With the General Election announced and the ‘Wash-Up’ in Parliament beginning, the final session of Questions to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport took place earlier today (May 23rd). Filled with tributes, shout-outs, name checks and many thankful messages from members as the campaign begins and their jobs go on the line once more, Questions this morning were a mix from across the Department’s brief, including local media, swimming facilities, encouraging girls to participate in sports and the future of heritage sites, with members eager to get their questions answered before ministers become candidates once more.
Oral Questions and Topical Questions are regular events asked to government ministers, regarding current events, their work as leaders of their departments and ongoing issues faced in communities across the country. Each government department regularly has questions sessions in The House of Commons, attended by the Secretary of State and other relevant ministers, as well as shadow ministers in His Majesty’s Official Opposition and other opposition parties.
Questions to the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media & Sport earlier today were responded to by Secretary of State Lucy Frazer (Conservative, South East Cambridgeshire), Minister of State for Media, Tourism and Creative Industries Julia Lopez (Conservative, Hornchurch & Upminster) and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Gambling and Civil Society Stuart Andrew (Conservative, Pudsey). All government MPs for this department were present for questions.
Today’s Questions
Oral Questions 1 & 16: “What steps her Department is taking to support local journalism” & “If she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of Government support for local media”
Our first question was combined with one of our last due to the nature of both, with Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour, Slough) and Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat, Orkney & Shetland) both questioning the Department on support available to local journalism (I wonder why we took an interest in these ones!). Responded to by Julia Lopez, she said that the government “are committed to supporting local media as a vital pillar of our local democracy”, referencing the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, as well as the Media Bill (which is currently in the Wash-Up Business), and have “supported local press through tax reliefs and innovation funding”.
This was rebuked by Dhesi, saying that “ the Tories have neglected local news. In 2019 the Cairncross review highlighted the serious challenges facing local journalism, but to date the Government have taken no significant action. Their lack of support, coupled with low wages and job insecurity, is forcing talented journalists out of local news”. Lopez responded, pointing to the Digital Markets Act 2022, which was a “key recommendation of the Cairncross review”, before listing several other schemes and promising to “peaking to the teams about what else [they] can do.
Following this, Carmichael spoke to the “strong local media presence [as] an important bulwark against the relentless centralisation of control, power and government” and his wishes for a wider strategy. This was echoed by Kevin Foster (Conservative, Torbay) and Mark Logan (Conservative, Bolton North East) who each sought protections for local media as a form of holding local government to account, that Lopez concurred with.
Opinion of an Editor
I don’t usually focus on the media aspect of our department as it’s often non-relative to our Arts & Theatre work but seeing as it’s discussing the importance of local media and its uses for holding elected representatives to account, I thought I really ought to make an exception! I think this particular question has both sides to be considered, that of Dhesi and that of the government. On the one hand, Dhesi’s points are incredibly valid. Small, independent publications often rely on help from larger groups, whether this is local councils, governments, devolved administrations, or such as in our own case, student unions. With the current economic climate, it is not surprising that many small and independent media enterprises need help in order to stay afloat, and there is clearly need for more help to keep these publications going.
But it must also be said, the list of help previously offered, as pointed out by Lopez, is quite extensive. The Department has established several schemes aimed at helping out media sources, such as tax relief and advertising spend as she mentioned. There will always be a greater need for support, and the fact that several members asked this question proves there is a cause to be investigated, but this is a matter which the Department seemingly has strong credentials on over the current and previous governments, and we can only hope this will continue under the next administration.
Oral Question 3: “What assessment she has made of the impact of the youth investment fund on opportunities for young people”
Paul Howell (Conservative, Sedgefield) asks our next question, following an opening of a facility for a local Scout group which was made possible partly due to government funding. He asks the Secretary of State whether she would “remind us of the breadth and scope of support that this Conservative Government have given to such organisations?”. Answered by Lucy Frazer herself, she highlighted the governmental “programme to build or refurbish up to 300 youth facilities, supporting 45,000 young people each year…To date, £250 million has been awarded to 227 organisations to build, renovate and expand youth provision”. She also states that her Department has allowed for 30,000 Duke of Edinburgh award places, and “created 250 new uniformed youth groups”.
It was then time for interjections from the Opposition, firstly from Alex Davies-Jones (Labour, Pontypridd) who pointed to Labour Government funding allowing her in her youth to access various arts schemes, and asked Frazer about how she is planning to “safeguard our world-class WNO [Welsh National Opera] and the jobs and opportunities it provides for young people”. This was followed by Shadow Secretary of State Thangam Debbonaire (Labour, Bristol West) who came out fighting, asking if “anyone…on the Tory benches” would tell young people “in Bristol and across the UK that they are better off, after 14 years of Conservative failures on youth services, failures on education and failures on skills development, than they would be under a Government led by Keir Starmer and a changed Labour party?”
