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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of opening a new opera house in a town or city outside of London.

Arts Council England (ACE) provided the English National Opera (ENO) with £12,607,792 of public funding in 2021/22 and 2022/23 through its 2018–22 Investment Programme. Decisions about which organisations to fund in its Investment Programme, and by how much, are taken by Arts Council England alone. As part of its decisions regarding the 2023–26 Investment Programme, Arts Council England has offered the English National Opera £17 million to help it transition from its current model and explore a new future.

I can confirm that all decisions on which organisations to fund through the 2023–26 Investment Programme and their precise allocations have been taken by Arts Council England.

As the Cabinet Minister responsible for arts and culture, the Secretary of State regularly meets Arts Council England, which is an arms-length body of the Department. She met Arts Council England officials to discuss the overall process, outcome and plan for announcement on 2 November. However, the Secretary of State held no meetings with the English National Opera or any other external organisation to discuss this Investment Programme’s funding settlements prior to its announcement.