—and I'll try to answer it in several different ways. In terms of us as a body, as the Arts Council of Wales, we received a cut of 10.5 per cent, as is well known to everyone. That was on 19 December of last year. We had to go into a period of voluntary and compulsory redundancies, in co-operation with the unions. We had to also reprofile our budget.
One of the things that we wanted to do, and we were very eager to safeguard, were the conditional proposals provided to the sector in the multi-year agreements. So, as policy, we decided not to transfer that 10.5 per cent cut to the sector in its entirety, but we did have to transfer 2.5 per cent of a cut. So, we as a body lost around 10, 13, perhaps, members of staff. We had to go into a process of restructuring. Also, everything had to happen very quickly. And one of the reasons it had to happen quickly was that the Government, who was providing financial support to enable all of this to happen, insisted that it had to happen before the end of the financial year. But, in the middle of that process, some flexibility was allowed in that regard, and it did mean that we, and other bodies in the same situation, could extend some deadlines, and so on.
In terms of the investment review, only 13 bodies received what they had asked for in their original bids. Around 63 received standstill funding—the same—so, because of the increased costs, it was a cut, to all intents and purposes, in real terms. But then, with this 2.5 per cent cut being transferred, that also had an impact on them.
So, if there were to be a greater cut for the arts council, another thing to remind the committee of is that 92 per cent of our funding is all transferred to the sector in some way or another. So, we are a very small body; we are a body that releases and shares the income that we receive across Wales. If we were to face an additional cut—and this is something that we have been considering and looking at internally—it would mean that we would have reconsider how much we can deliver, how much we can deliver and achieve in terms of the remit letter provided by the Government. And we would be asking for honest and open discussions with the Government on that, if it were to happen.
Our major task is to develop the arts in Wales, and that's something that we take very seriously, but one can only do so much. Because, in the remit letter, there are all kinds of responsibilities outlined, and some, in discussions with Ministers, are more prominent than others, but that's something that we would have to consider as a body. And what's interesting for me is that, although there are fewer staff members, trying to get the staff to do less isn't something that comes naturally to them, or it's not instinctive, because the staff are so dedicated to the arts. But even at the moment we're trying to say, 'Well, that isn't a priority; we have to focus on other areas.' So, in terms of a cut, the cut for us as a body would mean perhaps that we would have fewer posts again and, therefore, less flexibility to deliver everything that we currently deliver.