Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of public funding for museums in (a) Cornwall and (b) North Cornwall.

The recently published Mendoza Review of museums in England found that public funding to museums and galleries in England has totalled over £8.4 billion in the past decade. Museums in Cornwall receive public funding from a variety of sources, including Arts Council England (ACE), Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), local authorities and others, as well as benefiting from a range of tax reliefs and grants. It is therefore not possible to provide a comprehensive breakdown of public funding for museums in the region.

ACE has invested in Cornwall’s museums through its support for Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP). As a Major Partnership Museum, CMP has received £1.5m from ACE since 2015, and as a National Portfolio Organisation in the next spending round from 2018-2022 will receive £2.44m funding to enable Cornwall’s museums to become a strong network of sustainable organisations.

Government also directly sponsors Tate St Ives which reopened in October following a major project which saw it nearly double in size, supported by £2.8m from the HLF.