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Written question asked by Doug Henderson (Labour) on Tuesday, 22 July 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 October 2008. It was answered by Barbara Follett (Labour) on Monday, 13 October 2008 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Public Libraries: Newcastle Upon Tyne

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much additional spending has been allocated for public libraries in the Newcastle upon Tyne area for the next 12 months.
Answer

I have been asked to reply.Funding for public libraries is allocated to local authorities by the Department for Communities and Local Government, as part of the local government settlement. Local authorities then distribute funding among local library authorities. In addition, funding for various libraries related programmes such as ““Boys into Books”” and ““Book Ahead”” are made available from other funding streams in Government to fulfil certain strategic aims.We have defined the "Newcastle upon Tyne area" as the locality containing Newcastle upon Tyne city council, Gateshead metropolitan borough council and Sunderland city council. We have interpreted the wording of the question as a request for projected spend for these local authorities for the next 12-month period, and also as a request for comparative historic data.As funding arrangements relate to specific financial years it is not a simple matter to provide 12-month projected spend from a set starting point within year.The figures set out in the table have been provided by the local authorities in question as projected spend for the financial year 2008-09, alongside comparative figures for the financial year 2007-08.

£ million
Local authority Projected library spend, 2008-09 Library spend 2007-08
Newcastle upon Tyne 7.305 7.216
Gateshead 6.737 5.268
Sunderland 4.986 6.506
Total 19.028 18.99

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
222629; 480 c852-3W;480 c846-7W
Session
2007-08
Subjects
Newcastle upon Tyne Public libraries
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk