Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Thursday 4th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

What progress his Department has made on delivering support for the culture and heritage sector through the culture recovery fund.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

What progress his Department has made on delivering support for the culture and heritage sector through the culture recovery fund.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Nigel Huddleston)]

Over £1 billion-worth of funding from the culture recovery fund has already been allocated across all four nations of the UK. The funding is supporting over 3,000 arts and heritage organisations in England alone and more than 75,000 jobs.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Have a good day, Pauline, and enjoy the rest of your birthday.

[Jack Lopresti [V]]

Aerospace Bristol in my constituency is very grateful to the Government for the support it received from its successful bid during the first round of the culture recovery fund, which was in excess of £500,000. Like many other museums, it will continue to need revenue support until it can reopen. Can my hon. Friend assure me that the current bid by Aerospace Bristol under round 2 of the fund will be given a sympathetic hearing?

[Nigel Huddleston]

I was very pleased that the excellent aerospace museum in my hon. Friend’s constituency received money from the culture recovery fund in the first round. It is a wonderful showcase of world-class British engineering, and I can confirm that organisations in receipt of grant funding from the first round of the CRF were eligible to apply to the second round. I am sure that the Aerospace Bristol museum will get a fair hearing as he requests, but it is important to say that all decisions on CRF grants are made by our independent arm’s length bodies, which are committed to a transparent and robust decision-making process.