Our thanks to all those who completed the quick questionnaire on Arts Council England’s Sustain Fund. As the overall number of responses was very low (25), we cannot draw any meaningful conclusions from these.  However, some of the comments provided us with some food for thought which NCA will share with Arts Council for their response.

The Legislation Committee No. 4 of the National Assembly for Wales has published its report on the proposed National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Culture and other fields) Order 2009. The order will allow the Assembly to make new laws for Wales (known as Assembly Measures) specifically in relation to the promotion and delivery of cultural services by local authorities across Wales.

NCA has joined forces with 20 other organisations representing the British Entertainment Industry to launch the Save our Sound UK campaign, asking the Government to act to safeguard the future of any events which use radio microphones. These events (live music, theatre, film and TV production, sports events, concerts and conferences, to name a few) became threatened when Ofcom announced its plans to sell the ultra-high radio frequency channels 31-37 and 61-69 which will be cleared out by the digital switchover. After these channels have been auctioned off by the Government, they will become illegal to use.

The NCA attended the launch of the CCPSB on Monday, 2 November.  Held in the Grand Committee Room in Westminster Hall, the launch was hosted by John Grogan MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary BBC Group and a Labour MP.  John Whittingdale MP, Conservative Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and Lord McNally, Lib Dem spokesman for the Constitution in the Lords, also appeared on the platform.

After all night negotiations, the European Parliament and Council have reached a compromise on file-sharing, stating that users in all 27 EU states would be subject to a "fair and impartial procedure" before being disconnected. The new rules represent a compromise between those who seek more protection for consumers and those who continue to argue that copyright law is being disregarded by many computer users.

Arts Council England has published a document outlining the criteria used to make decisions about which organisations to fund regularly, hoping to bring clarity and transparency to funding decisions. The document describes two sets of criteria, the first of which looks at the organisation itself, and the second of which explores how the organisation fits into the overall arts infrastructure that ACE seeks to support.

Taking Part has published its latest data relating to children’s engagement and non-engagement in culture, leisure and sport. The data is based on interviews conducted between July 2008 and July 2009, in which 1,476 five to ten year olds and 1,146 11 to 15 year olds were asked to quantify their involvement in the sports and cultural sectors. Figures show that 99.2 per cent of five to ten year olds had engaged in cultural activity out of school time in the past 12 months, whereas 99.4 per cent of 11 to 15 year olds had participated in and out of school in the past year.