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Written Question
Arts: Equality
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 (a) tackle disparities in access to the arts and (b) promote cultural engagement among underrepresented communities.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The arts are for everyone, and His Majesty’s Government is deeply committed to supporting access to high-quality arts and culture across the country.

At the last Spending Review, the Government increased the Grant in Aid available to Arts Council England, and asked it to spend that increased amount more equitably across the country. Through Arts Council England’s new (2023–26) National Portfolio, increased funding of £444.6 million per annum is now funding a record 985 organisations in more parts of the country than ever before. This is an increase from £410 million per annum going to 814 organisations under the previous portfolio. Of the 275 new organisations joining the funding portfolio, 214 are from outside London.

As well as the Arts Council’s existing Priority Places (one of which is Slough), DCMS and the Arts Council also agreed 109 Levelling Up for Culture Places, which partially overlap with the Priority Places, and which were identified as places of historically low investment and engagement in arts and culture. These places are targeted for additional engagement and investment. In Slough, our new joiners are:

  • Amina Khayyam Dance Co

  • Art classes group

  • Resource Productions

In February, DCMS launched the fourth round of the Government’s Cultural Development Fund, which is open to every part of England. In this round we are particularly keen to fund activity in areas of low cultural investment. To date, the Cultural Development Fund has provided £76 million of capital investment to 20 transformative, place-based creative and cultural initiatives across the country.

Tackling disparities in opportunity and outcome in cultural education is also one of the overarching objectives of DCMS and the Department for Education’s forthcoming Cultural Education Plan, which aims to give support for all children and young people (age 0–18) to access a broad range of high-quality cultural education subjects, activities and experiences in and out of school. This will promote access, participation and progression within the arts.


Written Question
Arts: Equality
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 help ensure equitable access to the arts across communities in the UK.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The arts are for everyone, and His Majesty’s Government is deeply committed to supporting access to high-quality arts and culture across the country.

At the last Spending Review, the Government increased the Grant in Aid available to Arts Council England, and asked it to spend that increased amount more equitably across the country. Through Arts Council England’s new (2023–26) National Portfolio, increased funding of £444.6 million per annum is now funding a record 985 organisations in more parts of the country than ever before. This is an increase from £410 million per annum going to 814 organisations under the previous portfolio. Of the 275 new organisations joining the funding portfolio, 214 are from outside London.

As well as the Arts Council’s existing Priority Places (one of which is Slough), DCMS and the Arts Council also agreed 109 Levelling Up for Culture Places, which partially overlap with the Priority Places, and which were identified as places of historically low investment and engagement in arts and culture. These places are targeted for additional engagement and investment. In Slough, our new joiners are:

  • Amina Khayyam Dance Co

  • Art classes group

  • Resource Productions

In February, DCMS launched the fourth round of the Government’s Cultural Development Fund, which is open to every part of England. In this round we are particularly keen to fund activity in areas of low cultural investment. To date, the Cultural Development Fund has provided £76 million of capital investment to 20 transformative, place-based creative and cultural initiatives across the country.

Tackling disparities in opportunity and outcome in cultural education is also one of the overarching objectives of DCMS and the Department for Education’s forthcoming Cultural Education Plan, which aims to give support for all children and young people (age 0–18) to access a broad range of high-quality cultural education subjects, activities and experiences in and out of school. This will promote access, participation and progression within the arts.


Written Question
Arts
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 with creative industry leaders to help ensure (a) growth and (b) sustainability in that sector.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, we are committed to working with industry and the devolved administrations to ensure our creative industries continue to be the best in the world. The Sector Vision sets out our 2030 goals and objectives for supporting the creative industries.

As part of the Growth goal, we outline how we are supporting creative businesses to grow and scale-up through investment, innovation and export support - including through programmes like the Create Growth Programme and the Creative Clusters.

As part of the Maximising Impact goal, we set out an objective specifically for the environment: ‘Creative industries play a growing role in tackling environmental challenges, helping the UK reach the targets set out in the Powering Up Britain plan’. As part of this, the Creative Industries Council, which represents industry and worked with government to develop the Sector Vision, have published their Creative Climate Charter, which sets out key environmental principles for creative companies to aspire to. We will continue to work with industry and across government to address this objective.


Written Question
Arts
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to publish a strategy for the arts and creative industries.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, we are committed to working with industry and the devolved administrations to ensure our creative industries continue to be the best in the world. The Sector Vision sets out our 2030 goals and objectives for supporting the creative industries.

As part of the Growth goal, we outline how we are supporting creative businesses to grow and scale-up through investment, innovation and export support - including through programmes like the Create Growth Programme and the Creative Clusters.

As part of the Maximising Impact goal, we set out an objective specifically for the environment: ‘Creative industries play a growing role in tackling environmental challenges, helping the UK reach the targets set out in the Powering Up Britain plan’. As part of this, the Creative Industries Council, which represents industry and worked with government to develop the Sector Vision, have published their Creative Climate Charter, which sets out key environmental principles for creative companies to aspire to. We will continue to work with industry and across government to address this objective.


