Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the findings of the Demos report entitled Facing the Music in relation to music education funding.

Education is a devolved matter, and this relates to England only.

The department believes that music is an essential part of the well-rounded and enriching education every child deserves.

We continue to invest £76 million per year revenue grant funding for the Music Hubs network to improve equity of access to music education in schools, including for academic year 2026/27. We also continue to invest £25 million capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology, and £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a 4-year period to academic year 2027/28 to improve access to extra-curricular vocal and instrumental lessons.

We will establish the new National Centre for Music and Arts Education later this year to support teacher development, investing up to £13 million over three years.