PRESS RELEASE

17 December 2024

Public thematic report

FIRST ASSESSMENT OF THE PASS CULTURE SCHEME

The pass Culture scheme has been a priority policy of the ministry of culture since 2017.

Following trials in a number of departments, the pass Culture scheme was rolled out to all

18 year-olds throughout France in 2021, then extended to 15-17 year-olds in 2022. It

provides beneficiaries with an individual budget to access cultural and artistic activities and

goods. The ministry of education and youth has also created a collective component in the

form of a budget allocated to each class in proportion to the number of pupils, from the first

year of secondary school. This report, which focuses mainly on the 'individual' component

of the pass Culture scheme, analyses how young people have used this new tool and

provides a first assessment of the results, in light of the broad and ambitious objectives that

were announced when the scheme was launched.

Rapid and unequal take-up

The pass Culture scheme has ambitious objectives: to promote independent access to culture, to

encourage diverse practices, to provide attractive offers and to ensure that they are presented to

users in a personalised and localised way. In quantitative terms, the goal of universality is well on

the way to being achieved, with 84 % of young people aged 18 and over using the pass Culture

scheme as of the end of August 2024. A total of 4.2 million young people have registered on the

pass Culture app since 2019. However, 16

% of potential beneficiaries, corresponding to those least

familiar with cultural practices, have not signed up to the scheme. Including the 9 % of young

people who downloaded the application but have not used it, a total of 25 % of young people have

not benefited from the scheme. In addition, the 75

% of young people who did use their pass did

not spend their entire €300 budget, but on average just over €250. In addition, only 68 % of young

people from working-class backgrounds, i.e. whose parents have few or no qualifications and work

in blue-collar or non-managerial jobs, have activated their pass. The aim of enrolling as many young

people as possible has thus far prevailed over the objective of generalising access to cultural

offerings. Similarly, a quantitative objective (maximising the number of beneficiaries) has prevailed

over the concern for the quality of the offers, the plethora of which (36,000) shows a lack of

selectivity. This lack of control has led to the funding of escape game activities totalling €16 million

since the launch of the scheme. Following this finding by the Court of Accounts, the Ministry of

Culture requested the delisting of these activities.

The increase in established cultural practices is difficult to measure, and the level of

diversification remains limited

Since the scheme was introduced, books have accounted for between 42 % and 55

% of the

amounts spent each quarter. Young people also use their pass Culture budget to purchase cinema

and concert tickets. In contrast, only 7 % of young people have purchased an average of at least one

live performance other than a musical event (theatre, dance, circus, etc.).

via

the app. Major public

operators in the live performance sector seem reluctant to open up to pass Culture scheme users.

Only 55 % of museums are registered. In addition, as the organisation in charge of the scheme- the

company pass Culture- has no mandate to ensure the quality of the offers available, users have total

freedom in how they use their personal budget. The editorial and algorithmic recommendation

tools developed by the company have had little effect, since 90 % of purchases were made on the

basis of an initial consultation of the search engine, and not on the basis of suggestions made by

the application.

As a result, the main impact of the pass Culture scheme observed among the first

cohorts is rather an intensification of cultural practices already well established among young

people. The low level of mediation within the application does not counteract pre-existing structural

inequalities in access to culture. A survey commissioned by the Court of Accounts and the General

Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs also highlighted the difficulty of sustaining new cultural practices

generated by the scheme. Once the pass Culture budget has been used up or expired, only 38 % of

users continue to take part in the activities they have discovered and 37 % continue to go to the

places they visited thanks to the application. To be able to better evaluate changes in young people's

practices before and after using the pass Culture scheme, the ministry of culture and the company

pass Culture,

in their responses to the Court of Accounts' observations, have undertaken to make

completing the questionnaire on initial cultural practices a pre-requisite for benefiting from the

scheme, by the end of 2024.

An expense to be better managed

From a budgetary point of view, the pass Culture scheme is an expense that is difficult to control. It

was initially meant to be financed by substantial revenues from the private sector. However, apart

from the contribution made by suppliers to finance the platform (4 % of total business volume

between 2019 and mid-2024), it is financed by the State. Budgetary expenditure for the individual

component of the pass Culture scheme was €93 million in 2021 and is forecast at €244 million in

2024. The collective component, funded by the Ministry of Education, must be added to this

expenditure, in the amount of €80 million (forecast for 2024). Against a backdrop of deteriorating

public finances, a number of ways of making savings can be considered, including reducing the

amount allocated to 18 year-olds (currently €300 per beneficiary) or targeting beneficiaries according

to social or territorial criteria.

Governance in need of reform

The governance of the pass Culture scheme needs to be reviewed in depth. The ministry of

culture has announced that it will transform the company pass Culture from a company into a

State operator by 2025, as recommended by the Court of Accounts in its July 2023 report on

the launch of the pass Culture scheme. Ultimately, bringing the pass Culture activities and staff

into the ministry of culture will enable better management of the system, as well as ensuring

better information for Parliament and the general public thanks to the budget documents

appended to the Finance Act. Lastly, and in any event, it does not seem appropriate to envisage

new areas of development for the pass Culture scheme, which needs to be consolidated and

improved.

Read the report

PRESS CONTACT

Julie Poissier

■

Communications Director

■

T

+33 (0)6 87 36 52 21

■

julie.poissier@ccomptes.fr