Works of art by Titian, Anthony van Dyck, David Hockney and many others – worth £20m – have passed into public ownership this year as a result of the government’s Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) scheme.

The AIL scheme means private owners can hand cultural works over to the government in lieu of paying inheritance tax. The works are then passed onto public collections.

In the five years since the introduction of the AIL scheme, works valued at almost £100m now belong to public collections.

In a written statement to Parliament, culture minister Margaret Hodge said: "Objects ranging from a Titian to a David Hockney, from family archives to architectural drawing with a value of £19.8m have been accepted under the scheme.

"This represents an increase in value of £4.6m from 2007/08 and a total value of objects of £98.5m in the last five years. Tax of £10.8m was written off by the acceptance of cultural objects in 2008/09."