To ask the Minister for the Arts if he will estimate the contribution to arts in the metropolitan area of (a) the Arts Council and (b) the London local authorities; upon what items this money is principally spent; and if he will make a statement.

I am advised that in 1987–88, the last year for which complete records are available, the Arts Council's grants to arts bodies in the London area (excluding the national companies) was £26·7 million. This sum was spread across the entire spectrum of art forms: music, drama, dance, literature, and the visual arts. Figures for local authority spending on the arts are more difficult to isolate. The Policy Studies Institute, however, has estimated that spending by local authorities on the arts in London for 1988–89 totalled some £42 million, of which £28 million went to arts premises and promotions, and £14 million in grants to arts organisations.