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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2016 to Question 28838, if he will make a comparative assessment of the proportion of children by (a) region and (b) socio-economic group who learn a musical instrument outside school.

As the Prime Minister stated in his Life Chances speech in January, culture should never be a privilege; it is a birth right that belongs to us all. The Government's Life Chances Strategy will address cultural disenfranchisement directly - ensuring there is real engagement by arts organisations with those who might believe that culture is not for them, meaning that many more children can have the doors opened to their wonderful cultural inheritance.

The Government has already invested £171 million between 2012-15 in 123 Music Education Hubs to ensure that children aged 5-18 have the opportunity to sing or learn a musical instrument, and a further £75 million of funding was made available for 2015/16. A new, fairer funding system ensures hubs can target money towards pupils who need it most. We have also introduced the In Harmony programme which inspires and transforms the lives of children through community-based orchestral music-making in areas of exceptional deprivation. Both of these programmes offer opportunities for children and young people in the local area to attend after school sessions to learn music. In addition, we have helped create 14 pilot music rehearsal spaces for young people across urban and rural areas of England experiencing multiple deprivation.

Analysis from the most recent Taking Part Survey shows that in 2014/15, 16.7% of respondents aged 5 -10 years from the upper socio-economic group took part in music lessons outside school compared with 6.6% of those from a lower socio-economic group. Among children aged 11-15, 41.0% from the upper socio-economic group and 31.2% from the lower socio-economic group, have taken part in at least one musical activity outside of school in the last year. Data for regional comparisons of participation are not held by the Department in a reliable format due to small sample sizes.