Funding for Culture

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 17 July 2024.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:13, 17 July 2024

You will be aware that the cultural sector has taken various blows as a result of both the difficult funding for the higher education sector, which has impacted on the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's need to look at whether or not they will close the junior department, but, equally, I know that the Welsh National Opera has also been hammered by the fact that Arts Council England has refused to allow it to perform in places like Birmingham, where they managed to get a serious amount of income. So, I appreciate that we had to make really difficult decisions in this year's budget, but I feel that the balance has not been set quite right, and I wondered what opportunity there might be to rectify that in your preparations for the supplementary budget.