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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the appeals process is for businesses that have been turned down for a grant from the Culture Recovery Fund; and whether there will be further rounds during which businesses that have been unsuccessful can reapply.

Following the first and second rounds of funding, over £1.2 billion has been allocated across recovery, capital and repayable finance from the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, reaching over 5000 individual organisations and sites. We are confident the independent delivery bodies will have scrutinised all organisations against the strict criteria set for this fund. An organisation that applied for a CRF grant and would like to make a complaint about the service it has received from the relevant delivery body or the way the delivery body has handled its application can contact the delivery body directly, as detailed in the applicant guidance.

An additional £300 million investment is being made available to continue to support the cultural sectors in 2021/22 to bridge to a position of sustainability as audiences and visitors begin to return. Further details on this funding will be published in due course. We will keep support for the sector under constant review and will continue work to determine the appropriate and most effective response for the sector within the public health context.