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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure fair and equal distribution of public funding for museums and the arts across the UK.

The Government provides public and Lottery funding to Arts Council England who allocates this to arts organisations and regional museums across England. The Arts Council uses a range of criteria to support a fair distribution of this public funding. The Arts Council are committed to increasing Lottery arts investment outside of London from 70 per cent to 75 per cent by the end of 2018 and recently launched a new £35.2 million fund 'Ambition for Excellence' to support arts production, talent development and leadership outside London.

DCMS encourages partnership working between national and regional museums across England through object loans, touring exhibitions and partnership galleries. In addition, a number of national museums are either based in or have branches across England, such as National Museums Liverpool and the Royal Armouries.