Written Question
Arts: Exports
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 help (a) support and (b) increase (i) creative and (ii) cultural exports.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In June 2023, the Government and the Creative Industries Council launched the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which sets out our long term strategy for supporting and growing the creative industries. The Sector Vision can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creative-industries-sector-vision

The Government is delivering on its plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and add another 1 million jobs by 2030.

Since 2010, the Government has introduced a range of tax reliefs across the creative industries, from film and television, to animation, video games, orchestras, theatres and more. The Chancellor announced further support at the Spring Budget, with £1 billion of additional tax relief over the next five years. This has led to significant growth in the creative industries over the last 14 years, helping to double the economic value of the creative industries and create more than one million new jobs since 2010.

Our tax reliefs are driving inward investment, helping unleash job creation and economic growth across the country. The Government’s generous screen sector tax reliefs have driven a record breaking spend of £6.3 billion on film and high-end TV production in 2022, of which £5.4 billion - 86% - was inward investment.

Our tax reliefs have also helped drive an increase in cultural and creative service exports. DCMS works with other departments including FCDO and DBT, industry bodies and trade associations to promote the creative industries overseas, from delivering creative trade missions to HMG-backed funding schemes. Examples include the £28 million UK Global Screen Fund, delivered by the British Film Institute, which provides grants to develop, distribute and promote independent UK and UK co-produced screen content in international markets and the Music Export Growth Scheme, which provides grant funding to support UK-based independent music SMEs to develop export campaigns to grow their international business and export revenue. My department is also committed to ensuring that the interests of the creative industries are pursued in the UK’s ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreements, including on audiovisual services, intellectual property rights and supporting the movement of creative professionals.


Written Question
Arts: Competition
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has a long-term strategy to support the (a) expansion and (b) global competitiveness of creative industries.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In June 2023, the Government and the Creative Industries Council launched the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which sets out our long term strategy for supporting and growing the creative industries. The Sector Vision can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creative-industries-sector-vision

The Government is delivering on its plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and add another 1 million jobs by 2030.

Since 2010, the Government has introduced a range of tax reliefs across the creative industries, from film and television, to animation, video games, orchestras, theatres and more. The Chancellor announced further support at the Spring Budget, with £1 billion of additional tax relief over the next five years. This has led to significant growth in the creative industries over the last 14 years, helping to double the economic value of the creative industries and create more than one million new jobs since 2010.

Our tax reliefs are driving inward investment, helping unleash job creation and economic growth across the country. The Government’s generous screen sector tax reliefs have driven a record breaking spend of £6.3 billion on film and high-end TV production in 2022, of which £5.4 billion - 86% - was inward investment.

Our tax reliefs have also helped drive an increase in cultural and creative service exports. DCMS works with other departments including FCDO and DBT, industry bodies and trade associations to promote the creative industries overseas, from delivering creative trade missions to HMG-backed funding schemes. Examples include the £28 million UK Global Screen Fund, delivered by the British Film Institute, which provides grants to develop, distribute and promote independent UK and UK co-produced screen content in international markets and the Music Export Growth Scheme, which provides grant funding to support UK-based independent music SMEs to develop export campaigns to grow their international business and export revenue. My department is also committed to ensuring that the interests of the creative industries are pursued in the UK’s ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreements, including on audiovisual services, intellectual property rights and supporting the movement of creative professionals.


Written Question
Takeovers
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department's criteria are for referral of a takeover on public interest grounds to (a) Ofcom and (b) the Competition and Markets Authority.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The criteria for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to intervene in any media merger are set out in the Enterprise Act 2002.

Where the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds for suspecting that a merger covered by the Act has taken place or is in progress, and that one or more public interest consideration is relevant to the merger, she may issue an intervention notice. The intervention notice means that the CMA reports to the Secretary of State on whether a merger covered by the Act has been created or is in progress, whilst Ofcom report to the Secretary of State on the effect of the public interest considerations on the case.

The Secretary of State then decides whether to refer the case for further investigation by CMA (a “phase 2” investigation). She has discretion to make a “phase 2” reference f if she believes that it is or may be the case both that one or more public interest considerations outlined under Section 58 of the Enterprise Act 2002 is relevant to the case and that the merger may be expected to operate against the public interest. The CMA must normally report back to the Secretary of State within 24 weeks of a reference being made. Once the Secretary of State receives the CMA report, she must decide whether to make an adverse public interest finding. If the Secretary of State does make an adverse public interest finding then she can take action to remedy the situation - in an appropriate case this could include making an order to block or unwind a merger.

Any decision the Secretary of State makes in this process is in a quasi-judicial capacity.


Written Question
Newspaper Press: Ownership
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of banning foreign government ownership of British media assets on (a) the UK's relationship with key international partners and (b) foreign investment in other sectors.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Maintaining a free and thriving press is a top government priority. Newspapers and news magazines play a unique role in our democracy, by providing accurate news and information, helping to shape opinions and contributing to political debate. The purchase of UK news organisations by foreign states runs the risk of undermining faith in our free press.

