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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how funding from the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund will be distributed between the arts, culture, museums and heritage sectors.

Last year the government announced the unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the culture sector. The successful applications from the first round were announced late last year, with almost 3,800 organisations receiving over £1billion in funding, saving at least 75,000 jobs.

The successful applications from the second round were announced on Friday 2 April 2021. From this latest round of funding, over 2,700 organisations across arts, culture, museums and heritage have been offered an additional nearly £400 million in grants and loans to help the sector reopen and recover.

Funding from this second round will support organisations to transition from the challenging months of lockdowns and social distancing to welcoming audiences and visitors back to the country’s theatres, museums, cinemas, music venues and heritage sites.

Additionally, the Chancellor announced in the 2021 Budget an additional £300 million to support theatres, museums and other cultural organisations in England through the Culture Recovery Fund. This extra funding, together with other cultural support such as funding for our national museums, means that our total support package for culture during the pandemic is now approaching £2bn.