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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay on 1 December (HL3495 and HL3496), what is Art Council England's national opera strategy; and whether they will put on hold their plans to withdraw all national programme funding from English National Opera until one has been published.

Arts Council England made its decisions regarding its 2023–26 Investment Programme in line with its published guidance and its ten year strategy, ‘Let’s Create’, which covers all art forms, and which can be found on its website at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/lets-create.

Assessments were carried out by Arts Council England staff, based on balancing criteria published in its funding guidance, and were made by its Area and National Councils, which include both local representatives and people who work in the sector.

More opera organisations will be funded in the new Investment Programme portfolio than in the preceding one, and opera accounts for 40 per cent of funding for music in the new portfolio. His Majesty’s Government will continue to work with Arts Council England to understand the impacts of its investment in arts and culture, including on opera.