Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support programmes exist to encourage greater participation in the arts among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), alongside its partners Arts Council England (ACE) and the Department for Education (DfE), support a range of programmes designed to increase participation in the arts among young people from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.
ACE invests around £444 million in it’sNational Portfolio Organisation (NPO) Investment Programme and 79% of those organisations delivered in-person workshops, events or sessions which were aimed at, and attended by children and young people aged 0-19 between 2023 and 2024.
DCMS has directly invested £3.2 million to continue four key cultural education initiatives in 2026/27: the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, the BFI Film Academy, and the Art & Design National Saturday Club. These programmes help young people access creative opportunities, develop skills, and engage with culture both in and outside school.
Additionally, The Music Hubs Programme, funded by the DfE and run by ACE, works through 43 Hub Lead Organisations across England. These hubs partner with schools, music services, community groups, and professional musicians to offer a wide range of musical opportunities and provide high-quality music education to children and young people, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn and engage with music, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Lastly, the government has announced Every Child Can, an investment of £132.5 million of dormant assets funding to increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services. We are designing the remaining funding and will share further details in due course and are committed to working with areas of greatest need across England.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many public libraries have closed in England in the past five years.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the libraries development agency for England, Arts Council England (ACE) collects and publishes data on library closures, openings and relocations in its annual English Public Libraries Location Dataset. The dataset can be found at the following link: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-libraries
DCMS estimates the number of static libraries that have permanently closed (and not been replaced by or relocated to a new static library) in England in each of the last 5 years (for which data is available) is as follows:
Calendar Year | Estimated Permanent Static Library Closures |
2020 | 13 |
2021 | 16 |
2022 | 17 |
2023 | 10 |
2024 | 17 |
This data is based upon ACE’s English Public Libraries Location Dataset 2024, which shows the number of static libraries open as at 31 December 2024 is 2,866. The 2025 basic library dataset is expected to be published later this year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 support local authorities in maintaining access to community library services.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources, including how community libraries may form a part of that.
Where a community library is part of the Local Authority service statutory network it can benefit from wider government initiatives such as the improved Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26, and could also benefit from library specific funding such as the Libraries Improvement Fund.
In January 2026 the Secretary of State announced funding for Arts Everywhere which included a commitment of £27.5 million between 2025-2030 for the Libraries Improvement Fund which supports public libraries to upgrade their buildings and technology to meet changing needs to better serve their communities.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed reforms to gambling regulation on consumers experiencing harms associated with gambling disorder.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is acutely aware of the impact that gambling harm can have on individuals, families and communities. We therefore consider a wide range of evidence when assessing the impact of gambling regulation on those experiencing harm.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding has been allocated in the current financial year to support regional museums.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Museums funding is fully devolved to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In England, DCMS announced earlier this year that it would allocate £160 million to accredited local museums in England from 2026/27 to 2029/30. Funding programmes for the current financial year include:
£25.5 million of Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) to support infrastructure projects across 28 regional museums in England.
£13.6 million will be invested in a Museum Transformation fund to support English museums in achieving a more sustainable business model.
£4 million will be allocated amongst the 24 recipients of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund to help local and regional museums across England improve their displays and increase the accessibility of exhibitions.
Arts Council England also provides roughly £44m per year through their National Portfolio and Museum Development Programme to regional museums in England.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps are being taken to support freelance workers in the creative sector.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The self-employed workforce is crucial to the success of the UK's world-leading creative industries, which employ nearly twice the number of self-employed workers as a proportion of the workforce compared to the rest of the economy.
We understand that many self-employed workers in the creative industries desire greater job security. That is why we committed in the Creative Industries Sector Plan to appoint a Freelance Champion, who will advocate for the creative sector’s freelancers within government and be a member of the Creative Industries Council.
More broadly, with the Employment Rights Act we have committed to helping the self-employed thrive in good quality work through additional measures to strengthen protections - including the extension of health and safety and blacklisting protections, and right to a written contract. The Government has also announced measures to address the misuse of non-disclosure agreements by employers to silence workplace harassment and abuse, and a power to extend the protections to wider groups than employees and workers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the level of the contribution of the UK creative industries to economic growth.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS Economic Estimates provide accredited official statistics on the contribution of the creative industries to the UK economy over time, measured by Gross Value Added (GVA).
In 2024, the creative industries contributed an estimated £145.8 billion in GVA to the UK economy. The sector grew by 4.6% between 2023 and 2024 - more than four times the growth rate of the overall UK economy (1.0%) during the same period. In the longer term, from 2010 to 2024 creative industries GVA grew faster than the UK economy (60.3% vs 24.3%). In 2024, the creative industries accounted for approximately 5.6% of the total UK GVA, compared to 4.7% in 2010.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding has been provided to grassroots sports facilities through programmes administered by Sport England.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding across England.
Sport England allocates funds to National Governing Bodies and grassroots sports providers primarily based on their ability to deliver against the aims set out in their ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy around getting more people active, reducing the number of inactive people and tackling long-standing inequalities. This also includes The Movement Fund which invests over £20 million annually into community physical activity programmes.
Sport England’s website provides full transparency data about how their funding is invested.
Additionally, the Government is investing £85 million in the UK through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities (MSGF) programme in 2026/27 - via Sport England, national Football Associations and the Football Foundation. Projects funded through the programme include new and upgraded artificial grass pitches, changing rooms and clubhouses. A key objective of the MSGF programme is to increase access and participation levels for women and girls, disabled players and communities most in need across the UK. We will ensure these communities are prioritised using deprivation and inactivity data.
An additional £15 million is being invested through Sport England into new delivery models across England in 2026/27, to allow more people to participate in their chosen sports.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve participation in sport among women and girls.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that as many women and girls as possible have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.
The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year to help people get active.
Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign, run by our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, has inspired millions of women and girls to get active. 1.6 million more women are expected to be active as a result of the campaign by 2028.
Since summer 2024, the Government has also provided £6.7 million into the Women’s Rugby World Cup Legacy Programme, Impact ‘25, which has benefited 850 clubs across the country. These clubs have received investment which goes towards supporting girls of all ages to get involved in rugby.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with national governing bodies of sport on safeguarding standards in youth sport.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The safety and wellbeing of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. Sport England and UK Sport (DCMS’s Arm’s Length Bodies for sport) require National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to adopt and implement safeguarding policies and practices as a condition of public funding.
Both organisations provide support to the sport and physical activity sector around safeguarding, including funding the Ann Craft Trust and the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit who provide safeguarding standards and guidance.