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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Barran on 9 November (HL Deb, col 808), what proportion of the £119 million of funding available through Arts Council England has been paid directly to individual freelance workers; and what is the breakdown of payments by (1) art form, and (2) category of freelance worker.

Of the £119m available through Arts Council England as part of their Covid emergency support, over £26m has been distributed to individuals, including freelance workers, and organisations via the Emergency Relief Fund and Project Grants Funding (as of 5 November 2020).

Within the £26m, £17m has been distributed to individuals via ACE’s Emergency Response Fund (now closed) and c.£9m has so far been distributed to both organisations and individuals via Project Grants (out of a total of c.£80m available until April 2021).

In addition to the two Funds above, the £119m also includes the following:

• £6 million distributed by a series of Benevolent Funds focused on self employed individuals; and

• £18 million available through their Developing Your Creative Practice Fund

The split by art form and category of freelance worker will be made available in due course.