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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the level of funding (1) creative freelancers, and (2) arts institutions, receive from the Cultural Recovery Fund is sufficient to meet requirements; and what comparative analysis they have made of the efficacy of such funding distributed in (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Scotland, and (d) Wales.

As a proportion of the funding is yet to be disbursed we cannot yet comprehensively assess the CRF’s success. However, so far, over £1 billion worth of funding from the Culture Recovery Fund has been allocated, including over £800 million to almost 3800 arts, culture and heritage organisations in England, helping to support at least 75,000 jobs. Freelancers have been supported through the Fund so far and this is on top of support from Arts Council England, who have made over £51 million of awards to individuals through non-CRF funds in this financial year alone.

£400 million was held back from the first round as contingency and now forms the basis of the second round of grant (£300m) and repayable finance (£100m) funding. Applications have been assessed and an announcement will be made in due course.

Additionally, the Chancellor announced in the 2021 Budget an additional £300 million for the Culture Recovery Fund, showing an unprecedented commitment to support the sector during this pandemic. The Culture Recovery Fund as a whole also included £188 million for the devolved administrations via the Barnett formula: Northern Ireland (£33 million), Scotland (£97 million) and Wales (£59 million). We know that Scotland, Wales and NI are also deeply committed to their arts, culture, and heritage sectors and have provided a range of support funding, building on and including the CRF allocation.