Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is steps taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for cultural activities in Nottingham.
Answered by John Whittingdale
His Majesty’s Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality arts and cultural opportunities and activities, no matter where they live. We have supported culture in Nottingham in a variety of ways.
Between 2020/21 and 2023/24, Arts Council England will have invested over £30 million in arts and cultural organisations in Nottingham. As part of its 2023–26 National Portfolio, public funding is being provided to 14 organisations in Nottingham encompassing theatre, dance, museums, visual arts, literature and libraries. This funding includes over £1.2 million per year to New Art Exchange, the highly successful visual arts centre.
As part of the above funding, Nottingham City Council’s museum service was reconfirmed as a National Portfolio Organisation in the latest round of funding, meaning it will receive £1.4 million over the next three years. A number of the local projects which it directly funds are aimed at encouraging more people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and diverse backgrounds to engage with the city’s heritage. The independent National Justice Museum is also part of the Arts Council’s National Portfolio and will receive £733,000 of support over the period 2023–26.
Another of the City Council Museums, Wollaton Hall, has this year received £470,000 from the Government’s Museum Estate and Development Fund for assistance with maintenance, whilst Nottingham libraries have received funding through both rounds 1 and 2 of the Government’s Libraries Improvement Fund.
Nottingham Castle Museum’s recent transformation was funded in part by a £13.9 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme also remains open for funding bids from anyone operating arts and cultural organisations in England.
The recent announcement of the third round of the Government’s Levelling Up Fund included support for Bulwell, which will be receiving almost £20 million of public investment for Bulwell town centre – including a new marketplace, and aiming to improve the look and feel of hidden heritage by reinstating original features.
Organisations in Nottingham also benefited from the Culture Recovery Fund to protect them during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 39 organisations sharing over £10.5 million of funding.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times and on what dates she has attended meetings of the Expert Advisory Panel on Cultural Education.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Cultural Education Plan will ensure that all young people, regardless of their background, can access high-quality cultural education. Among other things, this is an important step in delivering our Creative Careers Promise, set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which aims to build a pipeline of talent into our creative industries, from primary school onwards.
Development of the plan is being led by a panel of 22 experts, including teachers and education leaders, and representatives from the performing arts, libraries, museums, heritage and youth sectors, and the creative industries. While development of the Cultural Education Plan is being driven by the Expert Advisory Panel, the Minister for Arts & Heritage (Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay) and the former Minister for Schools (Nick Gibb MP) have attended panel meetings on multiple occasions.
Furthermore, the panel is being informed by a series of 50 listening exercises with representatives from across the creative, cultural, education and youth sectors. Lord Parkinson joined one of these listening exercises held at the Royal Opera House with teachers and educationalists from across the country.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage schools to offer (a) physical activity and (b) the arts to engage with children and young people not regularly in school.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Regular attendance at school is vital for children's education, wellbeing and long-term development. The foundation of securing good attendance is that school is a calm, orderly, safe, and supportive environment where all pupils want to be and are keen and ready to learn. This includes the positive impact that the curriculum as a whole can have to support children's attendance and engagement.
The government published the School Sport and Activity Action Plan update in July. The action plan is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-sport-and-activity-action-plan. It sets out next steps and further detail for school leaders and teachers on how the government will support them to improve the quality of PE and school sport and to deliver 2 hours of PE a week. This will help all pupils to engage in physical activity and meet the Chief Medical Officers’ recommendations of 60 active minutes a day.
The government published the National Plan for Music Education last year, setting a clear expectation on schools to deliver 1 hour a week of timetabled music for key stages 1 to 3, alongside opportunities to learn to sing, play an instrument, and take part in choirs and ensembles. This is backed by £79 million of funding per year for Music Hubs to 2025 and £25 million for music instruments. The plan is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-power-of-music-to-change-lives-a-national-plan-for-music-education.
The government expects all schools to teach a broad and ambitious curriculum that encompasses the arts, such as art and design, drama and dance. The department will be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in the coming months, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. The Plan will focus on how the government can support participation and progression in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she has taken to promote the cultural heritage of the Irish diaspora in England in (a) general and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
His Majesty’s Government has supported a number of projects looking at the cultural heritage of the Irish diaspora through its arm’s-length bodies.
Arts Council England supported the Irish Arts Foundation on its 'Exploring the musical traditions of County Cork & County Kerry' project in Leeds, providing over £20,000 of public funding in 2021/22.
