Proposed Budget (Government Plan) 2026-2029 (P.70/2025): thirty-third amendment (P.70/2025 Amd.(33)) – comments. Arts, Culture and Heritage funding
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STATES OF JERSEY
PROPOSED BUDGET (GOVERNMENT PLAN) 2026-2029 (P.70/2025): THIRTY- THIRD AMENDMENT (P.70/2025 AMD.(33)) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 4th December 2025 by the Council of Ministers
STATES GREFFE
2025 P.70 Amd.(33) Com.
COMMENTS
The Council of Ministers remains committed to and has proposed a Budget which will spend more than 1% of the Government budget on Arts, Culture and Heritage. Therefore, this amendment is unnecessary and indeed cannot be supported because it would leave a shortfall of over £2m in the Government's 2027 budget, which could only be balanced by removing funding from elsewhere.
Following the adopting of P.69/2024, Amendment 27 to the 2024 Budget was lodged by the Council of Ministers.
That Amendment continued the commitment to maintain ACH funding at 1% of revenue expenditure. It also recognised the examples of government support for ACH outside of the expenditure that had previously been included in the calculation and committed to a review of expenditure to ensure that the total spend on ACH was captured when considering the 1%.
This work was completed before the lodging of this Budget:
Whilst there is no universal definition of what constitutes arts, culture and heritage spending, Government expenditure has been reviewed against arts spending for Arts Council England, heritage spending as classified by UNESCO Institute for Statistics and cultural spending as defined under the UN Classifications of Functions of Government Statistics.
Further areas of Government spending previously not considered, including, funding for the Jersey Music Service, Public Libraries and Community Compass Scheme, have been include in the calculation of arts, heritage and culture spend. After these budgets have been taken into account the total spending on arts, culture and heritage equates to 1.2% of overall Government spending, in excess of the 1% target. Budgets for arts, culture and heritage funding will increase in future years, with inflation allocations for pay and non- pay.
While there is no single definition of what constitutes culture, arts and heritage activity, these areas do unquestionably contribute to the vibrancy of the Island's community and cultural environment.
WQ 362-2025 gave a further breakdown of total ACH budgets.
This amendment seeks to restrict the definition of ACH spending to be AHC Support and Grants (within the EDTSC department), and spend by the Bailiff 's Chambers of
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Liberation Day and other Civic Events (to be clear, the Treasury Minister does not intend to interfere with the budget of the Bailiff 's Chambers to move spend to the EDTSC department).
The Minister for Sustainable Economic Development has this year initiated an annual delivery update which reports on all areas of Government spend within the arts, culture and heritage sectors. This provides for centralised reporting on the use of the 1%.
Using the narrow definition proposed in this amendment fails to capture the full spend in this area. Restricting the definition in this way would also mean that the budget within the EDTSC department would increase to 1% of overall expenditure, rather than increasing with inflation as proposed in the budget.
This change would increase overall expenditure on ACH, and consequently overall expenditure. This in effect creates an unfunded spending pressure in future budgets.
£'000 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
ACH Support and Grants | 11,060 | 11,303 | 11,303 |
AHC Target 1% | 13,134 | 12,618 | 12,950 |
Shortfall | 2,074 | 1,315 | 1,647 |
These financial consequences were not set out in the amendment, and no indication of how they would be funded was proposed. Without compensating action, the Consolidated Fund would become negative in 2027. This is not prudent.
The Council of Ministers stands behind its approach of including all spend on Arts, Culture and Heritage with the calculation of the 1%. Moreover, the Council of Ministers cannot support an amendment that creates an unfunded pressure in future years, resulting in a negative Consolidated Fund.
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