UK Inquiry Tracker

COVID-19: Culture Recovery Fund

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 23 Mar 2021 Closed: 16 Nov 2021 Parliament page

The covid-19 pandemic meant that museums, galleries, cinemas, music venues, nightclubs, theatres, arts centres, archives and heritage sites were required by law to close their doors on 23 March 2020, with many remaining closed for most of the following year and not all due to fully reopen until summer 2021. … Read more The covid-19 pandemic meant that museums, galleries, cinemas, music venues, nightclubs, theatres, arts centres, archives and heritage sites were required by law to close their doors on 23 March 2020, with many remaining closed for most of the following year and not all due to fully reopen until summer 2021. Without targeted support, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) expected large-scale financial failures for the UK’s cultural, arts and heritage institutions, and announced its £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund in July 2020 to help these institutions survive the pandemic and to support their long-term sustainability. Of the £830 million grants and loans funding awarded to the sector so far, £495 million has been actually paid out. The Department aimed to support the survival of 75% of the organisations in the sector at risk during 2020-21. To determine how much money would be available, the Department considered various scenarios. Its worst-case scenario assumed that social distancing would remain until the end of March 2021 and that demand would remain at 40% of pre-COVID-19 levels. The current situation exceeds this worst-case scenario. The criteria for awarding funding included that organisations were financially viable before COVID-19; had exhausted all other funding options; were ‘culturally significant’; or were essential to the cultural fabric of a place or supported the government’s wider ‘levelling-up’ agenda. Applications for both revenue and capital grants were oversubscribed, while loans funding was undersubscribed. By December 2020, 85% of revenue grants had been awarded to the arts and 15% to heritage organisations. London received 31% of total funding, followed by the North West and South East which each received 12%. In common with other emergency COVID-19 funding, implementing the CRF has presented risks of fraud, error, duplication and overpayment, and DCMS also created the Culture Recovery Board in July 2020 to provide assurance to the Secretary of State over funding and approve loans over £3 million. By January 2021, three reports of fraud relating to two grants administered by ACE had been received through the COVID Fraud Hotline. The grants, totalling £473,000 were withheld by ACE and no funds were paid out. The Committee will question senior officials at DCMS and the Chief Executive of Arts Council England. If you have evidence on the issues raised in this inquiry , please submit it here by 6pm on Thursday 15 April. Show less

10 Recommendations

17 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

3 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 6 events

28 Oct
2021

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighth report from Session 2021-22

25 Oct
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Eighth Report of Session 2021-2…

23 Jun
2021

Report published

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture Recovery Fund

19 May
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Public Accounts Committee Oral …

27 Apr
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Update on progress made in the …

26 Apr
2021

Oral evidence

COVID-19: Culture Recovery Fund

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

26 Apr 2021

View on parliament.uk

COVID-19: Culture Recovery Fund

Darren Henley · Arts Council England Emma Squire · Historic England Sarah Healey · Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Sir Damon Buffini · Culture Recovery Fund

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture Recovery Fund	HC 340	23 Jun 2021	27	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

6 results

3 Recommendation Rejected

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture …

In implementing the fund during the pandemic, the Department’s need to act quickly to provide...

In implementing the fund during the pandemic, the Department’s need to act quickly to provide funding to applicants while also protecting taxpayers’ money meant some applicants’ experiences could have been better. The Department announced the fund in July 2020, with … Read more

Government Response

The government rejects the recommendation, arguing that streamlining processes would have risked propriety during rapid fund delivery, and that extensive feedback to unsuccessful applicants would have caused delays.

HM Treasury

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11 Conclusion Rejected

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture …

The Department had considered that the end of September 2020 represented a cliff- edge for...

The Department had considered that the end of September 2020 represented a cliff- edge for the sector, with many organisations in the sector likely to run out of money and close permanently if support was not available by then.27 We … Read more

Government Response

The government rejects the committee's implied criticism regarding the pace and streamlining of the Culture Recovery Fund, asserting that the fund was delivered quickly while balancing proper allocation of taxpayer money and reducing fraud risk.

HM Treasury

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12 Conclusion Rejected

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture …

We asked the Department what it had learned about setting and communicating realistic deadlines.

We asked the Department what it had learned about setting and communicating realistic deadlines. It considered that what mattered to organisations was knowing that they were going to get funding. It acknowledged that it had given advance notice about when … Read more

Government Response

The government rejects the committee's implied criticism about setting and communicating realistic deadlines, arguing that the Culture Recovery Fund's processes were made as streamlined as possible while maintaining propriety.

HM Treasury

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13 Conclusion Rejected

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture …

We asked the Department whether in retrospect it had struck the right balance between applying...

We asked the Department whether in retrospect it had struck the right balance between applying due diligence and how quickly funding reached organisations. The Department and ACE assured us that they were not aware of any organisation that had fallen … Read more

Government Response

The government rejects the committee's implied criticism regarding the balance between due diligence and funding speed for the Culture Recovery Fund, stating that further streamlining would have risked the fund's propriety.

HM Treasury

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14 Conclusion Rejected

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture …

We asked about the low level of fraud in the fund and whether the Department’s...

We asked about the low level of fraud in the fund and whether the Department’s focus on due diligence had led to this low level. ACE explained it had a dedicated counter-fraud resource and had so far identified no fraudulent … Read more

Government Response

The government states it disagrees with the committee's (implicit) recommendation regarding streamlined funding processes, defending its stringent counter-fraud measures as essential for proper allocation of taxpayer money and stating further streamlining would risk the fund's propriety.

HM Treasury

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15 Recommendation Rejected

Eighth Report - COVID 19: Culture …

We received good evidence from a number of bodies about their experience of the fund...

We received good evidence from a number of bodies about their experience of the fund and the challenges they had faced. For example some had struggled with the language of the grant form, which seemed to be geared to the … Read more

Government Response

The government rejected the recommendation, stating that streamlining funding processes would risk propriety and providing detailed feedback to all unsuccessful applicants would cause delays and significant opportunity cost. They noted some adjustments were made to feedback provision after CRF1.

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 26 of 10 classified

Accepted 14

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 1

Deferred 1

Not Addressed 3

Rejected 6

Total 10 recs + 17 conclusions

Correspondence 3 letters

25 Oct 2021 Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Eighth Report of Session 2021-22 - Covid 19: Culture Recovery Fund, dated 30 September 2021

Parliament page

19 May 2021 Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Public Accounts Committee Oral evidence: COVID-19: Culture Recovery Fund, HC 1291 Monday 26 April 2021, dated 7 May 2021

Parliament page

27 Apr 2021 Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Update on progress made in the delivery of the Culture Recovery Fund, dated 23 April 2021

Parliament page