Written questions by Snowden.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure compliance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, published on 16 December 2016.

My department remains absolutely committed to the highest standards for all public appointments campaigns; DCMS is responsible for over 400 public appointment roles and has handled 80 appointments so far this year. The Department has recently reviewed all DCMS public appointments processes and systems in order to ensure that they are as robust as possible. This included confirming compliance with the revised Governance Code of Public Appointments published on 30 October 2025.

Media and Sport, what processes were followed in the (a) longlisting and (b) shortlisting of candidates for the role of Independent Football Regulator Chair.

All regulated public appointments roles follow the same processes as outlined in the Governance Code for Public Appointments.A full account of the appointment process for the Chair of the Independent Football Regulator is available in the recent report by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2025 to Question 79081 on Tourism, how many Local Visitor Economy Partnerships have been accredited; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of their geographic distribution.

The purpose of the LVEP programme is to attract investment and ultimately drive growth, training, and help places tell their own unique stories to visitors. Through a collaborative approach that unites local authorities, businesses and regional partners, LVEPs enhance the quality of the visitor offer and ensure that the positive impacts of tourism are distributed widely across communities. economy together. 37 Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) are currently accredited across England, covering a broad mix of urban, rural and coastal destinations. In some other places, such as Bedfordshire, LVEPs are still in development. These areas are still working through how best to organise their destination management functions, align multiple local authorities, and secure the long-term funding and governance arrangements required for accreditation. The current geographical distribution reflects a strong spread of partnerships across regions, and the Department continues to work with VisitEngland to provide guidance, regional development support and resources to all destinations. VisitEngland offers dedicated assistance through Regional Development Leads and programme tools to help local areas strengthen governance, build capability and work towards accreditation. This support is available to both accredited and aspiring LVEP areas, including Bedfordshire. LVEP performance is monitored locally through delivery plans and nationally through evaluation by VisitEngland. VisitBritain/VisitEngland’s Business Plan 2025-26 allocated £1.5 million to supporting regional and local growth. This includes working with LVEPs to achieve local growth strategies and supporting the LVEP structure. VisitEngland’s regional leads and the regional pilots in the NorthEast and West Midlands have also benefited from a direct £1.35 million funding boost in 2025/26 to help the regions attract even more tourists and investment to the UK.

Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2025 to Question 79081 on Tourism, what her Department's objectives are for the Local Visitor Economy Partnership programme; and how her Department plans to measure the effectiveness of the programme (a) locally and (b) nationally.

The purpose of the LVEP programme is to attract investment and ultimately drive growth, training, and help places tell their own unique stories to visitors. Through a collaborative approach that unites local authorities, businesses and regional partners, LVEPs enhance the quality of the visitor offer and ensure that the positive impacts of tourism are distributed widely across communities. economy together. 37 Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) are currently accredited across England, covering a broad mix of urban, rural and coastal destinations. In some other places, such as Bedfordshire, LVEPs are still in development. These areas are still working through how best to organise their destination management functions, align multiple local authorities, and secure the long-term funding and governance arrangements required for accreditation. The current geographical distribution reflects a strong spread of partnerships across regions, and the Department continues to work with VisitEngland to provide guidance, regional development support and resources to all destinations. VisitEngland offers dedicated assistance through Regional Development Leads and programme tools to help local areas strengthen governance, build capability and work towards accreditation. This support is available to both accredited and aspiring LVEP areas, including Bedfordshire. LVEP performance is monitored locally through delivery plans and nationally through evaluation by VisitEngland. VisitBritain/VisitEngland’s Business Plan 2025-26 allocated £1.5 million to supporting regional and local growth. This includes working with LVEPs to achieve local growth strategies and supporting the LVEP structure. VisitEngland’s regional leads and the regional pilots in the NorthEast and West Midlands have also benefited from a direct £1.35 million funding boost in 2025/26 to help the regions attract even more tourists and investment to the UK.

Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2025 to Question 79081 on Tourism, how much funding her Department has allocated to support the (a) development and (b) operation of Local Visitor Economy Partnerships in the 2025-26 financial year.

The purpose of the LVEP programme is to attract investment and ultimately drive growth, training, and help places tell their own unique stories to visitors. Through a collaborative approach that unites local authorities, businesses and regional partners, LVEPs enhance the quality of the visitor offer and ensure that the positive impacts of tourism are distributed widely across communities. economy together. 37 Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) are currently accredited across England, covering a broad mix of urban, rural and coastal destinations. In some other places, such as Bedfordshire, LVEPs are still in development. These areas are still working through how best to organise their destination management functions, align multiple local authorities, and secure the long-term funding and governance arrangements required for accreditation. The current geographical distribution reflects a strong spread of partnerships across regions, and the Department continues to work with VisitEngland to provide guidance, regional development support and resources to all destinations. VisitEngland offers dedicated assistance through Regional Development Leads and programme tools to help local areas strengthen governance, build capability and work towards accreditation. This support is available to both accredited and aspiring LVEP areas, including Bedfordshire. LVEP performance is monitored locally through delivery plans and nationally through evaluation by VisitEngland. VisitBritain/VisitEngland’s Business Plan 2025-26 allocated £1.5 million to supporting regional and local growth. This includes working with LVEPs to achieve local growth strategies and supporting the LVEP structure. VisitEngland’s regional leads and the regional pilots in the NorthEast and West Midlands have also benefited from a direct £1.35 million funding boost in 2025/26 to help the regions attract even more tourists and investment to the UK.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support public libraries in Fylde constituency.

Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources. The government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils' Core Spending Power on 2024-25.The Secretary of State announced in February 2025 a further £5.5 million of the Libraries Improvement Fund for 2025-26 to enable library services across England to invest in a range of projects to upgrade buildings and technology.

Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with regional leaders on supporting tourism growth outside London.

DCMS is committed to ensuring that tourism contributes to growth and jobs across all parts of the country and particularly in coastal areas including Fylde, home to attractions including Lytham St Annes and the historic Lytham Hall.A number of regional leaders are represented in the joint industry and Government-led Visitor Economy Advisory Council, which I co-chair. In this way, the views of regional leaders help to inform and shape Government policy. The Council is also helping to deliver the forthcoming sector growth plan which will set out a long term plan to increase visitor flows across the UK, boost value, and deliver sustainable growth.The Lancashire Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), which includes the constituency of Fylde, works collaboratively with both local authority and private sector partners to communicate investment opportunities and to showcase Lancashire’s strengths as a place to live, work, study and invest in, as well as a premier destination for visitors.

Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has provided to help support deaf-led (a) arts and (b) cultural projects in the last 12 months.

The government primarily supports the arts and cultural projects through Arts Council England (ACE). While ACE does not collect data specifically on deaf-led organisations, it does track funding for D/deaf and/or disabled organisations and cultural projects. Since April 2024, these groups have received over £4 million in funding. This includes £363,718 in annual funding to Stagetext, a deaf-led charity who provide accessible captions and subtitles, so that deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing people can access creativity and culture. ACE also funds a number of projects and programmes across England that do not fall within this funding category, but which directly or indirectly benefit the D/deaf community.DCMS is also supporting ACE and the other arts councils in the UK and Ireland to develop All In - an access scheme dedicated to removing barriers and improving the experience of deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people when attending creative and cultural events. All In aims to increase overall attendance by making it easier for people with access requirements to find and book tickets, while also developing standards for creativity and culture that promote quality and consistency across the UK and Ireland; all supported by training and skills development.

Media and Sport, what criteria her Department used to select the delivery areas for the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund; and how often the list of delivery areas is reviewed.

The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund was launched in January 2023 as an up to £30 million package of funding designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England. In April 2025, the KYN Fund was extended until March 2026, with an additional up to £4.5m of government funding.The list of 27 areas eligible for KYN funding was identified using the English Index of Multiple Deprivation and the Community Needs Index. To ensure a balanced distribution between area types, the nine highest-need local authorities were selected from each of the three categories: large urban areas, medium urban areas, and rural and small urban areas. Further information on the selection methodology is publicly available on gov.uk under Annex A of the application guidance for the ‘KYN Fund Intermediary Grant Maker Competition’.The Department does not review the list of KYN Fund delivery areas at specific intervals. This is because organisations within the delivery areas were eligible for funding until the original Fund end date (31 March 2025). In April 2025, the Fund was extended until March 2026, specifically making available uplifts to existing grant awards to organisations in the original 27 eligible delivery areas that had previously received KYN funding between 2022 and 2025. We recognise that we are unable to reach every area in need of support with a fund of this size. A key objective of the Fund, therefore, is learning about what works in these areas. An evaluation of the Fund will therefore be published in due course.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the risk of skin gambling on young people.

Unlicensed skins gambling websites operate illegally outside of the video game ecosystem. Earlier this year, we commissioned independent research to better understand skins gambling and its impact on children and young people. The resulting rapid evidence review on skins gambling was published in September. This review and its conclusions will form part of our consideration when determining what future policy changes may be needed around how to best protect children and young people from skins gambling related harms.

Media and Sport, which towns will be eligible to bid for the UK Town of Culture; and what criteria will be used to define what a town is for the purposes of the competition.

The new UK Town of Culture competition aims to boost civic pride in our towns through recognising their cultural contributions to public life and actively supporting their continued development. Regarding eligibility criteria, we will advise small and medium size towns apply to this new competition, and refer larger towns to the UK City of Culture competition. This, however, will not be mandated and it will be for the places themselves to decide which competition they wish to apply for. We will provide further guidelines and support in due course to ensure all places can confidently engage with the competition.

Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with social media platforms on reducing the advertisement and sale of counterfeit toys online.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the independent regulator for advertising in the UK and enforces the Advertising Codes. These codes include specific rules intended to protect consumers from misleading marketing communications, which would apply to adverts for toys. If advertising includes the omission, exaggeration, or ambiguous presentation of information, it can be considered misleading. The ASA works with online platforms via its Intermediary and Platform Principles to promote greater adherence to the non-broadcast advertising codes, resulting in more responsible advertising online.The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 also requires online marketplaces to exercise professional diligence in relation to consumer transactions promoted or made on their platforms, which would include the sale of toys.  The Government commenced Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Act, which sets out the rules for unfair trading, in April 2025.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help football clubs prepare for the introduction of the Independent Football Regulator.

Following Royal Assent of the Football Governance Act, every effort is being made to ensure that the Independent Football Regulator is up and running as soon as possible. Consistent and extensive engagement has been maintained with football clubs and competition owners throughout the passage of the Football Governance Act. The Department will continue to meet with key stakeholders as the focus transitions to the implementation of the new regime. The Regulator itself is helping prepare the industry for the implementation of the Act. It has started consulting on how the new regime will work and undertaken its first conference to explain how the Regulator will operate, where all clubs from the Premier League to the National League were invited.

Media and Sport, with reference to the press release entitled New youth guarantee for eligible young people and funding for libraries in all primary schools, published on 29 September 2025, whether the funding for new school libraries will include (a) staffing costs, (b) books and (c) technology.

As funding for this initiative will come from the Dormant Assets Scheme over which the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has responsibility, your question has been transferred to my Department.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian.Funding for this programme will come from the £132.5 million that was allocated to increasing disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.The Government will work with The National Lottery Community Fund to co-design the programme and will announce further details in due course, including definitions, eligibility and funding.

Media and Sport, how her Department plans to define a library for the purposes of eligibility under the new primary school library funding scheme.

As funding for this initiative will come from the Dormant Assets Scheme over which the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has responsibility, your question has been transferred to my Department.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian.Funding for this programme will come from the £132.5 million that was allocated to increasing disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.The Government will work with The National Lottery Community Fund to co-design the programme and will announce further details in due course, including definitions, eligibility and funding.

Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Million Hours Fund on organisations in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.

The Million Hours Fund provides youth organisations with funding to deliver over a million additional hours of positive activities for young people in areas where they may be at risk of anti-social behaviour.DCMS and The National Lottery Community Fund launched Phase 3 of the Million Hours Fund on 30th July 2025. This is a £19 million joint investment (£12 million from DCMS and £7 million from The National Lottery Community Fund). The Fund will run until 31 March 2027 and is now closed to applications. The list of wards eligible for funding in Fylde and Lancashire can be found here: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/funding-programmes/million-hours-fund-2025-to-2027/eligible-ward-areas.Nine organisations based in the constituencies of Fylde and Lancashire are receiving up to £406,541 worth of funding as part of previous phases of the Million Hours Fund.An evaluation of the Million Hours Fund is being conducted, which will assess the impact of the Fund on organisations and young people.

Media and Sport, what steps she has taken to ensure that all government buildings (a) are aware of and (b) comply with the guidance on designated days for flying the Union Flag.

Each year, DCMS publishes an annually-reviewed list of the designated days for flying the Union Flag on gov.uk. Government departments are also regularly reminded of flag-flying requirements on occasions such as this year’s VE and VJ Day anniversaries, alongside the encouragement to fly the Union Flag every other day if possible.

Media and Sport, whether the list of designated days for the flying of the Union Flag is kept under regular review; and when the last review took place.

The list of designated days for the flying of the Union Flag is reviewed annually in consultation with No 10 and the Royal Household. The most recent review was completed on 14th March 2025 when the 2025 Designated Days list was published on GOV.UK.

Media and Sport, what criteria she plans to use to determine funding under the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.

The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund is open to bids from accredited museums, museum services and galleries in England that either hold at least one designated collection, or are current Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs).Bids submitted for consideration must meet at least one of the following criteria:Material improvements to the display and interpretation of collections, in permanent galleries, exhibition spaces and public spaces, to enhance visitor experience.Improvements to access and/or interpretation for visitors with disabilities, for children and young people, and/or underrepresented audiences.Improvements to environmental controls, collections storage and conservation facilities to enhance the care of collections.Further balancing criteria and an outline of the assessment process can be found in the application guidance here.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the introduction of Local Visitor Economy Partnerships on tourism levels in (a) England and (b) Lancashire.

Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) work collaboratively at local, regional and national levels on shared priorities and targets to support and grow the visitor economy. Each LVEP sets out how they measure their agreed activities in their annual growth plan. DCMS and VisitEngland continue to monitor the impact of LVEPs by collaborating with them on their identified growth priorities and sharing best practice.