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Written question asked by David Nuttall (Conservative) on Monday, 20 February 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 February 2017. It was answered by Rob Wilson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 28 February 2017 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Public Libraries

Question

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.

Answer

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.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
64667
Session
2016-17
Subjects
Finance Public libraries
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk