Speeches by Midgley.

“Do you think that things like the Hay Festival, the National Year of Reading and the Tour de France, as you talked about, can be seen as a bit of a “nice to have” rather than “this is essential”, so slip a bit down the to-do priority list for other Departments?”

“How would you make sure that those opportunities are not missed in the future, going back and having that learning?”

“Okay. A final thing from me to the officials. How do you manage the resources of the Department to make sure that the surge impact of major events does not detract from other priorities?”

“Good morning and thank you all for coming in. Continuing from the Chair’s question there, Steph, you talked about co-ordination in an earlier question, and, Jonathan, you spoke about working across Government as well. I am keen to understand in a bit more detail how that works and how you feel that is going given what …”

“So the system is right; it is just that it could be—”

“Thanks. I will bring up a specific example. We had Adrian Lambert in from the Hay Festival. This is the National Year of Reading, and they were doing a big announcement on it there. He said that they had no communication with the Department for Education on that. What do you think of that? Is that an opportunity missed…”

“What would be the ideal way of working? Is the way it works at the moment the best way? Given that you have all been in the role and, Steph, you have been the Minister for some time now, do you think that there could be a different or better way of working? This is not just about DCMS; it is about other Government Depa…”

“Ten years ago yesterday, the Hillsborough inquest jury delivered its historic verdict, concluding that 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989 were unlawfully killed. In the years since, the 96 have become 97. The families continue to campaign with dignity and determination for the Hillsborough law, to ensur…”

“I welcome the Minister’s statement, especially the news of the termination of the Royal Mail pension scheme contract to Capita. As he knows, Capita’s management of the civil service pension scheme has been an absolute shambles. I have constituents who cannot meet their mortgage payments, are having to defer their retir…”

“I want to focus on one of the flagship measures in the Bill: clause 1, headed “Power to compel attendance at sentencing hearing”. This law has been fought for—and will today be won—by my constituent Cheryl Korbel. It will compel convicted criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, and will ensure that there are mea…”

“With Milkshake!, you have a “no diversity, no commission” policy. Can you go into that a bit?”

“Can you give an example of a show that cost very little and has been a huge success?”

“We saw “Mixmups” at the studio when we visited. It was brilliant.”

“Do you all take an equal piece of the pie or does it vary?”

“Fair enough. You touched on this, Louise, but what blend of content that you make would you describe as UK culturally relevant?”

“When you commission children’s programming, what proportion of the financing are you putting into it?”

“Thanks for coming in. I am going to ask some questions about commissioning. Louise, on Milkshake!, what is the balance between programmes that you commission and acquisitions?”

“You have both talked about the economic pressures. How does that affect what kind of content you commission? You have touched on the partnerships. I presume that the main driver of that is these economic factors and pressures.”

“And it runs right through from top to bottom.”

“As MPs we all go into schools and colleges a lot, and this is a live topic that is up for discussion. Quite often, I will be asked what I think about the ban on social media platforms for under-16s, and I ask those young people the question. This is anecdotal—it is my experience—but the majority of those young people d…”