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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education about increasing participation in (a) music, (b) drama, (c) dance and (d) art at primary school level.

My Right Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and my Right Hon. friend the Secretary of State for Education recently announced an additional £109 million for music and cultural education for 2015/16 taking the amount invested in music and cultural education in this Parliament to over £400 million.

I jointly chair the Cultural Education Board with the Schools Minister and Darren Henley, author of reports into music and cultural education. Good progress has been made against the reports' recommendations.

The Taking Part Survey (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sat--2) shows that arts participation overall has increased from 97.2 per cent in 2008/09 to 98.9 per cent in 2013/14 for 5-10 year olds.