§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to increase the funding of regional museums.[158144]
§ Estelle MorrisThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport's allocation of resources from Spending Review 2002 already includes a very significant increase in funding for regional museums, from £10 million in 2003–04 to £30 million in 2005–06. One of our aims is to use that funding, which underpins the Renaissance in the Regions programme, to lever in funding from other sources.
Recently we have doubled our contribution to the joint DCMS/Wolfson museums and galleries improvement fund, to provide a total annual fund of £4 million, and have extended its coverage to regional museums with designated collections and to museums participating in Renaissance in the Regions. DCMS and the Department for Education and Skills are also investing £2.6 million in the current financial year in education and community projects carried out by partnerships of national and regional museums.
In preparing the Departmental submission to the 2004 Spending Review, we will consider the needs of regional museums alongside other priorities and pressures during the 2005–08 period.