Chris Evans
Main Page: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)Department Debates - View all Chris Evans's debates with the Leader of the House
(13 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Chris Evans (Islwyn) (Lab/Co-op)
7. What assessment he has made of the likely effects on library provision of the outcomes of the comprehensive spending review.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)
Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. I shall be writing to all local authorities this week to remind them of that. We have put in place a plan through the future libraries programme to help local authorities take forward their library service.
Chris Evans
Libraries play an important role in adult literacy programmes. Will the Minister guarantee that those programmes will be kept in any future Government plans?
Mr Vaizey
As I said, the library service is a local authority service so it is up to local authority services to deliver it. I can also tell the hon. Gentleman with my BIS hat on that the excellent Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning has preserved a substantial amount of funding for adult literacy programmes.