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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the survival of local museums in a) England and b) Worcestershire.

This Government supports museums nationwide through direct funding of National museums, funding of the Arts Council, and the administration of tax schemes like the Museums VAT Refund Scheme, and the Museums and Galleries Exhibitions Tax Relief. In October the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced 75 recipients of a new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund to keep our local museums open and serving communities, protecting opening hours and jobs and telling our national story at a local level. Earlier this year, DCMS also announced a further £25 million this year to support museums across England with urgent infrastructure through the Museum Estate and Development Fund. Together, these two interventions double the c. £44 million that Arts Council England (ACE) is already investing annually into core support for local museums.

Two museums in Worcestershire, the Museum of Royal Worcester, and Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum, were awarded £228,343 and £239,922 respectively from the Museum Renewal Fund, and ACE have invested more than £3m in six museums across Worcestershire since 2021.