Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will instruct the Royal Parks to adjust the barriers at the Buxton Memorial Fountain in Victoria Tower Gardens to allow access to the east of the Fountain by the Thames wall.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Royal Parks have full operational responsibility for the Buxton Memorial Fountain and the barriers which have been erected for the duration of essential repairs to it. A temporary footpath has been constructed around the memorial, so that access to the Embankment path remains.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department holds information on when barriers were erected around the Buxton memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens; for what reason those barriers were erected; and how long they will remain in place.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Barriers were erected around the Buxton memorial in April 2023, in order to protect the monument ahead of and during essential structural repairs needed to maintain it. They will remain in place until completion of the repairs, which has an estimated date of July 2024.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much public funding the English National Opera received in each of the last 15 years; and what discussions his Department had with Arts Council England on funding that organisation (a) over the next three years and (b) in the long term; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Records of the level of public funding for English National Opera are available in its annual accounts, which are published online on the Companies House website.
Following Arts Council England’s decisions relating to English National Opera and its 2023–26 Investment Portfolio, which are taken at arm’s length from the Government, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is helping to convene relevant parties and support them to find a way forward. I am keen that Arts Council England and English National Opera work together on the future of the organisation.
All decisions on which organisations to fund through the 2023–26 Investment Programme, and by how much, have been taken by Arts Council England in line with the long-standing principle that Arts Council England makes such decisions at arm’s length from the Government. The Chief Executive of Arts Council England, Darren Henley, answered questions from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on these issues on 8 December 2022.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on what date following the publication in September 2015 of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation briefing entitled Search for a Central London site did their Department become aware of the plan to site the memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
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 as the best choice of site. The then Prime Minister accepted this recommendation and announced Victoria Tower Gardens as the chosen site on Holocaust Memorial Day 2016.