Arts: South West Mr. Gray To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Government grant funding has been provided for the arts in (a) Wiltshire and (b) the South West in each year since 1997. Barbara Follett Government funding for the arts is made through Arts Council England according to the arm’s length principle. Decisions about which arts organisations to fund are therefore, a matter for the Arts Council. Arts Council England advises that it provides the following grant in aid funding through its Regularly Funded Organisation programme. These figures do not include funding from the ‘Grants for the Arts’ initiative. --------- |£ | --------- | |South West|Wiltshire| --------- |2003-04|11,165,267|1,322,700| --------- |2004-05|12,850,250|1,472,053| --------- |2005-06|14,388,251|1,583,939| --------- |2006-07|15,143,175|1,682,272| --------- |2007-08|15,599,030|1,728,685| --------- |2008-09|16,292,393|1,775,357| --------- |2009-10|17,067,300|1,873,875| --------- |2010-11|17,544,491|1,924,469| --------- Art Council England’s predecessors, the regional arts board, were independent bodies and maintained records according to their own systems and requirements. Consequently, Arts Council England is unable to provide compatible figures for the RFO portfolio in the years before 2003-04.