Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the unification of England next year.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There are no plans at present for the Government to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the unification of England.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will review the Answer her Department provided to Question 99845 on 18 December 2025, with reference to the Answer provided to Question 99844 on 8 January 2026.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We have corrected the answer to PQ 99845 and apologise for the error.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason employment and wage costs have increased at the Gambling Commission since April 2017.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Since April 2017, the Gambling Commission’s headcount has increased to maintain its capacity and capability to regulate a growing sector, which is subject to heightened public scrutiny. The Commission has also, like other public bodies, awarded its staff inflationary pay increases which are consistent with the Civil Service Pay Remit. Costs have also increased due to higher statutory pension and National Insurance contributions.
Other factors which have created an increase in employment costs include the Fourth National Lottery Licence competition and transition, and the Commission's delivery of commitments from the 2023 Gambling White Paper
In recent years the Commission has also increased its investment in enforcement and intelligence to tackle illegal gambling, and strengthened its anti-money laundering and sports betting integrity functions.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the drivers of and reasons for the almost trebling of the wage and salary costs of Arts Council England since April 2017.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Arts Council England (ACE) is an arms-length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). As such, ACE is responsible for its own operational matters, including wage and salary costs. Nevertheless, they are in scope of the Cabinet Office annual pay remit guidance and, as the sponsoring department, DCMS oversees ACE's activities to ensure adherence to that central guidance and the principles of Managing Public Money.
It is important to note that an accounting adjustment impacts any comparison between reported staff costs between April 2017 and March 2025 as presented in the accounts. The accounts in 16/17 are not directly comparable to other years, as the figure is reduced by £3m due to an unutilised pension provision.
Nevertheless, staff costs have increased over the period. This reflects some headcount growth (in part to support new funding initiatives as well as improved approaches to counter-fraud, cyber security, governance, and data reporting), and pay awards limited to those allowable by the Cabinet Office pay remit.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport operates a continual performance management approach throughout the year, which includes data on those not meeting performance expectations through the Managing Poor Performance process.
There is no common definition of ‘top performance’ across Government, and we do not hold performance data for top performers for staff below SCS level at this time.
For Senior Civil Servants, DCMS follows the SCS framework for performance management. There are four possible ratings available with the top marking being ‘Exceeding’. Given the relatively small number of Senior Civil Servants in scope of the process, sharing the number and proportion of those receiving the top box marking could be disclosive and is therefore being suppressed.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.
The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This information is not held centrally. This data is difficult to present due to there being no definition of an “in-grade promotion” and limited data on staff who go on promotion to another department. Collation and presentation of this data could potentially require significant manual work and data linking across departments.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the last twelve months.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In the last 12 months, there have been 6 disciplinary cases that have concluded within DCMS. All related to an allegation of misconduct.
We cannot provide the outcome of closed disciplinary cases. Doing so would breach the Data Protection Act and risk identifying individual cases where the case count is five or less, as the information relates to someone other than the data subjects.
DCMS does not hold information regarding its agencies, including its arms-length and public bodies. This is because they are independent employers from the department.
Poor performance is addressed under a separate management procedure.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
For the last financial year, the total cost to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in Annual Report and Accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.
The DCMS Annual Report and Accounts for 2024/25 can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the net expenditure of her Department was on projects related to cultural diplomacy in the last financial year.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS works with a range of partners and ALBs to deliver on the Government’s cultural diplomacy and soft power objectives, including the FCDO, British Council, and GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland campaign. As such, the department’s direct spending on cultural diplomacy is limited to a small number of cultural diplomacy-related projects each year, including those delivered through the Government Art Collection. Net expenditure for the last financial year on projects related to cultural diplomacy stood at £66,329.