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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's publication of transactions over £25,000 for April 2023 on 29 June, at what venue her Department's staff conference took place on 25 January; what activities that conference involved; and how many staff from her Department were in attendance.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) staff conference took place at Alexandra Palace, chosen as it represented best value for money after a thorough search and for its links to the department’s policy areas of sport, culture, tourism and the events industry.

Like many large organisations, DCMS manages our staff conference as a cost-effective way of developing skills and training all staff on the latest policy developments, sharing ideas, building their digital skills, and focusing on how they can best support the government’s agenda. The conference was hybrid, bringing the benefits of being together face to face, with the accessibility of online.

The conference featured talks, panels and Q&A sessions focused on the department’s delivery priorities for 2023, learnings from the major events the Department delivered in 2022 such as the Commonwealth Games and Platinum Jubilee. Sessions also included how to harness the benefits of 5G, how to work effectively as one team in pursuit of shared objectives as well as a short annual staff awards that recognised the huge contribution our people make to public service.

In total 1,665 colleagues attended the hybrid event.