Written questions by Morris.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support rural sports clubs.

The Government is committed to supporting grassroots sport clubs, including those in rural areas, which play an important role within communities across the country. The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport clubs through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery Funding. They invest in over 90 Place Partnerships in various locations across the country, including in rural areas, to promote sport and physical activity.

Media and Sport, if she will (a) include cinemas as eligible recipients of capital funding for UK cultural venues and (b) introduce a (i) complementary and (ii) parallel funding scheme for cinemas.

Cinemas help to sustain our high streets whilst offering one of the most accessible and affordable cultural experiences for communities around the country.In a challenging fiscal environment, we have to make difficult choices about where to direct available funding. Whilst we have no current plans to expand the eligibility criteria of existing schemes or introduce new capital funding schemes, we continue to engage with cinema stakeholders to identify options to support the sector.Cinemas based in eligible venues can benefit from capital investment through the Creative Foundations Fund (CFF). Not-for-profit mixed arts venues in England are eligible for the CFF, including those with cinemas on site. The first round of CFF recipients included many mixed arts venues with cinemas, including Firstsite in Colchester, the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation in London, and the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in Hexham. We are also supporting the cinema sector through permanently lower business rates multipliers; public funding schemes through the British Film Institute including the National Lottery Audience Projects Fund and the Film Audience Network; and our significant investment in stimulating production - including through generous tax credits and the £75 million Screen Growth Package we announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan - which creates the strong slate of films cinemas need to thrive.

Media and Sport, how her Department plans to support the BBC in growing the North East’s creative economy.

The BBC is a vital national institution and an engine of the nations and regions, including the North East of England. In that context, this news is concerning for the BBC workforce who are facing significant uncertainty, and for the sector as a whole. The BBC is delivering significant savings, which requires difficult decisions to be made independent of the Government. The BBC have stated that there will be more information on their plans later this year. Looking ahead, the Charter Review aims to deliver a BBC that is sustainably funded in a way that sets the BBC on a path to thrive until well into the latter half of this century. The Charter Review will consider how the BBC can support the creative economy and drive growth across the UK.

Media and Sport, whether she plans to re-join Creative Europe.

This Government does not have any plans to rejoin Creative Europe, though we are committed to finding constructive ways to work with the EU and deliver for the British people on shared priorities and global challenges.

Media and Sport, what opportunities her department has for independent cinemas to apply for national support schemes.

Independent cinemas play an important role in our communities, providing an accessible form of culture for people across the UK. Independent cinemas can apply for various public funding schemes through DCMS's Arm's Length Bodies if they meet the eligibility criteria. For example, through the British Film Institute, cinemas can access support for audience-facing projects through the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund; and can join the BFI Film Audience Network and apply for funding to support projects that bring audiences together for screenings of UK independent and international films. Cinemas based in not-for-profit mixed arts venues in England may also meet the eligibility criteria for Arts Council England's Creative Foundations Fund; we estimate this applies to approximately 13% of the 218 full-time independent cinemas in the UK. This sector will also benefit from permanently lower business rates multipliers for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure venues, starting this year.

Media and Sport, if Science and Discovery Centres can apply to any of the support schemes for cultural venues announced in the press release of 21 January 2026, entitled ‘Government announces bumper £1.5 billion package to restore national pride.

In January 2026, the Government announced a package of £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere funding to support arts, culture libraries and heritage over the course of this parliament. The vast majority of this funding is capital investment, and is the single biggest Government investment in arts capital in over a decade.This investment will support more than 1,000 cultural projects to open up access to culture for everyone, everywhere. It will keep venues open, finance urgent repairs and infrastructure projects, bolster long-term resilience, and widen access to arts and culture in communities that have faced under-investment.Science and Discovery Centres play an important role supporting science education and fostering curiosity. The Government's response to the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review addressed the Science curriculum, whilst the Department for Science Innovation and Technology, and its agencies, such as UKRI, are committed to supporting pathways into STEM careers. Science and Discovery Centres that are accredited museums may be eligible for some of the recently announced funds. Eligibility criteria, and details of how to apply for individual funds, will be published in due course.

