Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding is available for arts and culture in rural areas.
Answered by John Whittingdale
As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, HM Government is committed to ensuring that funding for arts and culture is more fairly distributed across the country. Arts Council England’s 2023–26 investment programme (the ‘National Portfolio’), worth over £444 million per year, has seen investment to cultural organisations in rural areas increase to £44.6 million, benefiting 110 organisations across the country.
In local authority areas identified as predominantly rural, there has been a 22% increase in investment in National Portfolio Organisations and Investment Principles Support Organisations. Urban areas with significant rural portions have seen an increase of 37%.
Cultural opportunities are also provided in rural areas by organisations based in neighbouring urban areas – for instance, through touring. Public library services in the Arts Council’s National Portfolio with a base in urban areas are also important to cultural opportunities in rural locations. The National Rural Touring Forum has also had its funding increased to help build capacity in this important part of the sector.
Arts Council England has also supported approximately 30 Cultural Compacts across England – including in rural and Levelling Up priority areas – and has provided these existing Compacts with further funding to build capacity and long-term cross-sector relationships. (Cultural Compacts are partnerships between the cultural and heritage sectors, Local Authorities, and wider local partners such as universities, health agencies, and the private sector, with the aim of enhancing creatives’ contribution to local development.)
Additionally, arts and cultural organisations in rural areas are able to access Arts Council England’s project grants, an open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. This supports thousands of individual artists and community and cultural organisations, with over £105 million of funding awarded in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, DCMS’s £86 million Museum Estate and Development Fund has supported several museums in rural areas, including The Food Museum in Stowmarket which presents the agricultural history of East Anglia, the industrial museums Papplewick Pumping Station and Coldharbour Mill, Shandy Hall, the rural home of the writer Laurence Sterne, and Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 ensure the adequacy of funding for cultural activities for (a) adults and (b) children in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
HM Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality arts and culture opportunities and activities, regardless of their background or where they live.
With the encouragement of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England has developed Priority Places and Levelling Up for Culture Places to address historic imbalances in investment. As part of this, priority places receive dedicated Arts Council staff resources to build capacity locally. The London Borough of Enfield is a Priority Place.
Since 2019/20, Arts Council England has invested almost £4 million in the Enfield North constituency. This funding includes £227,000 to ‘Building Enfield's Creative Capacity', a collaborative project delivering programmes of creative activity between July 2023 and March 2024 which celebrates Enfield’s industrial heritage and explores its future industrial identity through specialist art commissions, participatory workshops, open studios, exhibitions, public artworks, and community theatre co-produced with local people. In addition, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme remains open for funding bids from anyone operating arts and cultural activities for the local community in Enfield North.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 safeguard the UK's industrial heritage.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with Ministers in the Department for Education of the role of industrial cultural heritage in attracting young people into STEM subjects.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what (a) programmes and (b) bodies her Department provides funding to for the promotion of the UK's industrial heritage.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to promote the UK's industrial heritage (a) in the North East and (b) across the UK.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason York was not chosen as the location for the Great British Railways National Headquarters; and what weighting was given to the level of industrial skills among the local workforce in each candidate location in deciding the final location.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The decision was made by the Secretary of State for Transport based on the assessment of EOI applications against the six published selection criteria (alignment to levelling up principles; connected and easy to get to; opportunities for GBR; value for money; railway heritage and links to the network; and public support) and the result of the public vote. Derby’s application scored the highest in the critical assessment conducted by officials and attracted the most public votes.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Department has made of the (a) feasibility and (b) contribution to the national heritage of continuing the use of stamps without barcodes after 31 July 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The development of stamp products is an operational matter for Royal Mail. The Government is not involved in the operational decisions of Royal Mail, a private business.
Royal Mail is not barcoding special stamp issues, which are printed to commemorate a person or event.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January to Question 126656 on Parks, for what reason the Park Action Group has not met since 2019; when it is scheduled to meet; and if he will publish the membership of the Group.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As per my answer of 26 January 2023, the Government recognises that parks and green spaces are vital to communities and the people they serve, which is why the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund (LUPF) announced in August 2021 as part of the Levelling Up agenda will help to increase accessibility to quality green space across the UK, and level up areas which are most deprived of green space and provide communities with a place to come together.
The department continues to engage with relevant stakeholders.
The membership of the Park Action Group were: Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Home Office (HO), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE), Fields in Trust, Local Government Association (LGA), Parks Alliance, Natural England, National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces (NFPGS), Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), Groundwork, National Trust, Keep Britain Tidy, National Association of Local Councils (NALC), Parks Practitioner, Public Health England and Sport England.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answers of 28 September 2022 and 8 November 2022 to Questions 51588 and 74620 on Coal: Mining, what the evidential basis is for stating that there may continue to be domestic demand for coal in industries such as steel, cement and for heritage railways in the context of his Department having not produced estimates of future coal use by industry.
Answered by Graham Stuart
A breakdown of coal usage trends can be found in Chapter Two of the Digest of UK Energy Statistics: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes-2022.