Review of Arts Council England due by March

A comprehensive review of Arts Council England will be conducted in this financial year, it has been confirmed.

As part of the Public Bodies Review programme, launched by the Cabinet Office last year, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will assess whether ACE should continue to operate in its current form.

A list published by the Cabinet Office names ACE as one of three bodies "prioritised for review in financial year 2023/24", the others being the £1bn National Citizen Service – a youth work initiative introduced by former Prime Minister David Cameron – and Sport England.

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Confirmation of the review puts ACE among the second tranche of public bodies to be reviewed by DCMS after three – into the British Tourist Authority (VisitBritain), Sports Grounds Safety Authority and Ofcom – were conducted in 2022/23.

ACE Chief Executive Darren Henley last year said the review was scheduled to begin in 2023.

DCMS currently works with 42 public bodies and agencies. The review will determine whether alternative arrangements for ACE's functions, such as delivery by the state, privatisation, a merger, or abolition are "more fitting".

In May last year, when the review programme was announced, former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries told members of the Culture Select Committee that getting rid of ACE was "not on the government agenda". But there have been a number of calls for change at the organisation since then.

In August, during the Conservative leadership campaign between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, performers' union Equity called on the next Prime Minister to "consider reforming the arts council model", adopting "regional structures" in place of the current system.

Equity said such a move would "help level up opportunities across every region and nation".

Call for transparency

And following the fallout of ACE's investment decisions for the 2023-26 National Portfolio, which prompted a backlash in relation to a number of decisions including the withdrawal of funding for English National Opera, MP Bob Neill said: "Arts Council England itself needs a review. It is due for a departmental review before too long anyway, as it is some time since its last one. It ought to look at its transparency and decision-making processes.

"The board papers are never published. The information available would never pass muster in a local authority or health service trust, for example. That must change and the review should look at that, as it should at the composition of the board and the recruitment of its executive team."

ACE Chief Executive Darren Henley said he will be making a "robust case" highlighting the virtues of the body.