Public Libraries
(asked on 20th February 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding she has provided to libraries in each of the last five years.
Funding provided to public libraries in England in each of the last 5 years by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and through Arts Council England, the development agency for libraries, is shown in the following table:
| 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 budgeted |
DCMS |
|
|
| £2,589,626 | £4,300,000 |
Arts Council England | £983,405 | £3,960,601 | £2,675,015 | £3,077,350 | £2,500,000 |
Total | £983,405 | £3,960,601 | £2,675,015 | £5,666,976 | £6,800,000 |
This is in addition to the net investment by local library authorities annually including £701 million in 2015/16.
The funding from DCMS in 2015/16 supported the installation or significant upgrade of WiFi in public libraries across England, while the funding for 2016/17 includes a new public libraries innovation fund to support projects that develop innovative library service activity to benefit disadvantaged people and places in England.
Arts Council England's funding provided to public libraries in England supports library-specific activity or direct investment in a library, such as the Get It Loud In Libraries programme which has created exciting opportunities for young people to lead, participate, volunteer and excel in artistic and cultural activity in a library environment.