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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the £160 million Arts Council England COVID-19 support for the arts has been allocated to programs that (1) commercial musicians, and (2) music businesses, with no previous record of engagement with Arts Council England, can access.

The £160 million Arts Council England funding was allocated across three programmes as follows:

• £20 million available for individual practitioners, including £4 million distributed by seven benevolent funds supporting individuals working in arts and culture

• £50 million made available for organisations outside the Arts Council’s National Portfolio

• £90 million made available for the Arts Council’s National Portfolio Organisations and Creative People and Places organisations.

Individuals and organisations outside the Arts Council’s National Portfolio, including those from the commercial music sector were eligible to apply for the first two programmes. Applicants were required to have a track record of working in the publicly-funded culture sector within the last three years, but were still eligible even if they did not have prior direct contact with Arts Council England.