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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to promote cooperation between cities that have won UK or European City of Culture competitions to raise cultural awareness across the UK.

The UK City of Culture and European Capital of Culture programmes are designed to use culture as a catalyst for economic and social regeneration and to raise the profile of arts and creativity locally, nationally and internationally. Success in these competitions also helps areas to develop a broader high quality arts and culture sector, as well as attract increased business investment and boost tourism. DCMS is using the competitions now running to identify the UK City of Culture 2021 and European Capital of Culture 2023 to highlight these benefits to local areas, including through briefing events that bring together areas that have bid in previous competitions.