To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what consultation was held about the criteria being used by the Arts Council to make funding reductions to certain organisations; when a full list of the organisations that are to receive funding reductions will be released; and how many organisations (a) serving rural communities and (b) in Oxfordshire are to receive funding reductions. (182759)

The Arts Council operates at arm's length from the Government and decisions about which arts organisations to fund are entirely for them. Their fundamental criteria are set out in their Royal Charter

“to develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts [and] to increase accessibility of the arts to the public in England.”

In February 2007 the Arts Council created detailed guidance on how they would develop their investment strategy for 2008/9-2010/11. That guidance said that the Council would give particular priority to the following:

achieving a portfolio of effective and thriving organisations;

increasing engagement in the arts across the population;

delivering greater arts activity and presence in our emerging priority places;

delivering the recommendations of Turning Point, the Arts Council's strategic review of the visual arts sector.

The Arts Council informed their regularly funded organisations of this in May 2007 and of their intention to provide the majority of organisations with at least an inflation increase in funding, and that this would be achieved by reducing the size of their portfolio of regularly funded organisations.

The Arts Council did not hold any consultation about these criteria specifically. However, it held a public value inquiry, the Arts Debate, between October 2006 and September 2007. The inquiry considered how people think and feel about the arts in England and their priorities for public funding. The Arts Council are incorporating the results of the enquiry into their corporate planning.

The Arts Council have said the following in response to requests to see the names of the organisations listed in their proposals:

“Our proposals for non-renewal of funding cannot be made available until our National and Regional Councils make final decisions. This information is considered confidential and commercially sensitive during the response period. This is especially so in the case of a recommendation that might be overturned by the National Council or a Regional Council. Regularly funded organisations who have a right to respond to our recommendation, should be able to do so freely without fear that our intention to reduce or stop their funding is potentially unnecessarily, and without their consent, released into the public domain. A full announcement will be made at the beginning of February.”