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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to (a) support new and emerging talent performing at grassroots music venues and (b) improve funding opportunities.

The Government is committed to supporting emerging musical talent and our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood of our world-leading music sector.

The Government is supporting grassroots music through Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) Supporting Grassroots Live Music (SGLM) ring fenced fund of £1.5m. The fund is designed for organisations - including venues and promoters - with little or no prior experience of public funding applications.

DCMS supported culture, including grassroots music, during Covid-19 through the unprecedented £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund (CRF). In England, the CRF provided immediate assistance to prevent 136 of our most loved and enduring grassroots music venues closing their doors for good.

In addition, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme has provided support to all businesses across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including grassroots music venues, protecting all non-domestic consumers from soaring energy costs, cutting the cost of power bills and providing them with the certainty they needed to plan through the acute crisis this winter. We will continue to do so through the Energy Bills Discount Scheme until Spring 2024.

The Government also supports new and emerging talent through a range of export support programmes, including the successful Music Export Growth Scheme and the International Showcase Fund.

DCMS and the Department for Education jointly published the National Plan for Music Education in June 2022, which sets out the Government’s vision to enable all children and young people in England to have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally.

Finally, DCMS is also developing a Creative Industries Sector Vision that will set out this Government’s ambitions, shared with industry, to support this high-growth sector to 2030.