Theatre

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department spent on support for (a) national, (b) regional and (c) local theatre in each of the last five years; and how much she estimates will be spent in each category in each of the next five years. (99579)

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not fund the arts directly, but through Arts Council England, which is responsible for supporting the arts with public money from Government.

The following figures provide a breakdown of Arts Council England grant in aid for regularly funded theatre.

*£000*
Arts Council England region	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
East	2,153	2,844	2,968	3,147	3,254	3,344
East Midlands	3,280	4,295	4,522	4,734	4,825	5,085
London	11,685	14,176	14,941	39,770	41,558	43,032
National¹	34,095	36,668	39,235	1,045	1,086	1,117
North East	2,092	2,700	2,867	3,148	3,273	3,362
North West	5,619	7,159	7,377	8,159	8,455	8,805
South East	2,722	4,026	4,602	4,572	4,391	2,210
South West	2,680	4,432	4,557	5,200	5,252	5,396
West Midlands	3,101	4,103	4,307	18,373	18,878	19,397
Yorkshire	4,237	5,093	5,312	6,784	7,012	7,215
Total	71,664	85,496	90,688	94,932	97,984	98,963
¹ National expenditure transferred to regional offices in 2005-06.

Within this funding Arts Council England classifies two theatre organisations as national companies.

*£000*
	Royal National Theatre	Royal Shakespeare Company
2002-03	14,297	12,770
2003-04	14,810	13,270
2004-05	16,360	13,604
2005-06	17,261	14,000
2006-07	17,735	14,385
2007-08	18,223	14,780

Arts Council England does not categorise the remaining theatre organisations as “regional” or “local”, but as “producing” and “presenting”.

Support for organisations receiving regular funding from Arts Council England is set up to 2007-08. Future funding is contingent on the outcome of the current Government Comprehensive Spending Review.

Volume 451: debated on Monday 6 November 2006