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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) furlough and (b) other support provided by her Department to the cultural sector during the covid-19 pandemic on the retention of jobs in that sector.

HM Treasury (HMT) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have published a range of detailed statistics relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. The information can be found on the GOV.UK website. Interim evaluations of these schemes were published in October 2022, and HMT and HMRC plan to publish the final evaluations later this year.

Alongside the support provided by HM Treasury and HMRC, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided over £1.57 billion of funding to the cultural sector during the Covid-19 pandemic through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF). This unprecedented funding supported nearly 220,000 jobs and 5,000 organisations. An evaluation of the CRF was published on the GOV.UK website on 21 April 2023 and includes further details of the support provided to the sector.