Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the recent Arts Council England funding decisions for National Portfolio Organisations 2023-26, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of basing those decisions on the postcode of an organisation’s office rather than the postcode of the work being delivered on levelling up outcomes.

In line with its published guidance, Arts Council England considered both where organisations were based and where they were planning to deliver their activity in its assessments and decision-making for its 2023–6 Investment Programme, just as it did for previous rounds. This included consideration of the impact of investment on Priority Places, Levelling Up for Culture Places, places of historically low Arts Council investment, places of historically low cultural engagement, and the spread across the country and between rural areas, towns, and cities, as well as other balancing criteria unrelated to geography.