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

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Cheltenham Playhouse was not included in their recent award of support for arts venues.

The Culture Recovery Fund is an unprecedented investment, but the scale of the crisis we are facing means that it will still not be able to support everyone.

We know that this means some organisations will be disappointed with the decision they have received, but we are confident Arts Council have scrutinised all organisations against the strict criteria set for this fund by Government. We can’t discuss specific details of why a particular organisation has or hasn’t been awarded funding.

Although we can’t comment on individual applications, there are a number of reasons why an organisation may have been unsuccessful – for example they may not have been able to show that they were at risk of no longer being financially viable this year, or they may not have sufficiently demonstrated that their work is culturally significant. As well as the funding criteria, the balance of organisations supported were considered, taking into account geographical areas, range of artform and disciplines and size and type of organisations.

For all revenue grant applications of £1m or less, DCMS asked its Arm’s Length Bodies (Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and the British Film Institute) to make decisions on whether organisations were successful. Any applicant who is concerned about the way their application was handled, or the service they received, should consult the Complaints Procedure published by the relevant body.

We will continue to do all we can to support creativity and culture in England. Unsuccessful organisations can still apply to other funding programmes, including Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants, which has a budget of £77.9million until March 2021.