Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many public appointments her Department made between 1 January 2020 and 29 April 2026; and how many of those appointees were a) Black men and b) Black women, broken down by ethnic group.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Cabinet Office and the Commissioner for Public Appointments publish annual data reports detailing public appointments made by government departments. These reports include data on various diversity metrics, including ethnic background.
To protect the identity of individuals within smaller ethnicity groups, the public appointment data is broken down by white and ethnic minority categories only. The reports are publicly available on GOV.UK.
https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/publications/annual-reports/
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-public-appointments-data-report
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department holds data on the gender and ethnicity of a) applicants, b) shortlisted candidates and c) successful candidates for public appointments; and if she will publish the number of i) Black men and ii) Black women in each category for appointments made between 1 January 2020 and 29 April 2026.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Cabinet Office and the Commissioner for Public Appointments publish annual data reports detailing public appointments made by government departments. These reports include data on various diversity metrics, including ethnic background.
To protect the identity of individuals within smaller ethnicity groups, the public appointment data is broken down by white and ethnic minority categories only. The reports are publicly available on GOV.UK.
https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/publications/annual-reports/
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-public-appointments-data-report
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many appointments to board-level roles in public bodies sponsored by her Department were made between 1 January 2020 and 29 April 2026; and how many of those appointees were Black a) men and b) women.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Cabinet Office and the Commissioner for Public Appointments publish annual data reports detailing public appointments made by government departments. These reports include data on various diversity metrics, including ethnic background.
To protect the identity of individuals within smaller ethnicity groups, the public appointment data is broken down by white and ethnic minority categories only. The reports are publicly available on GOV.UK.
https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/publications/annual-reports/
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-public-appointments-data-report
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many non-executive appointments were made to public bodies sponsored by her Department between 1 January 2020 and 29 April 2026; and how many of those appointees were a) Black men and b) Black women.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Cabinet Office and the Commissioner for Public Appointments publish annual data reports detailing public appointments made by government departments. These reports include data on various diversity metrics, including ethnic background.
To protect the identity of individuals within smaller ethnicity groups, the public appointment data is broken down by white and ethnic minority categories only. The reports are publicly available on GOV.UK.
https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/publications/annual-reports/
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-public-appointments-data-report
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many public appointments her Department made in the periods a) 1 January 2020 to 3 July 2024 and b) 4 July 2024 to 29 April 2026; and how many appointees in each period were i) Black men and ii) Black women.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Cabinet Office and the Commissioner for Public Appointments publish annual data reports detailing public appointments made by government departments. These reports include data on various diversity metrics, including ethnic background.
To protect the identity of individuals within smaller ethnicity groups, the public appointment data is broken down by white and ethnic minority categories only. The reports are publicly available on GOV.UK.
https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/publications/annual-reports/
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-public-appointments-data-report
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many people have been appointed to the board of the Independent Football Regulator; and how many of those appointees are a) Black men and b) Black women.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Since the Independent Football Regulator was established in 2025, the Secretary of State has appointed seven non-executive members to its Board, and recused herself from the appointment of the Chair. Details of the Board's membership are published on the Independent Football Regulator's website. Information relating to the protected characteristics of individual appointees is personal data and is not disclosed.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department holds information on the gender and ethnicity of applicants and shortlisted candidates for appointments to the board of the Independent Football Regulator.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport monitors applicant diversity data through the Public Appointments Digital Service. This information is provided in confidence and is collected and processed in accordance with the Department's privacy notice. As it is confidential personal data, the Department is unable to release information on the gender or ethnicity of applicants or shortlisted candidates.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Independent Football Regulator can credibly enforce equality and diversity standards in professional football, in the context of the absence of Black representation on its board.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
We want a national game that reflects the diversity of our communities and ensures clubs truly represent the supporters they serve. However, we recognise there is under-representation of our diverse communities in senior leadership roles across the game.
The Independent Football Regulator’s board members bring skills and experience across football, the media, regulation, law, finance and other industries. We are confident that this balance of regulatory oversight and industry insight allows the IFR to meet its statutory objectives.
The IFR is setting statutory governance requirements on clubs, where they must report on what action they are taking with regard to equality, diversity and inclusion. These are more stringent than those previously set by football bodies.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much Arts Council England funding was awarded to organisations in (a) the London Borough of Hackney, (b) London and (c) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Arts Council England has invested the following in the last five years:
Hackney | |||
Grant in Aid (£000s) | Lottery (£000s) | Total (£000s) | |
2009/10 | £7,418 | £2,150,000 | £9,568 |
2010/11 | £7,088 | £1,103,000 | £8,191 |
2011/12 | £6,616 | £2,713 | £9,329 |
2012/13 | £7,861 | £5,294 | £13,155 |
2013/14 | £6,445 | £3,092 | £9,537 |
Total (£000s) | £35,427 | £14,353 | £49,780 |
Arts Council funding supports a number of arts organisations in Hackney such as the Graeae Theatre which champions the inclusion of Deaf and disabled people in the arts (which received £ 2,051,208 between 2011/12-2013/14), the Hackney Empire (which received £1,635,357 between 2011/12 and 2013/14) and the acclaimed Punchdrunk Theatre (£599,351 between 2011/12 and 2013/14) which tours and works both in and outside of London.
London | |||
Grant in Aid (£000s) | Lottery (£000s) | Total (£000s) | |
2009/10 | £190,203 | £44,062 | £234,265 |
2010/11 | £197,575 | £40,318 | £237,893 |
2011/12 | £180,966 | £56,656 | £237,621 |
2012/13 | £188,055 | £143,886 | £331,941 |
2013/14 | £184,892 | £52,193 | £237,085 |
Total (£000s) | £941,690 | £337,114 | £1,278,805 |
England | |||
Grant in Aid (£000s) | Lottery (£000s) | Total (£000s) | |
2009/10 | £411,052 | £144,091 | £555,143 |
2010/11 | £419,878 | £95,571 | £515,448 |
2011/12 | £363,507 | £157,210 | £520,717 |
2012/13 | £434,258 | £316,128 | £750,386 |
2013/14 | £434,944 | £171,275 | £606,219 |
Total (£000s) | £2,063,638 | £884,274 | £2,947,912 |
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Labour - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to increase media coverage and commercial investment in women's sport; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Grant - Shadow Solicitor General
Media interest for women’s sport peaked with London 2012 and Sochi 2014 demonstrating a strong public appetite for women’s sport. Broadcasters especially have made significant progress, and their coverage of women’s sport is now around 20%.
Although only a small amount of commercial of investment in sport goes into women’s sport, the push for greater investment is beginning to reap results with companies like Newton, Kia and Nissan leading the way in promoting the commercial viability of women’s sport.
Along with the Women and Sport Advisory Board I hosted the government’s first national conference to explore these issues in more detail, and a report of their work was published on the same day: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-and-leading-sports-charity-host-national-conference-on-womens-sport