Hunt: We want to avoid any long-term damage to the sector
Culture secretary denies being "eager assassin" in first grilling from select committee
Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for culture, pledged to protect frontline cultural services at his first appearance before the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee in Westminster yesterday.
The culture secretary faced scrutiny over the effect his proposed 25% spending cuts would have on the UK’s valuable cultural and creative economies. He denied he had been an “eager assassin” in shrinking the department’s budget.
Addressing the committee, Hunt said he realised that the museum sector alone generated around £1bn in foreign exchange and was a vital part of the economy. He acknowledged that frontline cuts risked creating a “cycle of decline” in the arts and cultural sectors.
Hunt said: “We want to avoid any long-term damage to these sectors and indeed make reforms that will help them grow in the future.”
The culture secretary emphasised his department’s aim of halving administration costs and DCMS staff numbers by the next spending round in 2014/15 in order to protect frontline services. This will save the department £28m.
Hunt also spoke about his plans to reform philanthropic giving, a source of funding which made headlines earlier this week when Conservative peer Lord Sainsbury donated £25m to the British Museum.
Although he denied that philanthropy would ever replace state funding, Hunt said: “Given the difficult period that we’re in, I believe it is right to say: how can we develop a culture of asking as well as a culture of giving?”
The culture secretary has previously indicated that reforms might include simplifying the Gift Aid system, making it possible for donors to bequeath works of art while still alive, and changing tax rules to allow organisations to reward their donors.
Hunt was also forced to defend his department’s apparent haste in closing quangos, which DCMS estimates will save a further £25m. The announcement of closures, which included the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), came in July this year - two months after the general election.
Hunt said: “The decisions were carefully thought through… MLA was a very professionally run organisation but nonetheless we believed those costs could be absorbed elsewhere.” Hunt did not indicate which other bodies might assume the MLA’s functions.
Further details on DCMS cuts will be revealed when the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review is published on 20 October.