§ Ms. HoeyTo ask the Minister for the Arts whether he will make it a condition for public funding that arts venues are fully accessible to people with disabilities.
§ Mr. RentonThe responsibility for the allocation of Government funding to individual arts organisations rests with the Arts Council of Great Britain. Its funding criteria include requirements on access, including access to artistic and employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The council's appraisals of the performance of individual clients pay particular attention to this.
The Arts Council published in 1990 an action plan on the arts and disability, a follow-on from the code of practice published in 1985. These documents have been sent to all the council's client bodies and other interested parties.
The Arts Council is committed to ensuring that improvements are made to increase the accessibility of arts 408W venues to people with sight impairments, hearing impairments, mobility difficulties and all other forms of disability. However, the council does not consider that it would be in the best interests to make complete accessibility a mandatory condition of grant, as grants are normally paid to performing companies, many of which do not own the buildings in which they appear.