In 2022/23, The National Lottery Community Fund provided £7,950 of funding to Leeds Irish Arts Foundation’s ‘Neighbours!’ project, to help engage people from around West Yorkshire in Irish music and workshops to celebrate Irish culture, music and arts. In 2023/24, The National Lottery Community Fund provided £6,421 of funding to Cú Chulainn’s to deliver a family funday to bring young people and families from the local Irish community and the community more broadly together.
Since 1994, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded almost £3 million to projects which have explored the history of the Irish diaspora in England, covering themes such as the World Wars, aspects of culture shared with others, and the experiences of those who have built their lives here in the UK.
‘Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain’ is an ambitious heritage project which captures the history of the Irish in Britain’s membership organisations and the communities they serve, and is currently touring. This exhibition was made possible with a £250,000 Lottery grant.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of rising prices on the financial position of (a) arts organisations, (b) heritage organisations and (c) charities.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government continues to assess the impact of rising prices on arts, heritage and charitable organisations, and has taken action to support organisations in these sectors.
Arts Council England, the arm’s-length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport responsible for funding arts organisations, continues to monitor the situation through regular conversations with National Portfolio Organisations. Relevant insights are then shared with DCMS through our regular engagement with Arts Council England.
The Heritage Pulse Survey, conducted by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Historic England, also regularly shares updates and insights on heritage organisations. The department will keep engaging constructively across both sectors to monitor the impact of higher costs.
The Government has acted to support arts, heritage and charitable organisations, including through the Energy Bill Discount Scheme, which continues to support all organisations with their energy bills until 31 March 2024.
We also recognise that charities are seeing higher levels of demand for their services. That is why in the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced a package of over £100 million for charities and community organisations in England. This funding is split into two strands and is supporting organisations in need right now. The £76 million Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund has closed for applications, and is awarding funding to frontline organisations supporting vulnerable individuals and households. The second strand, the £25 million VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme, will support longer-term sustainability, and will launch later this year for applications.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their definition of "cultural education" as referred to in the published terms of reference for the Cultural Education Plan Expert Advisory Panel.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The published terms of reference for the cultural education plan expert advisory panel, sets out that cultural education sits at the heart of an enriching and fulfilling curriculum for pupils. A broad and balanced curriculum includes arts and heritage in the range of subjects taught, and in wider co and extracurricular activities.
The breadth and depth of cultural education is demonstrated by, but not exclusive to, the following: visual arts, music, craft, dance, design, digital arts and gaming, drama and theatre, film and cinema, galleries, heritage, libraries, literature and poetry, live performance, museums, and archaeology, architecture and the built environment, and archives.
This plan will focus on how the department can support access and participation in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also further support young people who wish to pursue careers in our creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 support arts and music organisations following the UK's departure from Creative Europe.
Answered by John Whittingdale
His Majesty’s Government recognises the great value of the UK’s world-leading creative sectors. The creative industries continue to thrive and are a key high-growth sector of our economy, as well as bringing great joy and wellbeing to people’s lives. The sector contributed £108 billion to the economy in 2021, accounting for 6% of UK GVA, and employed 2.3 million people – 7% of the total UK workforce – with employment growth increasing at almost five times the rate of the economy more widely since 2011.
Since leaving the EU, the UK is no longer part of the Creative Europe programme. The Government decided not to seek continued participation in the Creative Europe programme, but to look at other, more targeted ways of supporting the UK’s cultural and creative sectors.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund delivers on a commitment to match EU funding across all four nations of the UK and gives local people control of how their money is spent, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and enabling them to invest in the cultural organisations that particularly matter to them.
Similarly, the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund invests in local infrastructure projects which improve life for people across the UK, focusing on regeneration, local transport, and supporting cultural, creative and heritage assets. The second round of the Fund was announced in January 2023, and included more than £16 million for a new Production Village in Hartlepool, for instance, providing new jobs and opportunities in the creative industries and boosting the local economy.
Arts Council England supports the Four Nations International Fund, launched in 2021. This supports people working in the arts and creative industries across the UK, together with their counterparts in Europe and beyond.
