Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what were the objectives of the funding provided by the British Council to the DRAGOSLAVIA festival in June 2022.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following an open call for participants for the British Council's Creative Producers programme, and subsequent competitive grant allocation process, Dragoslavia festival was awarded £10,700 by the British Council.
The FCDO strongly supports the British Council's promotion of UK values overseas, including support for LGBT+ rights, through its work in education, the English language, as well as through Arts and Culture
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much funding was provided by the British Council to the DRAGOSLAVIA festival in June 2022.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following an open call for participants for the British Council's Creative Producers programme, and subsequent competitive grant allocation process, Dragoslavia festival was awarded £10,700 by the British Council.
The FCDO strongly supports the British Council's promotion of UK values overseas, including support for LGBT+ rights, through its work in education, the English language, as well as through Arts and Culture
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department has provided for events held in Northern Ireland, in each of the last three years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport funded the £120 million UK-wide festival, UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. This comprised 10 major creative projects across the United Kingdom which delivered physical events at 107 locations as well as digital, broadcast and learning activities. Funding was allocated to the devolved administrations, including the Northern Ireland Executive, via the Barnett formula. While this funding was awarded as a block grant via the Barnett formula, the National Audit Office reported that the Northern Ireland Executive allocated £3.5 million to its strategic delivery body, which, in turn, commissioned the project.
One of the 10 UNBOXED projects, ‘Our Place In Space’, was commissioned by Belfast City Council on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive, with stagings in Londonderry and Belfast. In addition to the Barnett allocation, ‘Our Place In Space’ received £120,000 (including VAT) for research and development during the 2020/21 financial year and a further £351,000 for R&D in the 2021/22 financial year. Additional investment by the UNBOXED Company enabled the popular sculpture trail to be mounted in Cambridge and Liverpool: ~£391,000 in the 2021/22 financial year and ~£1.72 million in the 2022/23 financial year.
Four additional UK-wide UNBOXED projects took place in Northern Ireland throughout 2022, although the Department does not hold a breakdown of how much it cost to stage those commissions in each location.
During the 2021/22 financial year, DCMS also provided £40,000 to Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council to support the development of its UK City of Culture 2025 bid, alongside seven other places across the UK longlisted for the competition.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are having discussions with the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, and other partners regarding (1) cultural cinema programme activity in Edinburgh, and (2) the 2023 Edinburgh International Film Festival, following the closure of the Edinburgh Film House.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Cultural cinema programme activity in Edinburgh is a matter for the Scottish Government, since this is a devolved policy area. Following the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) going into administration in October 2022, Screen Scotland purchased the intellectual property for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
DCMS officials have spoken to the British Film Institute (BFI) about this issue. The BFI operates UK-wide and has a close working relationship with Creative Scotland and its dedicated screen agency, Screen Scotland. Throughout the period covered by the British Film Institute’s previous corporate strategy, British Film Institute 2022, Screen Scotland has been its delivery partner for the National Lottery-backed British Film Institute NETWORK programme, Short Circuit. The British Film Institute’s new strategy, Screen Culture 2033, is UK-wide and Scotland-based applicants are able to apply for applicable National Lottery funds.
Asked by: Baroness Nye (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to impose aviation fuel sanctions on the Burmese military following the most recent air attack by the Tatmadaw on a music festival that killed 80 and injured hundreds.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In response to the Myanmar military's airstrikes in Kachin State, which killed a large number of innocent civilians, the British Embassy in Yangon joined a statement with the US, Canadian, Australian, EU, Norwegian and Swiss embassies to condemn the attacks.
The UK is exploring both sanction and non-sanction measures to tackle the Myanmar military's air capabilities and ability to target civilians. On 28 February 2022, the UK updated its Overseas Business Risk Guidance to make it clear that UK businesses should conduct thorough supply chain due diligence to ensure that commodities such as aviation fuel do not reach the Myanmar military.
Since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, the UK Government has imposed 12 tranches of sanctions targeting the military's leadership, and its access to revenue, arms and military equipment.