Frazer returned to her feet, pointing out first to Davies-Jones that “arts is devolved to Wales, this Government have given £4 million through the Arts Council to Welsh National Opera”, as well as the fact that “Welsh National Opera has been in the top 10% of organisations that have been funded”, with U.K. Government contributions mating that of the Welsh administration. To Debbonaire, Frazer responded that under the Government, “300,000 young people have been given opportunities in the creative industries, which the honourable Member fails to mention. Employment is up in the creative industries” and that her party “voted against our creative industries tax relief every single time”.
Opinion of an Editor
The Wash-Up period in Parliament is one that is filled with emotional tributes from members to each other across party lines, generations and every other dividing factor that exists in the House of Commons. But sadly, with this being the penultimate day before Parliament is prorogued for the General Election, political point-scoring is even more rife than it usually is between the front benches.
Both Secretaries of State here using their questions for sound bites ahead of the impending campaign. Debbonaire knows that her question wouldn’t get an answer — it wasn’t designed to! And Frazer’s response was as equally weighted. I know that questions between the front benches always sound like this, but considering that this was the last DCMS Questions before the election, I’d have hoped that we could have been a little more productive!
Oral Question 5: “What steps her Department is taking to protect and repurpose heritage buildings”
Holly Lynch (Labour, Halifax) rose this time in what was to be her final DCMS Questions, as she is not re-running in this year’s election. She asked the Department what could be done to prevent developers from buying heritage properties, “refusing to invest in them, engage or release them to other interested parties”, and how they could be made to do so. Lopez answered and having “spoke to my noble Friend the heritage Minister [Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay]”, commended the work of local activists and “the work that has gone into it” and pointed Lynch to the cultural development fund.
Opinion of an Editor
Run by Arts Council England, the aforementioned fund is for construction projects of physical spaces for culture and the creative industries to make use of, with the grant ranging from £2 million to £5 million. It’s a fantastic offer that Arts Council England provides and will be incredibly useful to many heritage sites in the country…but it doesn’t address the issue that Lynch brought forward. She asked what could be done to stop developers who buy sites only to do nothing with them.
Well, short of allowing s prospective group to buy a site first or buy it off of said developers, the fund wouldn’t actually be useful for this case. It may solve this individual problem possibly, but doesn’t address the wider issue of developers buying an area only to do nothing worthwhile with it. I have no idea whether Lopez intended to dodge the question or wasn’t fully aware of the situation, but I doubt Lynch’s predicament can be resolved with what the minister suggested.
Topical Question 2: “If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities”
Our final Arts & Theatre question to the Department of Culture, Media & Sport not only of this question time, of this session but indeed of this Parliament was the standard Topical, from Rachel Maclean (Conservative, Redditch). Answered by Secretary of State Lucy Frazer, she began by thanking her ministers in the House of Commons and minister in the House of Lords. She then used the time to go over the Conservatives’ record in Government, with “1 million new jobs since 2010…the economic value of the creative industries has doubled, to over £124 billion in 2022…we have set out a plan to go further, to grow the creative industries by an additional £50 billion and add another million extra jobs by 2030”.
Shadow Minister Chris Bryant (Labour, Rhondda) responded with his own take: “British artists prevented from touring in Europe; the UK art market falling from second to third in the world…museums and galleries struggling with the cost of living; ballerinas told to retrain; theatre and opera touring slashed; and an apprenticeship levy that does not work for the creative industries”. He ended his question asking if the Government, “in the words of RuPaul” would “sashay away”. Frazer told him that they “have supported the creative industries at every level. We have a plan from the first day of primary school to the last day of work”.
Opinion of an Editor
And like that, we reach my final input before the General Election gets underway. And what a way to finish Questions! Two members of the front benches with very different interpretations of the past 14 years of governance. There’s very little for me to say in response to these ones, as they are clear election-sounding questions. Both are true in what they’ve said, neither can be considered as bearing more weight than the other. It’s time to draw to a close what I think on this Parliament, as it’s now for the country to decide.
Full proceedings from May 23rd’s Questions to the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media & Sport are available to stream on BBC iPlayer, or are written in Hansard. The date for the next Oral Questions session to the department will be set following the 2024 General Election
