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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

A UK national commemorative event will take place on 1 July at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in France. This is a free ticketed event - the public ballot for tickets opened in September and will run until 18 November. There will be a daily service of remembrance at Thiepval on each of the 141 days of the Battle and a wide programme of events in the UK. Manchester will play a key role in this and I will announce further details shortly.