writes: "Despite a positively elephantine gestation period, Creative Scotland has continued to suffer birth pangs.

"Bedding down two disparate organisations [the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen] with different cultures and processes has produced challenges which, in some areas, we have failed to meet.

"A smaller staff complement with a broadened remit has undoubtedly struggled to meet the demands of the pace at which the organisation set off.

"At the moment Creative Scotland does not seem sufficiently comfortable in its own skin, nor sufficiently at ease with its internal and external relationships."

She adds that staff at the body were more "desk bound than is healthy".

"Self-evidently it is easier to respond to stakeholders when you are able to foster these relationships at first hand."