§ 2.44 p.m.
§ LORD CALVERLEYMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the amount of the subsidy received by the Covent Garden Opera Company; is this Company relieved of the necessity of paying entertainment tax; what is the amount of the subsidy received from the Arts Council by the Carl Rosa Opera Company when touring the provinces.]
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER (VISCOUNT SWINTON)My Lords, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Limited, will receive a grant of £240,000 from the Arts Council in the current year. Entertainments provided by this company are granted exemption from entertainment duty by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise under Section 8 of the Finance Act, 1946. The Arts Council has not taken the Carl Rosa Opera Company's promoting body, Grand Opera Products, Limited, into association and no regular grant has been 437 made. In recent years, however, the following payments have been made: in the spring of 1950, £2,000 to meet losses on the season; in 1951, £5,000 towards the production costs of a new opera especially commissioned from the composer by the Arts Council for the Festival of Britain, and £500 towards the deficit in receipts on three performances of this work in the autumn tour of that year; then, £2,000 to meet a deficit on the spring season of 1952. The Council reserved a further £4,000 for the company's projected tour in the autumn of this year, but I understand that the company does not feel justified in risking a tour on that basis. As things are now, some of this £4,000 may, I understand, have to be used to meet the outgoings on the current tour. Entertainments provided by this company are also exempt from entertainment duty.
§ LORD CALVERLEYMy Lords, I wish to thank the noble Viscount for his reply. Would he agree that there is a disparity between the amounts granted by the Arts Council to a purely metropolitan company and to a company which, for seventy years to my own knowledge, has been promoting English opera in the provinces?
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, as a mathematical proposition, on the figures which I have given to the House, I should not dispute the accuracy of the question of the noble Lord. As regards the merits of the case, I am afraid that I am not competent to express an opinion, because the Arts Council is not one of the raw materials over which I have allocation authority.
§ LORD CALVERLEYWill the noble Viscount allow me to differ from him? For what it is worth, it is my opinion that the noble Viscount is very competent to make a recommendation to the Arts Council in regard to helping operas in English, produced for English people in the provinces. That is the point. Would the noble Viscount sympathetically consider asking the Arts Council to give greater priority to these repertory opera companies in the provinces? I think the noble Viscount follows what I am saying.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I am very appreciative of the noble Lord's desire to extend my jurisdiction; but I 438 should not think it appropriate, in answer to a supplementary question, to make an authoritative pronouncement on any expansion of the jurisdiction of overlords.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONI think the Chancellor of the Exchequer—at any rate, with regard to cash.