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Welsh Finance Minister Edwina Hart has defended the allocation of £150,000 directly from the Assembly to arts organisations in Wales (ArtsProfessional issue 22 p3), citing section 32 of the Government of Wales Act, which provides that ?The Assembly may do anything appropriate to support ?.the arts, crafts, sport or other cultural or recreational activities in Wales?.
She has stated that this was a power that the Assembly intended to use and that the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) did not have to be the sole conduit for funding to deliver the Governments? aims. But concerns have been expressed by Assembly members about the use of section 32 powers on the grounds that they may be appropriate for major national projects like the Millennium Centre, but should not be so used for local schemes.The Minister has now agreed to provide evidence which will indicate whether ACW had been consulted before the funding announcement was made, to explain how business plans were obtained from the organisations due to receive the funding, and to write about the apparent departures from normal funding policy.