Theatres

Mr. Gerrard
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the level of revenue funding for theatre has been in each financial year since 1996-97 in England.

Mr. Lammy
Government funding for the arts is distributed, within broad guidelines, through Arts Council England. The following figures provide a breakdown of the information requested.

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|       |£000  |
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|1996-97|47,899|
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|2001-02|58,612|
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|2002-03|71,669|
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|2003-04|85,501|
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|2004-05|90,692|
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|2005-06|94,937|
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Prior to the merger of the Arts Council of England and the Regional Arts Boards, funding for theatre was distributed nationally by the Arts Council, and regionally by the Arts Boards. Overall expenditure by art form was not collated. However, Arts Council England has retrospectively collated this data for 1996-97, 2001-02 and 2002-03.