Libraries: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on funding for (a) public and (b) school libraries.
Answered by Chris Bryant
The Secretary of State has a range of discussions with Cabinet colleagues across the whole of her portfolio. DCMS officials regularly discuss funding for public libraries with their counterparts across His Majesty’s Government including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with regard to local government funding.
Public libraries are funded by local authorities. Each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a delivery model to meet those requirements within available resources.
The government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase on 2024-25.
Responsibility for school libraries falls to the Department for Education.
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