Officials 'broke arm's-length rule' over arts funding

Mark Brown, arts correspondent
Monday March 10, 2008

Guardian


Government officials have been accused of undermining the well-established principle of staying at arm's length when it comes to arts funding.

The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, and his predecessor, James Purnell, have refused to become involved in or comment on funding decisions made by Arts Council England because there is a principle that they should be made without government interference. During the recent debate over cuts to nearly 200 organisations, Purnell said his view was that he should not have a view.

Now the Conservatives have obtained an email from a government official to the Arts Council making representations about an organisation which faced having its £51,000-a-year funding cut. Tory culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt said the email showed that ministers were paying lip service to the arm's length principle.

The email, obtained under freedom of information legislation and dated November 28 last year, concerns the Anne Peaker Centre, a Kent-based organisation which is an umbrella group for the arts in criminal justice.

The name of the sender has been removed but his or her title is given as head of arts funding, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It begins: "We spoke about the Anne Peaker Centre (APC) and I wanted to make sure you were aware of some of the issues in this area." It goes on to say that an inter-ministerial group on reducing reoffending was paying close interest to the contribution arts and sport can make to reducing reoffending.

The email says a new Alliance for the Arts in Criminal Justice is being planned under Lord Ramsbotham, the former chief inspector of prisons. And it says the APC has been successful in raising money from non-Arts Council sources. The email concludes: "As we discussed, some or all of these national initiatives may be put in jeopardy if the APC is no longer viable ... I wanted to make sure you were able to feed this into the decision-making process."

As it turned out, the Arts Council did axe funding. But Hunt believes the email shows interference in its funding decisions. "I'm concerned that they're paying lip service to the arm's length principle. In some ways it's a healthy thing that the Arts Council did not pay attention. This is more of a worry about the DCMS than the Arts Council." The council said it did not believe the email was a form of lobbying. Its executive director, Andrew Whyte, said: "We felt it was our sponsor department passing on concerns which had been raised by other departments."

A spokesman for the DCMS said: "Very clearly the email was simply setting out the facts about work going on in government." The email was news to Bridget Edwards, chief executive officer at the Anne Peaker Centre, who said she was glad of the support. Edwards said they were waiting to hear if the Arts Council would give transitional funding for six months while they sought alternative sources.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

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