Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) timeline and (b) criteria are for the 2025 City of Culture bidding process.

All bids for the 2025 UK City of Culture competition will be assessed against the following criteria: eligibility; placemaking; recovery and growth; levelling up; innovation; UK and international collaboration; partnership; legacy; sustainability.

The expression of interest is currently open and closes on July 19. Subsequent key dates include:

• Announcement of the longlist bids in September

• Deadline for the longlist applications in January

• Visits to shortlisted places in spring 2022.

The competition will last for 12 months and we expect to announce the winning city in May 2022. For further details on the competition and bidding process, please visit the GOV.UK website.