This is in addition to support given through the Government's extension of the higher rates of theatre and orchestra tax relief for a further two years, as announced at the last Budget. This extension will continue to offset ongoing pressures and boost investment in our cultural sectors. Collectively, the two-year extension to the higher rates of theatre, orchestra and museums tax reliefs is estimated to be worth £350m over the five-year forecast period.
To support independent screen content – including film – to grow internationally, the Government launched the UK Global Screen Fund in April 2021 with initial funding of £7 million. We have committed a further £21 million to this Fund over the period 2022–25 to develop, distribute, and promote independent UK screen content in international markets.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has of the potential merits of the UK participating in Creative Europe.
Answered by John Whittingdale
His Majesty’s Government recognises the great value of the UK’s world-leading creative sectors. The creative industries continue to thrive and are a key high-growth sector of our economy, as well as bringing great joy and wellbeing to people’s lives. The sector contributed £108 billion to the economy in 2021, accounting for 6% of UK GVA, and employed 2.3 million people – 7% of the total UK workforce – with employment growth increasing at almost five times the rate of the economy more widely since 2011.
Since leaving the EU, the UK is no longer part of the Creative Europe programme. The Government decided not to seek continued participation in the Creative Europe programme, but to look at other, more targeted ways of supporting the UK’s cultural and creative sectors.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund delivers on a commitment to match EU funding across all four nations of the UK and gives local people control of how their money is spent, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and enabling them to invest in the cultural organisations that particularly matter to them.
Similarly, the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund invests in local infrastructure projects which improve life for people across the UK, focusing on regeneration, local transport, and supporting cultural, creative and heritage assets. The second round of the Fund was announced in January 2023, and included more than £16 million for a new Production Village in Hartlepool, for instance, providing new jobs and opportunities in the creative industries and boosting the local economy.
Arts Council England supports the Four Nations International Fund, launched in 2021. This supports people working in the arts and creative industries across the UK, together with their counterparts in Europe and beyond.
This is in addition to support given through the Government's extension of the higher rates of theatre and orchestra tax relief for a further two years, as announced at the last Budget. This extension will continue to offset ongoing pressures and boost investment in our cultural sectors. Collectively, the two-year extension to the higher rates of theatre, orchestra and museums tax reliefs is estimated to be worth £350m over the five-year forecast period.
To support independent screen content – including film – to grow internationally, the Government launched the UK Global Screen Fund in April 2021 with initial funding of £7 million. We have committed a further £21 million to this Fund over the period 2022–25 to develop, distribute, and promote independent UK screen content in international markets.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 ensure the adequacy of funding for cultural activities for (a) adults and (b) children in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
HM Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality arts and culture opportunities and activities, regardless of their background or where they live.
With the encouragement of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England has developed Priority Places and Levelling Up for Culture Places to address historic imbalances in investment. As part of this, priority places receive dedicated Arts Council staff resources to build capacity locally. The London Borough of Enfield is a Priority Place.
Since 2019/20, Arts Council England has invested almost £4 million in the Enfield North constituency. This funding includes £227,000 to ‘Building Enfield's Creative Capacity', a collaborative project delivering programmes of creative activity between July 2023 and March 2024 which celebrates Enfield’s industrial heritage and explores its future industrial identity through specialist art commissions, participatory workshops, open studios, exhibitions, public artworks, and community theatre co-produced with local people. In addition, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme remains open for funding bids from anyone operating arts and cultural activities for the local community in Enfield North.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Art, Craft and Design in Education entitled Art Now, published on 27 June 2023, whether her Department is taking steps to improve the quality of primary Initial Teacher Education for art and design related subjects.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in providing a high quality education for all pupils, and integral to this is cultural education, including teaching music and the wider arts. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department will continue to invest around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through the music, arts, and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education (NPME) in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The NPME was jointly published with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in June 2022, and sets out a vision for music education to 2030 – to enable all pupils to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally.
The Department will also publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with DCMS and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support pupils who wish to pursue careers in creative and cultural industries.
High quality teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for pupils. The Department therefore published the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) in November 2019. The CCF, alongside the Early Career Framework, establishes an entitlement to a three or more year structured package of support for future generations of teachers.
The CCF has been designed to cover the content required by trainee teachers irrespective of subject or phase, though there is a strong emphasis on the need for training to be subject and phase specific.
Qualified Teacher Status continues to be awarded at the end of ITT against the Teachers’ Standards, which are reflected in the design of the CCF. Standard 3 requires teachers to ‘have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings’.