SCOTLAND'S new film unit should be separate from the arts agency Creative Scotland, MSPs have been told.

The new film unit is currently advertising for staff, is still technically part of the arts body but will have its own ruling committee, website, executive director and funding pots.

Yesterday, screen figures told the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament that the new unit should be separate, as its predecessor, Scottish Screen, was.

Film industry insiders have already questioned the set-up of the Film Unit, and whether it should be an independent body.

Scottish Screen was merged with the Scottish Arts Council to form Creative Scotland in 2010.

The new film unit hopes to boost Scottish film talent and productions.

At parliament, Annie Griffin, a film and TV producer, said it should be as the screen industries were a different proposition to subsidised art forms.

She said: "I would say yes [they should], and one of the reasons is that our industry is very different from the other things that what Creative Scotland does.

"And that is what we said was going to happen at the demise of Scottish Screen, that's what did happen....our industry is different, needs different things and has a different economic potential from the other subsidised arts."

The film unit will have an executive director, who will also have responsibility for the Creative Industries, with a salary of up to £94,000 a year.

The new funds include a £2million Production Growth Fund and a £4million Film Development and Production Fund.

The unit will also oversee a £3million Content Development and Production Fund.

Lorne Boswell, the Scottish organiser of Equity, the actors' union, told MSPs: "We are where we are.

"But it would not surprise me that over a period of time, it became totally independent."

The new film unit will also have its own committee.

It will oversee the work of the film unit and include figures from the industry, as well as "representatives of the Scottish Government."