There will be a Backbench business debate on the Spending of the Department for Digital, Culture and Media and Sport on support measures for DCMS sectors during and after the Covid-19 pandemic on 8 October 2020. The Library has prepared the following background material.

On 5 July 2020, the DCMS and Treasury announced a £1.57 billion funding package for cultural, arts and heritage institutions. This included:

  • £1.15 billion support pot for cultural organisations in England delivered through a mix of grants and loans. This will be made up of £270 million of repayable finance and £880 million grants.
  • £100 million of targeted support for the national cultural institutions in England and the English Heritage Trust.
  • £120 million capital investment to restart construction on cultural infrastructure and for heritage construction projects in England which was paused due to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • The new funding will also mean an extra £188 million for the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland (£33 million), Scotland (£97 million) and Wales (£59 million).

A Cultural Renewal Taskforce, involving various working groups, was set up by the DCMS in May 2020. A range of guidance documents for specific sectors are available from the DCMS pages on Gov.UK.

In July 2020, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published a report (HC 291) on the impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors.  In a news release of 24 September 2020, Julian Knight, the Chair of the Committee, urged the Government to take immediate action to enable the cultural and sporting sectors to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Further material on DCMS sectors and Covid-19 is available from the parliamentary database.

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