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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the guidance entitled Libraries as a statutory service, published on 21 February 2025, whether her Department was informed by Leicester City Council of its plans for a consultation on the future of its library service before that consultation was launched.

Department officials have met with City Council officers on several occasions to understand their public library proposals, as well as their consultation plans and to remind the Council of its statutory duty. This included a meeting on 24th March 2025. The City Council’s consultation on ‘Proposals for Leicester city libraries and community centres’ opened on 2nd April 2025.

The guidance set out in Libraries as a Statutory Service encourages, but does not mandate, councils to inform the department when it is considering changing its library service, before public engagement or consultation.