Media and Sport, what assessment the Department has made of tourism’s contribution to the North East's rural economy.

DCMS recognises tourism’s vital contribution to the economy of the North East, where a diverse range of historic sites and natural landmarks, from the architectural heritage of Alnwick Castle and Hexham Abbey to the expansive Kielder Water & Forest Park, support the local economy.The British Tourist Authority’s data for Northumberland, which incorporates Hexham, reveals that for inbound travel, Northumberland welcomed 35.6k visits, 191.8k nights and a spend of £20.7 million in 2024. For domestic visits, Northumberland welcomed 800k trips, 2.6 million bednights and a spend of £225 million from September 2022 to September 2024.Destination North East England’s Quarterly Research Report for Spring 2025, reported that the North East region’s visitor economy is worth £6.6 billion and supports almost 63,000 jobs. The report also notes that North East England welcomed 68.44 million visitors and hosted 7.82 million overnight visitors in 2024.

Media and Sport, what assessment the Department has made of tourism’s contribution to Northumberlands rural economy.

DCMS recognises tourism’s vital contribution to the economy of the North East, where a diverse range of historic sites and natural landmarks, from the architectural heritage of Alnwick Castle and Hexham Abbey to the expansive Kielder Water & Forest Park, support the local economy.The British Tourist Authority’s data for Northumberland, which incorporates Hexham, reveals that for inbound travel, Northumberland welcomed 35.6k visits, 191.8k nights and a spend of £20.7 million in 2024. For domestic visits, Northumberland welcomed 800k trips, 2.6 million bednights and a spend of £225 million from September 2022 to September 2024.Destination North East England’s Quarterly Research Report for Spring 2025, reported that the North East region’s visitor economy is worth £6.6 billion and supports almost 63,000 jobs. The report also notes that North East England welcomed 68.44 million visitors and hosted 7.82 million overnight visitors in 2024.

Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the potential economic impact of tourism on Hexham.

DCMS recognises tourism’s vital contribution to the economy of the North East, where a diverse range of historic sites and natural landmarks, from the architectural heritage of Alnwick Castle and Hexham Abbey to the expansive Kielder Water & Forest Park, support the local economy.The British Tourist Authority’s data for Northumberland, which incorporates Hexham, reveals that for inbound travel, Northumberland welcomed 35.6k visits, 191.8k nights and a spend of £20.7 million in 2024. For domestic visits, Northumberland welcomed 800k trips, 2.6 million bednights and a spend of £225 million from September 2022 to September 2024.Destination North East England’s Quarterly Research Report for Spring 2025, reported that the North East region’s visitor economy is worth £6.6 billion and supports almost 63,000 jobs. The report also notes that North East England welcomed 68.44 million visitors and hosted 7.82 million overnight visitors in 2024.

Media and Sport, what discussions her Department is having with relevant stakeholders on the potential impact of the Creative Industries Sector Plan on Hexham constituency.

The Creative Industries Sector Plan seeks to tackle barriers to growth and maximises opportunities across the Creative Industries sector throughout the UK. The Sector Plan spotlights the North East as one of twelve high-potential clusters for creative industries growth and its unique investment offer.The North East Combined Authority will also receive £25million as part of the Creative Places Growth Fund. This is devolved funding, intended to empower Mayors to turbocharge growth in their places.In January, DCMS Secretary of State hosted a major economic growth summit in Gateshead for the Creative Industries. DCMS officials have regular engagement with the North East Combined Authority to understand the opportunities and challenges for creatives across the North East. DCMS officials co-chaired a culture and creative industries roundtable with the North East Combined Authority in July to gather the views of local creative businesses and cultural organisations on Sector Plan delivery.

Media and Sport, what discussions the Department has had with relevant stakeholders on the potential impact of the Creative Industries Sector Plan on the North East.

