Arts: Grants

Mr. Pickles
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which recurrently funded organisations are to receive (a) a reduced grant and (b) no grant following the conclusions of the Arts Council England’s review, broken down by Government office region.

Margaret Hodge
The Arts Council operates at arm’s length from the Government and decisions about which arts organisations to fund are entirely for them.

The arm’s length principle ensures that the arts are not ‘run’ by the Government and are not subject to political interference Individual funding decisions are taken independently by people with expert knowledge of the sector.

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.”