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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many organisations in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Staffordshire have received funding through the £1.57 billion arts, culture and heritage covid-19 rescue fund.

Arts Council England, British Film Institute, Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund are considering applications for grant funding against agreed criteria, as set out in the published guidance.

Our priority is to ensure that organisations get the funding they need as swiftly as possible and we expect some funding decisions to be made this month with announcements soon after that. A list of the recipients of the Arts Council’s Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund can be found here:

https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/document/emergency-grassroots-music-venues-fund-recipients

This funding will provide a lifeline for thousands of organisations facing imminent challenges and will be available this financial year.