It remains to be seen whether the Department has achieved its objectives for the Culture Recovery Fund and secured longer-term value for money. The Department and its arm’s-length bodies are looking to build on the new relationships they have made with stakeholders, including many organisations they have not previously worked with or funded. The Department claims that the fund has definitely been value for money already on the basis that it is supporting the survival of organisations and that no organisations that received funding and are “culturally significant” have failed. Yet it could not tell us how it would be measuring the value for money achieved by the fund. The Department’s evaluation of the fund is due to report after the first two rounds have been distributed and round three has been awarded. Capturing what the Department has achieved through the fund and learned about the culture sector will depend on research that has clear value for money criteria, including measures for the impact on jobs and freelancers. Recommendation: The Department should set out: • in its Treasury Minute response, the metrics it is using to evaluate the performance of the Culture Recovery Fund against its initial objectives; and • once its evaluation is complete, what it will do to apply lessons to achieve value for money from its Culture Recovery Fund spending for the whole sector including subsectors that may have been missed.