Funding of the Arts and Heritage

The Committee is inviting written submissions and requesting views on the following issues:

• What impact recent, and future, spending cuts from central and local Government will have on the arts and heritage at a national and local level
• What arts organisations can do to work more closely together in order to reduce duplication of effort and to make economies of scale
• What level of public subsidy for the arts and heritage is necessary and sustainable
• Whether the current system, and structure, of funding distribution is the right one
• What impact recent changes to the distribution of National Lottery funds will have on arts and heritage organisations
• Whether the policy guidelines for National Lottery funding need to be reviewed
• The impact of recent changes to DCMS arm’s-length bodies - in particular the abolition of the UK Film Council and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
• Whether businesses and philanthropists can play a long-term role in funding arts at a national and local level
• Whether there need to be more Government incentives to encourage private donations

The Committee will also examine other areas of interest that are raised during the course of its inquiry

A copy of the submission should be sent by e-mail to cmsev@parliament.uk and have ‘Funding of the Arts and Heritage’ in the subject line. Submissions should be received by Thursday 2 September 2010.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

It assists the Committee if those submitting written evidence adhere to the following guidelines

Each submission should:

• state clearly who the submission is from, i.e. whether from yourself in a personal capacity or sent on behalf of an organisation
• be about 3,000 words in length / run to no more than six sides of A4 paper
• as far as possible comprise a single document attachment to the email
• begin with a short summary in bullet point form
• have numbered paragraphs
• be in Word or Rich Text format (not PDF) with as little use of colour or logos as possible.

Please supply a postal address so a copy of the Committee’s report can be sent to you upon publication.

It would be helpful, for Data Protection purposes, if individuals submitting written evidence would send their contact details separately in a covering email in a block of text laid out vertically.

You should also be aware that there may be circumstances in which the House of Commons will be required to communicate information to third parties on request, in order to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Though there is a strong preference for emailed submissions, those without access to a computer should send a hard copy to:

• Committee Assistant, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Committee Office, House of Commons, 7 Millbank London, SW1P 3JA.

• Guide for Witnesses 

Please also note that:

• Committees make public much of the evidence they receive during inquiries. If you do not wish your submission to be published, you must clearly say so. If you wish to include private or confidential information in your submission to the Committee, please contact the Clerk of the Committee to discuss this
• Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to within a proposed submission, in which case a hard copy of the published work should be included
• Evidence submitted must be kept confidential until published by the Committee, unless publication by the person or organisation submitting it is specifically authorised
• Once submitted, evidence is the property of the Committee. The Committee normally, though not always, chooses to make public the written evidence it receives, by publishing it on the Internet (where it will be searchable), by printing it or by making it available through the Parliamentary Archives. If there is any information you believe to be sensitive you should highlight it and explain what harm you believe would result from its disclosure. The Committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish or further disclose the evidence
• Committees do not normally investigate individual cases of complaint or allegations of maladministration
• Once submitted, no public use should be made of any submission prepared specifically for the Committee unless you have first obtained permission from the Clerk of the Committee

Further information

• The Culture Media and Sport Committee Home Page