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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government is taking steps to support artists and performers from Ukraine.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The sectors which DCMS supports have been a key player in the UK’s response to the war in Ukraine. This has included severely restricting Russian and Belarussian state organisations’ participation in cultural events, public shows of solidarity with Ukraine from cultural organisations, and the cancellation of high-profile exhibitions and tours to the UK. DCMS is continuing to work with the cultural sector to understand the impacts of the situation and, where appropriate, is engaging with other government departments. Ministers and officials have held meetings with sector representatives to discuss this directly. The Secretary of State and Minister for Arts have met members of the Ukrainian Government, Oleksandr Tkachenko and Kateryna Chuyeva, either virtually or in person, and regular communication is ongoing.
The British Council’s planned UK-Ukraine Season of Culture is going ahead from June-November 2022 and will involve British and Ukrainian artists, creative sectors, and educators. It will celebrate 30 years of formal diplomatic dialogue between the UK and Ukraine. The programme will advance knowledge of Ukraine in the UK, position the country’s cultural achievements, and create opportunities for Ukrainian creatives to develop lasting partnerships with their UK counterparts. Partnerships include Screen Ukraine at Sheffield Doc Fest, a Ukrainian programme at Edinburgh International Festival, and Ukrainian writers at Cheltenham Literature Festival, as well as grant opportunities for artists and organisations.
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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will create a listings directory of community events occurring across the country, including York's community Viking Festival, to encourage staycations and visits from families across the UK.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Currently, we are focusing on tourism recovery and returning to pre-pandemic domestic tourism levels of 99 million overnight trips and spend of £19 billion by the end of 2022. Tourism Recovery targets set out in the Tourism Recovery Plan were deliberately ambitious in an effort to do as much as possible to return to pre-pandemic levels ahead of independent forecasts.
VisitEngland launched the next phase of its domestic marketing campaign, Escape the Everyday, in February. The campaign will focus on cities as they are impacted by lower numbers of international visitors and it will target a ‘pre-nester’ audience (18-34 year olds), encouraging them to book a short city-break.
2022 also promises a host of unmissable events, including Her Majesty’s Jubilee, with a programme of events over the extended Jubilee Bank holiday; Unboxed, which aims to engage millions of people through in person and digital events; as well as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will drive domestic and international visitors to the region.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the success of Festival UK 2022 will be assessed.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The evaluation of the UNBOXED programme (formerly known as Festival UK* 2022) is led and managed by the company Festival 2022 Ltd. Festival 2022 Ltd has commissioned KPMG (in collaboration with Sound Diplomacy) to oversee, project-manage, and lead the evaluation of UNBOXED.
As part of this evaluation, KPMG will consider seven major outcomes. These include the creation of engagement opportunities and shared experiences, increasing social cohesion across the four nations of the UK, and supporting international collaboration as well as enhancing our reputation abroad.
KPMG will evaluate each UNBOXED project against these outcomes. Preliminary findings from this evaluation will be published in early 2023.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a break down of expenditure by Creative Wales on each commissioned event taking place in Wales including (a) GALWAD, (b) About Us, (c) Green Space, Dark Skies, (d) StoryTrails and (e) Dreamachine, as part of the Unboxed festival.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is delivered at arm’s length from the government by a subsidiary of the Organising Committee of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, alongside a strategic delivery body appointed by each of the devolved administrations. Creative Wales, the delivery body acting on behalf of the Welsh Government, is responsible for commissioning GALWAD, Wales’s lead UNBOXED project.
As well as GALWAD, four more UNBOXED projects will present work in Wales: About Us, Green Space Dark Skies, StoryTrails and Dreamachine. These have been funded by the UK Government. Creative Wales is providing general advice and support to those projects in Wales. The individual commission values for the projects funded by HM Government have not been published at this time, but will be released in due course. The first UNBOXED project, About Us, visited Caernarfon earlier this month, where it was seen by around 16,000 people.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish any correspondence between her Department and the Prime Minister's Office on (a) Great Exhibition 2, (b) Festival UK* 2022, (c) Unboxed and (d) the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS corresponds regularly with the Prime Minister’s Office on a wide range of issues relating to the department’s portfolio. DCMS does not routinely publish this correspondence.