Official Statistics

Technical report: Total income of DCMS-funded cultural organisations 2023/24 and 2024/25

Published 29 April 2026

Applies to England

This document covers the following topics:

1. an overview of the statistical release: ‘Total income of DCMS-funded cultural organisations 2023/24 and 2024/25’
2. an overview of the DCMS-funded cultural organisations included in this statistical release
3. an overview of income types and how they are defined in this publication
4. information on the methodology underlying the statistical release, including data sources
5. information on specific data notes relevant to the statistical release
6. the processes used to check that the statistics have been produced correctly
7. further information, including contact details for DCMS statisticians.

1. Overview of release

The ‘Total income of DCMS-funded cultural organisations’ statistical publication brings together the data from individual institutions and provides aggregate analysis.

The 2023/24 annual statistical release was delayed to allow further time for quality assurance and data validation. Specifically, the data collection process was reviewed with a focus on consistency of definitions used in data collection, which has resulted in some revisions to the back series. This publication includes both the scheduled data for 2024/25 and the delayed data for 2023/24.

1.1 Code of Practice for Statistics

‘Total income of DCMS-funded cultural organisations 2023/24 and 2024/25’ has been produced to the high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. For more information, see the Code of Practice for Statistics.

1.2 Users

The users of these statistics fall into broad categories:

• Ministers and other political figures
• Policy and other professionals in DCMS and other government departments
• DCMS-funded cultural organisations
• Academics

2. DCMS-funded cultural organisations

DCMS directly funds 19 cultural organisations via Grant-in-Aid, including 4 Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) and the 15 DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries. The DCMS-funded organisations are:

• Arts Council England (and their National Portfolio Organisations)
• British Film Institute
• British Library
• British Museum
• Historic England
• Museum of the Home
• Horniman Museum
• Imperial War Museums
• National Gallery
• National Museums Liverpool
• National Portrait Gallery
• Natural History Museum
• Royal Armouries
• Royal Museums Greenwich
• Science Museum Group
• Sir John Soane’s Museum
• Tate Gallery Group
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• The Wallace Collection

3. Income types and definitions

3.1 Grant-in-Aid

Grant-in-Aid is money provided by central government departments to arms-length bodies in support of the general objectives of the organisation. It does not include other public funding, for example the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement fund or the National Lottery Heritage fund.

3.2 Fundraising income (charitable giving)

Fundraising income (charitable giving) does not include any money received from a publicly funded organisation, central government grants, investment income or lottery grant funding. It is defined as any money or gift received from an individual, charity or private company in one of the following forms:

• Donations, legacies, bequests and similar income
• Donated objects (also identified separately)
• Sponsorship
• Donations from connected charities + other donations
• Capital grants and donations (not from public bodies)
• Membership schemes

3.3 Other income

Other income is constituted of any other forms of income not included in the definitions for fundraising income and Grant-in-Aid. This is summarised as:

• Trading income
• Investment income
• Admissions & exhibition fees
• Development funds
• Activities for generating funds

4. Data sources

The data presented in this report is collected from the DCMS-funded cultural organisations annual reports and accounts apart from Grant-in-Aid, which comes from the DCMS Annual Reports and Accounts.

The figures presented may not match those published in the individual Annual Reports and Accounts of organisations. This is because organisations routinely review and, if necessary, amend data from recent years ahead of this statistical release, whereas Annual Reports are published at a specific point in time and are not updated once published.

Data for the Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) (formerly known as Regularly Funded Organisations, RFOs) is based on the NPO annual survey. The Arts Council England provides funding through Grant-in-Aid and National Lottery to a portfolio of organisations which includes museums, libraries and arts organisations. The latest figures reported are from the annual survey of organisations in receipt of regular funding from Arts Council England. In 2023/24 there were 970 art organisations and museums in receipt of regular funding that provided a response to the survey out of 985 organisations contacted. In 2024/25, there were 958 art organisations and museums in receipt of regular funding that provided a response to the survey out of 984 organisations contacted, but the release is based on information provided by 956 organisations.

5. Data notes

On 1st April 2015, English Heritage split into two organisations: Historic England and English Heritage Trust. Comparisons between 2015/16 or 2016/17 and other years are therefore not possible. As of 2017/18, Historic England’s fundraising income reached a level that is comparable with those of other funded cultural organisations and has since been included in the report.

The following cultural organisations do not have values for donated objects. This is because:

• The Museum of the Home accepts donated objects which fit within the collecting policy of the museum. Objects which have a value of over £1,000 are added to the museum’s collection and accounts, however such occasions have been rare since accounting records began.
• The Sir John Soane’s Museum receives donated objects on rare occasions and no financial value is ascribed to these in the Museum’s accounts.
• The founding bequest for the Wallace Collection prevents the museum from adding donated objects to their collection.

6. Quality Assurance

The data, tables and statistical release undergo full quality assurance (QA) checks before publication. The statistician producing the release sense checks the data against prior years and queries any discrepancies with the relevant institutions.

Final QA checks are carried out by someone independent to the statistician producing the release and include:

• Checking data for publication against supplied data
• Checking numbers quoted in the release and charts
• Checking calculations
• Checking footnotes and other information included with data tables

QA checks and outcomes are recorded within an internal QA log to provide an audit trail.

7. Further information

For enquiries on this release, please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk. 

For general enquiries contact:

Department for Culture, Media and Sport
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ

Email: enquiries@dcms.gov.uk