The Creative Industries Sector Plan seeks to tackle barriers to growth and maximises opportunities across the Creative Industries sector throughout the UK. The Sector Plan spotlights the North East as one of twelve high-potential clusters for creative industries growth and its unique investment offer.The North East Combined Authority will also receive £25million as part of the Creative Places Growth Fund. This is devolved funding, intended to empower Mayors to turbocharge growth in their places.In January, DCMS Secretary of State hosted a major economic growth summit in Gateshead for the Creative Industries. DCMS officials have regular engagement with the North East Combined Authority to understand the opportunities and challenges for creatives across the North East. DCMS officials co-chaired a culture and creative industries roundtable with the North East Combined Authority in July to gather the views of local creative businesses and cultural organisations on Sector Plan delivery.

Media and Sport, what discussions her Department is having with relevant stakeholders regarding the potential impact of the Creative Industries Sector Plan on Northumberland.

The Creative Industries Sector Plan seeks to tackle barriers to growth and maximises opportunities across the Creative Industries sector throughout the UK. The Sector Plan spotlights the North East as one of twelve high-potential clusters for creative industries growth and its unique investment offer.The North East Combined Authority will also receive £25million as part of the Creative Places Growth Fund. This is devolved funding, intended to empower Mayors to turbocharge growth in their places.In January, DCMS Secretary of State hosted a major economic growth summit in Gateshead for the Creative Industries. DCMS officials have regular engagement with the North East Combined Authority to understand the opportunities and challenges for creatives across the North East. DCMS officials co-chaired a culture and creative industries roundtable with the North East Combined Authority in July to gather the views of local creative businesses and cultural organisations on Sector Plan delivery.

Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on the role of a freelance champion in the North East.

We committed in the Creative Industries Sector Plan to appoint a Freelance Champion in 2025, who will work across the UK to advocate for the creative sector’s freelancers within government and be a member of the Creative Industries Council. We have been working closely with industry through a working group of the Creative Industries Council to inform the role's remit, including organisations who work nationally, such as Bectu and Creative UK. This group developed a draft Terms of Reference, which outlines what industry would like to see from the role including commissioning and/or informing data and evidence gathering on creative industries freelancers; establishing mechanisms to give creative freelancers voice within government policy discussions; and working with a representative cross-section of creative industries stakeholders. We will use this work to inform the role specification prior to appointment.

Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with stakeholders to improve tennis facilities in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England.

The Government is determined to ensure that everyone has access to quality sport and physical activity opportunities. That is why we have committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK following the Spending Review. We are now working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need and will then set out further plans. I have met with the Lawn Tennis Association, the National Governing Body for tennis, along with representatives from other sports, to discuss this. The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. This includes long term investment in the Lawn Tennis Association, which receives up to £10.2 million for five years from 2022 to 2027 to invest in community tennis initiatives in England that will benefit as many people as possible.

Media and Sport, what steps the Department is taking to support public libraries in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle and (d) the North East.

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. Upper tier local local authorities in the North East have received a total of almost £2 million from previous rounds of the Fund.

Media and Sport, what recent discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders to improve support for grassroots sports in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle and (d) the North East.

My Department engages on a regular basis with a range of stakeholders to support grassroots sport.A large part of our Arm’s Length Body Sport England’s work focuses on their place partnerships, where they work with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers to sport and physical activity in communities. Rise Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham, and Tees Valley Sport are two of Sport England’s place partnerships.We’ve also committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, and will then set out further plans.The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.This includes supporting Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign which has inspired millions of women and girls to get active. We’ve also launched the Women’s Sport Taskforce to tackle challenges and barriers facing women and girls in sport, from grassroots to elite, and are harnessing the power of hosting major sporting events, such as investing £6.7 million into the Impact 25’ programme for the Women’s Rugby World Cup to make facilities more accessible for women. We’ve also announced plans to more than double the share of slots dedicated to women’s and girls’ teams at Government-funded facilities across England over the next five years.

