Nigel Huddleston: As households and communities face rising energy prices, charities are seeing increased demand for their services while contending with the same price increases themselves. With government support, charities have shown significant resilience over the past two years, and will again be crucial in supporting communities and households over the winter. That is why the government will support all...
Nigel Huddleston: Each year, the government invests £18 million into community sport facilities via the Football Foundation, alongside the English Football Association and the Premier League. A further £21 million was invested in England in 2021/22, supporting a range of projects to deliver improved facilities in deprived areas, support multi-sport use and increase participation among currently...
Nigel Huddleston: Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and everyone, regardless of their background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities. Since 2019, the department, through Sport England, has invested 24 grants totalling £171,061 into a wide range of grassroots sport projects within the Hitchin and...
Nigel Huddleston: The Government’s position towards the creation of new museums, as set out in the action plan following The Mendoza Review: an independent review of museums in England, is that public funding should only support the creation of new museums in areas and communities with a demonstrable need for them. Instead we have focused on investment in existing museums and galleries through capital...
Nigel Huddleston: The UNBOXED programme is still running. The live events programme will conclude at the end of October. A departmental Accounting Officer Assessment for the UNBOXED programme was published on 12 August. It stated that our pre-delivery assessment of the costs and benefits for UNBOXED showed the programme would be value for money, even where some expected benefits are not monetisable. DCMS has...
Nigel Huddleston: The UNBOXED programme aims to bring people together and showcase our creativity and innovation to the world through 10 major commissions across the UK. There are 8 commissions that are live or about to go live, and the live events programme will conclude at the end of October. The UNBOXED delivery company, an arm’s length body of DCMS, continues to measure the programme’s progress and...
Nigel Huddleston: I rise humbly and with great sadness to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of my family, my constituents and the people of Worcestershire. The late Queen was an inspiration and an example to us all. She taught us the true meaning of duty, and she reigned and worked for so long and so hard. More than 85% of the population of this country have never known anybody but the Queen as...
Nigel Huddleston: Based on discussions between the Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee and Sport England, my department estimates that over 16,000 items of sports equipment will be given to community organisations in the West Midlands following the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. This includes items such as boxing gloves, martial arts mats, netball bibs, basketballs and T20 cricket equipment as well as a...
Nigel Huddleston: Ensuring that the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games leaves a lasting legacy for the host city and region, and the whole of the UK, has been our top priority in delivering the Games. Birmingham 2022 has played a crucial role in our levelling up agenda, creating opportunities for individuals, communities and businesses all over the UK, from contracts let to businesses, to participation in the...
Nigel Huddleston: We welcome the steps Qatar has taken to date on workers’ rights, with the priority now the full implementation and enforcement of those reforms. We encourage continued close collaboration between the Government of Qatar and International Labour Organization during the second phase of their technical cooperation programme – which runs until the end of 2023. We also welcome continued Qatari...
Nigel Huddleston: The use of lip syncing and pre-recordings as part of performances advertised as being live is a decision for the artist or performer, and a private contractual matter between them and the event organiser. Event organisers, as with all businesses and traders, must comply with consumer rights legislation.
Nigel Huddleston: Volunteering is critical to a vibrant and resilient civil society; it benefits volunteers and the organisations involving them and has transformational impacts on beneficiaries and their communities. This Government is committed to enabling people to take part in all forms of social action, including volunteering. We know the profound benefit that volunteering has on the individual, on...
Nigel Huddleston: The British Museum, along with some other national museums, is prevented by law from deaccessioning objects in their collection. We have no plans to change the law. The Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum are legally owned by the Trustees of the British Museum, which is operationally independent of Government. Decisions relating to the care and management of the museum's collections...
Nigel Huddleston: The fourth round of the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) is expected to launch in Spring 2024. As per the announcement in May 2022, CDF rounds 3 and 4 will see up to £49.4m of further capital investment in innovative cultural and creative projects outside London over the Spending Review period 2022/23 - 2024/25. CDF round 3 was launched in May 2022. Building on the success of the previous two...
Nigel Huddleston: DCMS jointly funds the #iwill Fund together with The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) to provide youth social action opportunities for young people aged 10-20. Over £54m has been jointly invested into the Fund since 2016, which has been matched on at least a 1:1 basis by the delivery organisations, doubling the initial investment. A further £12m of DCMS and TNLCF funding was...
Nigel Huddleston: Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, DCMS Ministers and officials have been in regular contact with their Ukrainian counterparts, international partners and UK cultural institutions regarding the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage. The UK is currently providing financial support through DCMS’s flagship Cultural Protection Fund, a partnership with the British Council....
Nigel Huddleston: The UK has helped to build and lead the international response in this area, including two collective statements signed by 35 or more like-minded nations on Russia’s war on Ukraine and international sport. The UK Government has been proud to facilitate support provided on a sport-to-sport basis between governing bodies in the UK and Ukraine, including in taekwondo, fencing and football. We...
Nigel Huddleston: We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities, including swimming pools, which are great spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities. Sport England has invested £9,564,322 in swimming and diving projects since April 2019, which includes £6,260,502 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100...
Nigel Huddleston: UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation member Lord Andrew Feldman wrote to the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon John Whittingdale, on 26 October 2015 proposing that the Holocaust Memorial be located in Victoria Tower Gardens. Following investigations into the feasibility of this site, the Foundation recommended Victoria Tower Gardens to the Government in January 2016...
Nigel Huddleston: Local planning authorities already have a statutory duty to identify parts of their area that they deem to be of special architectural or historic interest (the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance) and to designate these areas as Conservation Areas. In this context, the value of an area’s social history may be recognised as part of its claims to special...