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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress she has made on developing a national Cultural Infrastructure Map; and whether it will identify (a) areas of under-provision and (b) existing cultural assets.

The Department is not currently developing a national Cultural Infrastructure Map. However, extensive work has been undertaken by Arts Council England and Historic England to effectively map the cultural and heritage infrastructure of England. The Arts Council's Culture and Place Data Explorer maps the currently available datasets related to cultural services across the country, including the location of Theatres, Libraries, ACE accredited museums and charitable organisations delivering culture, heritage and science related activities. Additionally Historic England publishes data relating to assets such as heritage sites, heritage at risk and conservation areas. This data can be found on their website. In addition to this the department has undertaken work to map areas of low engagement and underprovision to help in selecting Culture Priority Places. The methodology will be published in due course.