The Cultural Policy Act (1993) regulates the subsidies based on cultural policy decisions and enables the Minister to create funds to finance the arts and culture. (see chapter 1.1, chapter 2.1 and chapter 4.2.1). Subsidy decisions are based on advice by the national Council for Culture. The Minister or Secretary of Culture, however, makes the final decisions. Deviations from the advice need to be substantiated as a consequence of the General Administrative Law Act. As a rule, the Minister or Secretary follows the advice by the Council.
Other funds from the state are running through six state culture funds. These funds are operated at arm’s length. The Minister decides the quantity of money reserved for them and has to approve all arrangements. As of 2013, the Law for Autonomous Administrative Bodies applies to cultural funds subsidised by central government. Autonomous administrative bodies are part of central government, but they are not part of the Ministry. Although they are autonomous, their tasks are laid down by law and the Minister has authority over these organisations. In principle, the Minister is accountable to parliament for the Ministry’s decisions. Furthermore, the funds’ policies and criteria are subject to advice from the Council for Culture.
Municipalities and provinces receive their budget through the Municipal Fund and the Provincial Fund. In determining the amount of these funds a distribution key is used. The municipality and provinces are then autonomous in the decisions they make about cultural policy (see also chapter 1.2.4 local authorities). The central government can have municipalities or provinces implement part of the national policy and make money available for this through a specific grant (the so-called SPUK). The regulations on payments to municipalities and provinces are included in the Financial Relations Act (Wet financiële verhoudingen).
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