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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government became aware that UK cities would not be able to bid to be named European Capital of Culture; and when this was communicated to those cities that were so bidding.

The European Commission wrote to the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 22 November 2017. A copy of the letter has been placed in the Library. The five candidate cities were informed of the European Commission’s decision on 23 November 2017.