To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many free theatre tickets have been provided to under-26 year olds by the Arts Council since February 2009. (310092)

Between February 2009 and November 2009, 121,742 tickets were taken up by young people under the ‘A Night Less Ordinary’ scheme. Over 20,000 of these tickets have been given away by organisations based in the West Midlands.

Results from 1 December 2009 to 28 February 2010 will be made available in April.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Arts Councils England's A Night Less Ordinary scheme in achieving its objectives. (317185)

An independent evaluation project is running alongside the two year ‘A Night Less Ordinary’ scheme.

The evaluation will identify, record and measure the effectiveness of the scheme in achieving its objectives at a national and local level.

‘A Night Less Ordinary’ is a pathfinder programme and the report will help inform the future direction of the programme. We also expect the report to be a useful audience development tool for the entire theatre sector. Evaluation reports will be published in due course.