§ 8. Mr. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Hall Green)If he will ensure that arts organisations benefiting from public funds make unsold tickets available for use by schools. [119881]
§ The Minister for the Arts (Mr. Alan Howarth)We are introducing a requirement that every arts organisation in receipt of public funds should have an access policy for young people that includes an element of free or concessionary tickets.
§ Mr. McCabeI thank my hon. Friend for that reply. I welcome the increase in funding for the West Midland Arts Board from £6 million last year to nearly £11 million this year. Surely that increase and the new three-year funding deal can only make it easier for theatres and other arts organisations to extend access to all sections of the community. Will he consider requiring publicly funded organisations to make available unsold tickets to schools and youth groups?
§ Mr. HowarthI welcome what my hon. Friend says. Having met members of West Midland Arts Board on several occasions, I know how committed it is to ensuring that public funding should carry with it the right to better public access for the many, not just the few. On his specific recommendation, we would stop short of compulsion, but we certainly encourage arts and other supportive organisations to ensure that no tickets are wasted and that such opportunities are taken up.
§ Mr. Robert Maclennan (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)Does the Minister accept that enlightened arts organisations would regard making available concessionary and free tickets as a sensible contribution not only to educational development, but to the building of their future audiences? Does he recognise that the possibilities for making such a move extend beyond publicly funded companies and bodies? Will he invite the regional arts consortiums, which he has been instrumental in establishing, to ask the education authorities and arts bodies in their areas to introduce schemes and to approach the individuals who could make a difference?
§ Mr. HowarthI appreciate the spirit of the right hon. Gentleman's question. Some admirable arts organisations already use imaginative means to ensure better access to the arts, especially for young people. We have ring-fenced £5 million for the Arts Council to use as a new audiences fund to pilot initiatives, and those that show particular promise will be the beginning of a further process.
491 The Sheffield theatre's "pay what you can" scheme is a marvellous example, and I pay tribute to Lord and Lady Hamlyn for their imaginative and remarkable generosity in enabling people who have never had the opportunity to go to the theatre to do so.
The regional cultural consortia to which the right hon. Gentleman referred have this task in their sights, and in any case we are specifying it in the funding agreements that we are negotiating with arts organisations in receipt of public funds.
§ Mr. Michael Fabricant (Lichfield)I support the general principle of what the Minister has said, but does he accept that allowing access to young people can sometimes be difficult for small theatres? I have in mind the Hill Ridware theatre, just north of Lichfield. It is a successful theatre, but has only 60 to 70 seats in a converted church. The Minister may be aware that it recently applied for a grant, but was refused because it could not allow access to young children under the specialist arrangements that he has spoken about. Could he advise the arts bodies and lottery councils concerned not to apply the rules in a fixed way, and to take account of size and of the practicality of such arrangements in a small theatre?
§ Mr. HowarthI do not know all the circumstances of the theatre in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, but the Arts Council and the regional arts boards that distribute money on behalf of the taxpayer need to adopt suitable, sensitive and flexible approaches to particular theatres.