Wales seeks culture legislation

A statutory duty on local authorities in Wales to provide sports, heritage and arts has moved a step closer with a proposal by Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones for new legislative powers. A Legislative Competence Order (LCO) for culture would give the National Assembly the power to make Measures, or Welsh laws, and, if granted, would be a significant step for the devolved administration. The proposal must be considered by the Westminster-based Welsh Affairs Select Committee and a National Assembly Legislative Committee. The Welsh Assembly Government has already expressed a wish to increase and widen participation in cultural activities, and the LCO would enable it to “work with local authorities to provide cultural services and activities through their existing powers [and] to ensure that the National Assembly has the ability to place a duty on local authorities to provide the majority of such services and activities”. If successful, the move could have repercussions for the rest of the UK.
Jones told AP last year that the measure would take some time to come to fruition, saying that he expected it to take “a couple of years… then there will have to be a debate with local authorities as to what it will mean to them” (AP178). He is also known to favour a fairer distribution of cultural services across Wales, and will doubtless hope to achieve this as a result of the LCO. However, the agreement of the local authorities and the necessary funding to support cultural activity will have to be put in place. Welcoming the move, Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of Arts Council Wales (ACW), told AP that he was “pleased that the Heritage Minister has spoken in such a determined fashion about recognising the importance of culture in our everyday lives. Encouraging local government to place arts and culture at the heart of its agenda is one of the Arts Council’s most important tasks.” However, he said that even with the LCO in place, “making culture a statutory requirement will not, in itself, protect the arts or guarantee that culture receives the level of investment it needs and deserves”.

According to a spokesperson from nalgao, which represents local government arts officers, Jones’s predecessor, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, had pressed strongly for the LCO before stepping down last July. He added, “Generally, we’ve been pushing for this for some time, and if Wales can put a statutory order for cultural services in, we can hope to get one in England as well. Our members would welcome it.”
ACW has also just published new statistics resulting from the 2008 Wales Omnibus Survey, which is carried out annually by Beaufort Research Ltd. The report shows that 79% of Welsh adults attend at least one arts event once a year or more – up from 76% in 2007. ACW points to a rise in arts participation among people living in deprived areas, from 25% in 2007 to 30% in 2008. The statistics also show that the gap between ABC1 and C2DE social groupings has narrowed, with the DE group increasing participation by 5%. The most popular artform was film (52% of attenders). Other artforms included carnival and street arts (35%), plays (32%), art and craft exhibitions (30%), folk and classical music (both at 11%), opera (6%) and ballet (4%). The report also noted changes in regional variations in both participation and attendance.