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Written Question
BBC: Recruitment
Wednesday 21st July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions (a) he, (b) his officials and (c) advisors have had with representatives of the BBC about internal staff appointments at the BBC.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, and the government has no role in internal or executive recruitment at the BBC.

Meetings with external organisations and individuals undertaken in a ministerial capacity are published on GOV.UK on a quarterly basis.


Written Question
BBC: Recruitment
Wednesday 21st July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the BBC about internal staff appointments at the BBC.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, and the government has no role in internal or executive recruitment at the BBC.

Meetings with external organisations and individuals undertaken in a ministerial capacity are published on GOV.UK on a quarterly basis.


Written Question
Ofcom: Public Appointments
Wednesday 21st July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will list the members of the interview panel for the first selection process for the Chair of Ofcom.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The first process to appoint the permanent Chair of Ofcom was run in line with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code for Public Appointments, and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. In line with the requirements of the Governance Code, the members of the interview panel were published in March 2021 on the Cabinet Office’s Public Appointments Website. The panel consisted of Susannah Storey (Director General, DCMS), Paul Potts (Senior Independent Panel Member), Melanie Richards and Lord Livingston of Parkhead.


Written Question
Ofcom: Public Appointments
Wednesday 21st July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many applicants in the first process for the appointment of Chair of Ofcom had their applications carried forward automatically to the second process.

Answered by John Whittingdale

A second process to appoint a permanent Chair of Ofcom has not yet been launched but announcements will be made in due course. The process will be a fair and open competition, and run in line with the Governance Code for Public appointments and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.


Written Question
Culture Recovery Fund
Thursday 8th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the payment of the Cultural Recovery Fund for phase three is made in a timely manner.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

Our Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) is worth £2 billion in total and is the largest investment in culture, art & heritage in UK history.

Our delivery bodies are working hard to ensure payments from the first two rounds reach organisations quickly, and so far over 83% of all awarded CRF funding has been paid. Payments through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) are typically made in multiple tranches. Final payment is typically made at the very end of the grant period, once activities and costs have been reported.

As part of the design process for the third round of the CRF, the Department has conducted various lessons learnt exercises to help us determine where to make design and delivery changes. Details on the third round of funding were published on 25 June, including a specific ‘emergency resource support’ strand that will provide funding quickly to those who are at imminent risk of failure. As with all large and complex funding packages, we will ensure that key lessons learned from the whole process are captured, and used to help improve grant delivery in the future.


Written Question
Culture Recovery Fund
Monday 5th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the longest period of time was between the (a) acceptance of an application to the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) and (b) full payment of the award of funds during phase two of the CRF.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The attached table provides figures addressing the questions asked.

Payments through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) are typically made in multiple tranches. Final payment is typically made at the very end of the grant period, once activities and costs have been reported.

In both rounds of the CRF revenue grants programme, DCMS has been able to give recipients the flexibility to extend the grant period. For CRF1 awardees, they have been able to extend until 30 June 2021, and for CRF2 awardees until 31 December 2021.

As such, a significant number of CRF 1 awardees have only very recently concluded the grant period, and many CRF 2 awardees have not concluded the grant period yet.

Accordingly, final payment requests are still outstanding from both CRF1 and CRF 2 recipients. Only when final payment requests have been made will DCMS Arms Length Bodies make final payments.

In addition, payment schedules can be impacted by a number of factors, such as the provision of bank details and activity reports from applicants, as well as assurance processes undertaken by distributing arms-length bodies, in order to ensure best use of tax-payers’ money.

As the numbers show, over 83% of all awarded CRF funding has been paid.

Figures include revenue grants, capital grants, and loans from within the Culture Recovery Fund.


Written Question
Culture Recovery Fund
Monday 5th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many of the successful applicants in Phase 2 of the Culture Recovery Fund are awaiting the receipt of funds; and how much funding remains to be paid.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The attached table provides figures addressing the questions asked.

Payments through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) are typically made in multiple tranches. Final payment is typically made at the very end of the grant period, once activities and costs have been reported.

In both rounds of the CRF revenue grants programme, DCMS has been able to give recipients the flexibility to extend the grant period. For CRF1 awardees, they have been able to extend until 30 June 2021, and for CRF2 awardees until 31 December 2021.

As such, a significant number of CRF 1 awardees have only very recently concluded the grant period, and many CRF 2 awardees have not concluded the grant period yet.

Accordingly, final payment requests are still outstanding from both CRF1 and CRF 2 recipients. Only when final payment requests have been made will DCMS Arms Length Bodies make final payments.

In addition, payment schedules can be impacted by a number of factors, such as the provision of bank details and activity reports from applicants, as well as assurance processes undertaken by distributing arms-length bodies, in order to ensure best use of tax-payers’ money.

As the numbers show, over 83% of all awarded CRF funding has been paid.

Figures include revenue grants, capital grants, and loans from within the Culture Recovery Fund.


Written Question
Culture Recovery Fund
Monday 5th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many of the successful applicants in Phase 2 of the Culture Recovery Fund have received all of the funds awarded to them.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The attached table provides figures addressing the questions asked.

Payments through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) are typically made in multiple tranches. Final payment is typically made at the very end of the grant period, once activities and costs have been reported.

In both rounds of the CRF revenue grants programme, DCMS has been able to give recipients the flexibility to extend the grant period. For CRF1 awardees, they have been able to extend until 30 June 2021, and for CRF2 awardees until 31 December 2021.

As such, a significant number of CRF 1 awardees have only very recently concluded the grant period, and many CRF 2 awardees have not concluded the grant period yet.

Accordingly, final payment requests are still outstanding from both CRF1 and CRF 2 recipients. Only when final payment requests have been made will DCMS Arms Length Bodies make final payments.

In addition, payment schedules can be impacted by a number of factors, such as the provision of bank details and activity reports from applicants, as well as assurance processes undertaken by distributing arms-length bodies, in order to ensure best use of tax-payers’ money.

As the numbers show, over 83% of all awarded CRF funding has been paid.

Figures include revenue grants, capital grants, and loans from within the Culture Recovery Fund.


Written Question
Ofcom: Public Appointments
Monday 7th June 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many applications were received in the initial competition for the post of Chair of Ofcom; and how many candidates were interviewed for that position.

Answered by John Whittingdale

A total of eleven candidates applied and subsequently four were interviewed. This process was conducted in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments and has been regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.


Written Question
Ofcom: Public Appointments
Monday 7th June 2021

Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what representations his Department received on the process for the appointment of the Chair of Ofcom, excluding candidate applications and expressions of interest.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The recent process to appoint the permanent Chair of Ofcom was conducted in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments and has been regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. In line with the governance code, the Minister is advised during this process by an advisory assessment panel who are required to make an independent and objective assessment as to whether candidates meet the published criteria. The panel included a Senior Independent Panel Member, two further members who are independent of the department and Ofcom and a senior department official.