To address this we will table government amendments to the Digital Markets, Competition & Consumers (DMCC) Bill at Third Reading to explicitly rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states.

We will amend the Enterprise Act 2002 to create a new Foreign State Intervention regime for media mergers to work in parallel with the existing Public Interest Considerations regime. Our focus here is not on foreign investment in the UK media sector in general, but is targeted specifically on foreign state investment of newspapers.

Under the new Intervention regime, the Secretary of State would be obliged to refer cases to the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) through a new type of intervention notice, where she has reasonable grounds to believe that “a foreign state newspaper merger situation” has been created. This situation will arise where a merger involving a UK newspaper or news magazine gives a foreign state or body ownership, control or influence over the newspaper enterprise.

If the CMA concludes that the merger has or would result in foreign state ownership, influence or control over a newspaper enterprise, the Secretary of State will be required to make an order to block or unwind the merger.

We plan for the changes to take immediate effect upon Royal Assent of the DMCC Bill.

This policy is still in active development, but we want to ensure that the new measures do not have any undesired effects on wider foreign investment in UK media or on passive investments made by established investment funds.

The new measures will only apply to foreign states, foreign state bodies and connected individuals, and only to newspapers and news magazines given the unique role these publications play in contributing to the health of our democracy by providing accurate news and information, helping to shape opinions and contributing to political debate.

The UK has a strong track record for encouraging foreign investment which has been critical to growth within the media and wider creative industries. The Government remains committed to encouraging and supporting investment into the UK and we recognise that investors deploying capital into this country rely on the predictability and consistency of our regulatory regime. The UK remains one of the most open economies in the world, which is key for the prosperity and future growth of our nation.


Written Question
Newspaper Press: Ownership
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 the (a) independence and (b) integrity of UK (i) newspapers and (ii) news magazines from foreign state (A) ownership, (B) influence and (C) control.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Maintaining a free and thriving press is a top government priority. Newspapers and news magazines play a unique role in our democracy, by providing accurate news and information, helping to shape opinions and contributing to political debate. The purchase of UK news organisations by foreign states runs the risk of undermining faith in our free press.

To address this we will table government amendments to the Digital Markets, Competition & Consumers (DMCC) Bill at Third Reading to explicitly rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states.

We will amend the Enterprise Act 2002 to create a new Foreign State Intervention regime for media mergers to work in parallel with the existing Public Interest Considerations regime. Our focus here is not on foreign investment in the UK media sector in general, but is targeted specifically on foreign state investment of newspapers.

Under the new Intervention regime, the Secretary of State would be obliged to refer cases to the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) through a new type of intervention notice, where she has reasonable grounds to believe that “a foreign state newspaper merger situation” has been created. This situation will arise where a merger involving a UK newspaper or news magazine gives a foreign state or body ownership, control or influence over the newspaper enterprise.

If the CMA concludes that the merger has or would result in foreign state ownership, influence or control over a newspaper enterprise, the Secretary of State will be required to make an order to block or unwind the merger.

We plan for the changes to take immediate effect upon Royal Assent of the DMCC Bill.

This policy is still in active development, but we want to ensure that the new measures do not have any undesired effects on wider foreign investment in UK media or on passive investments made by established investment funds.

The new measures will only apply to foreign states, foreign state bodies and connected individuals, and only to newspapers and news magazines given the unique role these publications play in contributing to the health of our democracy by providing accurate news and information, helping to shape opinions and contributing to political debate.

The UK has a strong track record for encouraging foreign investment which has been critical to growth within the media and wider creative industries. The Government remains committed to encouraging and supporting investment into the UK and we recognise that investors deploying capital into this country rely on the predictability and consistency of our regulatory regime. The UK remains one of the most open economies in the world, which is key for the prosperity and future growth of our nation.


Written Question
Tickets: Touting
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 work with (a) artists, (b) event organizers and (c) primary ticketing platforms to tackle ticket touting.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting fair and transparent ticket pricing and tackling unacceptable behaviour in this market.

We have strengthened the law in relation to ticketing information requirements and have introduced a criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets online than is allowed. We also support the work of enforcement agencies in this area, such as the Competition and Markets Authority, National Trading Standards, and the advertising industry's own regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority.

We engage with a range of key organisations and individuals operating in the ticketing sector to ensure a fair and transparent system. This includes STAR (the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, the self-regulatory body for the entertainment ticketing industry in the UK), the Competition and Markets Authority, Fanfair Alliance (the campaigning body against industrial scale online ticket touting), membership bodies representing all parts of the music sector including artists and event organisers, and, where appropriate, primary and secondary ticketing businesses.

Ultimately, ticket pricing strategies are a matter for event organisers and ticketing platforms. We carry out ongoing monitoring of the legislative landscape in the ticketing market and in the light of technological, enforcement and other market developments, but agree with the recommendation in the Competition and Markets Authority’s 2021 report on secondary ticketing that there should not be a ban on the uncapped secondary ticket market.