Written questions by Hayes.

Media and Sport, how many agency staff were employed by her Department in each of the last five years.

Awaiting answer.

Media and Sport, other than special advisers if her Department has appointed anyone from outside the civil service since July 2024.

Awaiting answer.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help improve access to arts and culture for young people in Lincolnshire.

Awaiting answer.

Media and Sport, how many political appointees have been made by her Department since July 2024.

We have taken ‘political appointees’ to mean special advisers. A list of special advisers by department is published each year in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is laid in parliament. The Annual Report on Special Advisers 2026 will be publish...

Media and Sport, whether her Department has hired external public relations consultants since July 2024.

Public relations activity is a subset of communication spend, as such, this data is not held. The Government Communication Service encourages the prioritisation of low and no cost public relations activities wherever possible. Where external communication...

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce loneliness among older people in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.

This Government is committed to supporting people at risk of loneliness, including older people in Lincolnshire, to have the social connections they need to thrive. Our ambition to strengthen positive social connections is a key part of achieving wider go...

Media and Sport, how much her Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not spent any funds on podcast advertising within the last three years.

Media and Sport, if her Department permits civil servants employed in the UK to work from overseas on a regular basis.

No. DCMS civil servants are not permitted to work from overseas on a regular basis. In line with departmental security and HR processes DCMS staff may be permitted temporary, short and time limited working arrangements overseas, in exceptional circumstanc...

Media and Sport, whether her department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties

The Government is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve the productivity of the Civil Service and the quality of public services.Departments provide officials, Ministers and special advisers with access to secure, ente...

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase the provision of disability sport in Lincolnshire.

The Government believes that opportunities to play sport and get physically active should be available to everyone. Our arm’s length body, Sport England, ensures that each of their programmes impact directly on disabled people and those with long-term hea...

Media and Sport, how much of the £500 million allocated to the Better Futures Fund has been committed to projects in Lincolnshire.

DCMS is currently in the design stages of the Better Futures Fund (BFF) and so it is not yet open for project applications and no funding has so far been awarded. Round 1 is expected to invite bids in Summer 2026, supporting projects with demonstrable pri...

Media and Sport, if she will provide a list of training programmes used by civil servants in her department since 2020.

Since 2020, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has provided training programmes accessed via Civil Service Learning, Government campus and an internal curriculum. The offer includes the development of core skills, leadership and management, profession related training and accelerated-development programmes including apprenticeships and the Civil service Fast Stream programme. We do not hold a central list of all training that Civil Servants in DCMS have either attended or completed, as the training programmes are delivered by a cross-section of teams. This involves several groups including a central People development team, profession-specific learning teams, policy teams and individual Directorates sharing knowledge and best practice.

Media and Sport, whether her Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the last 12 months.

The drafting of primary and secondary legislation is the responsibility of a large number of officials across government departments. A range of tools are used to assist with this drafting, including AI which is most commonly used to check, critique, and otherwise interrogate drafts. Work is continuously underway to identify ways of improving the efficiency of this work, including collaboration between departments to share ideas and emerging practices.While AI can be used to assist with the drafting of legislation, the production of any draft remains the responsibility of a lead human drafter to meet the high standards expected of Government legislation.Policy teams in DCMS can use approved AI tools to assist with the drafting and synthesis of documents, as well as the analysis of data; however, like other government departments, we have a strong human-led AI approach, meaning that any policy document, analysis or decision made remains the responsibility of a human, and no decision is made based on AI outputs alone, without manual intervention or overarching human accountability. This approach aligns with the UK Government’s AI Playbook, published in 2025, and with DCMS’s wider work to support the secure, appropriate, responsible and well-governed use of AI across the department.

Media and Sport, whether her department has paid for followers on social media platforms it uses.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not paid for followers on any of its corporate social media accounts.

Media and Sport, how much her Department has spent on special severance payments in each of the last three years.

The total value of severance payments is set out in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which are available for the last three years.

Media and Sport, how many libraries have (1) closed and (2) opened in Lincolnshire in each of the last ten years.

As the libraries development agency for England, Arts Council England collects and publishes data on library closures and openings in its annual English Public Libraries Location Dataset. The dataset can be found at the following link: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-libraries and will be updated in April 2026 with figures for 2025. The English Public Libraries Location Dataset 2024 shows the following for Lincolnshire: Calendar YearStatic Library ClosuresStatic Library Openings20160132017012018322019002020002021002022002023002024002025Data not yet availableData not yet available2026Data not yet availableData not yet available

Media and Sport, whether any civil servants hired by her Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.

Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition.Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes Recruitment Principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.For departments who use Civil Service Jobs to manage their recruitment, which DCMS does, applicants are asked to provide diversity data on a voluntary basis only and no details are shared with hiring managers.The positive action measures in the Equality Act 2010 allows employers to take proportionate action that aims to reduce disadvantage, meet different needs and increase participation. More information on this can be found on gov.uk.Employers who choose to use positive action can help people who share a particular protected characteristic to overcome certain barriers under the measures. However, employers need to ensure they do this in a way which does not unfairly disadvantage other groups as this could amount to ‘positive discrimination’, which is unlawful.

Media and Sport, how many staff in her Department are reliant on a visa for employment.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has less than five employees who are reliant on a visa for employment. The exact number has been redacted to avoid identification of individuals.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support heritage assets in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

This Government takes our responsibility to the built historic environment seriously. For this year alone, my Department has committed nearly £60 million of funding for heritage, including £15m for Heritage at Risk.Funding is administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Arms-Length-Bodies. Since 1994, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded £5,540,760 to 110 projects in South Holland and the Deepings.Historic England has also administered funding in South Holland and the Deepings. This has gone towards projects such as the 2024 - 2027 Lincolnshire Extended Urban Survey, which worked to underpin better decision making, archaeological understanding and design in the county’s towns, and received £211,000.There are currently 12 heritage assets on the Heritage at Risk Register in the area, and Historic England are actively engaged with all of them. These include conservation areas, listed buildings, and scheduled monuments.The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme gives grants towards VAT paid on repairs and renovations to the nation’s listed sites of worship across the UK. Since August 2022, 41 claims have been paid to 15 Listed Places of Worship based in the South Holland local authority area to a value of £78,125.6.

Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of civil servants in her Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.

Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following web address: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/bulletins/publicsectoremployment/september2025 Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report andAccounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at the following web address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025