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 promote Morris dancing in England.

• The UK ratified the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in March 2024.

• Intangible Cultural Heritage, also known as living heritage, includes the folklore, performance, customs and crafts that play an important role in the identity, pride, and cohesion of communities across the UK, and includes traditions such as Morris dancing.

• The Government is committed to ensure the safeguarding of living heritage and as a first step of implementing the Convention will be creating, with the Devolved Governments, an inventory of living heritage in the UK later this year.

• We would expect this to include Morris dancing.