Media and Sport, what recent discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on encouraging girls into sport in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle and (d) the North East.

My Department engages on a regular basis with a range of stakeholders to support grassroots sport.A large part of our Arm’s Length Body Sport England’s work focuses on their place partnerships, where they work with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers to sport and physical activity in communities. Rise Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham, and Tees Valley Sport are two of Sport England’s place partnerships.We’ve also committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, and will then set out further plans.The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.This includes supporting Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign which has inspired millions of women and girls to get active. We’ve also launched the Women’s Sport Taskforce to tackle challenges and barriers facing women and girls in sport, from grassroots to elite, and are harnessing the power of hosting major sporting events, such as investing £6.7 million into the Impact 25’ programme for the Women’s Rugby World Cup to make facilities more accessible for women. We’ve also announced plans to more than double the share of slots dedicated to women’s and girls’ teams at Government-funded facilities across England over the next five years.

Media and Sport, what recent discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders to improve support for local museums in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle and (d) the North East.

The Secretary of State and her ministerial team engage regularly with a wide range of stakeholders and DCMS Arm’s Length Bodies regarding support for local arts organisations and museums. In February 2025, the Secretary of State announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund, with organisations across the North East already benefitting. This includes the £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, with over £1.2 million awarded to museums in the North East in October, and £483k specifically for the North East Museums group to support activities across Northumberland museums, including Hexham Old Gaol. This funding is additional to core museums funding delivered through Arts Council England, including the National Portfolio Investment Programme, which sees over £3.3 million a year invested in the North East Museums group amongst others.The Department continues to work with stakeholders to provide additional support for local museums and galleries in 2025/26, through the £25 million Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) tackling maintenance backlogs, and the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, currently open for applications.The Arts Everywhere Fund will also deliver £85 million of investment through the Creative Foundations Fund to support arts and cultural organisations, including local arts centres, to address urgent estate issues, ensuring buildings and infrastructure are fit for future generations. In addition, Ministers have commissioned a formal review of ACE, the body responsible for distributing arts funding across England. The review is considering all aspects of ACE’s work and investment, and will report this Autumn.

Media and Sport, what recent discussions the Department has had with relevant stakeholders to improve support for local arts in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle and (d) the North East.

The Secretary of State and her ministerial team engage regularly with a wide range of stakeholders and DCMS Arm’s Length Bodies regarding support for local arts organisations and museums. In February 2025, the Secretary of State announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund, with organisations across the North East already benefitting. This includes the £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, with over £1.2 million awarded to museums in the North East in October, and £483k specifically for the North East Museums group to support activities across Northumberland museums, including Hexham Old Gaol. This funding is additional to core museums funding delivered through Arts Council England, including the National Portfolio Investment Programme, which sees over £3.3 million a year invested in the North East Museums group amongst others.The Department continues to work with stakeholders to provide additional support for local museums and galleries in 2025/26, through the £25 million Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) tackling maintenance backlogs, and the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, currently open for applications.The Arts Everywhere Fund will also deliver £85 million of investment through the Creative Foundations Fund to support arts and cultural organisations, including local arts centres, to address urgent estate issues, ensuring buildings and infrastructure are fit for future generations. In addition, Ministers have commissioned a formal review of ACE, the body responsible for distributing arts funding across England. The review is considering all aspects of ACE’s work and investment, and will report this Autumn.

Media and Sport, whether she has received representations on the collapse of Football Index.

The Secretary of State has received letters and emails from members of the public and Members of Parliament on the collapse of BetIndex Ltd, the operator of the novel gambling product Football Index. The collapse had a significant impact on former customers, and we recognise that many people were affected, and that for some people financial losses were significant. The previous Government commissioned an Independent Review in June 2021, conducted by Malcom Sheehan KC and which reported in September 2021. The review looked at how the company had been regulated, and identified areas for improvement for the Financial Conduct Authority and the Gambling Commission. All recommendations of the report have since been implemented.