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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support local museums.

Local museums animate towns, high streets and rural communities across the country. Their programmes and activities promote education, entertainment and wellbeing, and play an important role in delivering the government’s agenda.

The Government, with Arts Council England (ACE), supports local museums through the ACE 2023-26 National Portfolio supporting 80 museum organisations with £37m annually, and a further £3m annually is invested in the Museum Development Network. The Government also funds regional museums maintenance through the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), with £86.6 million committed to date, and provides tax incentives through both the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief, and the VAT Refund Scheme for museums. We hope to announce more soon.