Written question asked by Andrew Rosindell (Conservative) on Thursday, 14 October 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 20 October 2004. It was answered by Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour) on Wednesday, 20 October 2004 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Dept for Culture Media and Sport

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department plans to spend on modernisation of community libraries in each of the next 10 years; how much has been spent by her Department on the modernisation of community libraries in each year since 1997. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) how much her Department plans to spend on modernisation of community libraries in each of the next 10 years; [192669] (2) how much has been spent by her Department on the modernisation of community libraries in each year since 1997. [192670] Estelle Morris: The Department does not fund public libraries directly. Public libraries are funded through a combination of the local authority settlement, locally raised taxation, and income that they generate for themselves. Public library funding is a matter of local discretion and it is for each library authority to decide how much to spend on their libraries. However, we have funded the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council three year action plan which sets out a range of programmes to help libraries achieve the vision set out in "Framework for the Future". The Action Plan has been funded by a £5 million investment over the three-year period to 2005-06. The modernisation of public libraries has also been supported through a £120 million lottery funded People's Network programme which has linked all public libraries in the UK to the internet and provided training to library staff to enable them to facilitate access to the ICT for library users. We cannot anticipate future spend on the modernisation of public libraries, except for the £5 million investment in the Action Plan, which takes us to the end of this spending review period.

Secondary information