§ Mr. Parryasked the Minister for the Arts if he will take steps to seek to ensure that the Liverpool Empire and Philharmonic Halls do not lose grant as a result of the abolition of Merseyside county council, following the decision of the Arts Council not to fund them in 1986.
§ Mr. LuceGrants to individual arts bodies are a matter for the Arts Council to determine. It has long been the policy of the council to support artists rather than buildings and on this basis it announced recently that it did not feel able to use any of the £25 million post-abolition funding allocated to it by the Government to fund receiving theatres such as the Liverpool Empire and Philharmonic Hall in the abolition areas.
The council has, however, made clear that it is prepared to take into account any increase in funding for these theatres from the successor authorities, when it considers the funding of the other arts organisations in the areas affected. I hope that the successor authorities will now 305W enter into serious discussions with the Arts Council and regional arts associations with a view to devising suitable joint funding arrangements which will safeguard all the arts organisations in their areas.
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 January 12.6 4.7 5.8 2.9 6.0 5.4 February 10.3 6.1 3.9 3.4 6.3 5.4 March 10.0 6.5 2.7 5.3 5.7 5.3 April 9.7 7.1 1.7 6.1 4.9 6.0 May 14.4 8.8 7.4 0.3 6.7 5.2 5.4 June 12.5 9.5 4.8 2.8 6.4 5.5 5.2 July 11.1 8.7 6.3 1.3 6.3 5.8 5.1 August 12.3 8.4 4.7 1.8 6.6 5.4 4.5 September 12.4 8.0 5.1 2.3 6.4 5.3 4.2 October 13.0 6.5 5.3 2.6 6.7 5.5 3.4 November 13.3 5.3 4.4 3.4 6.4 5.6 December 12.1 5.6 4.4 4.0 6.5 6.5 Full details of the average month series for MO are given in the March 1984 Bank of England "Quarterly Bulletin" (pages 78 and 80).