Speeches by Nandy.

“I do not want to pre-empt the work that we are doing through the working groups, but that is one of the key questions that we are working through at the moment. The way that we have established the process is that there are three roundtables, the third of which we are shortly about to chair and hold. Then, we will take…”

“It is a really fair point. This is something we have asked Margaret Hodge to look at specifically as part of her review of the Arts Council. It happens not just in art but in sport as well. One of the challenges we have had is that with the funding available for grassroots sport you often have somebody applying for tha…”

“Yes. The point I was going to make was that that is not well understood by the public, because obviously the British public tend not to listen to the World Service.”

“Yes, I do agree, and I would gently push back against the suggestion that the Government have not been supportive of the World Service in particular. When the director general approached myself and the former Foreign Secretary when we were first appointed, the Foreign Secretary was forthcoming with funding to support t…”

“I want to say imminently, but should I say shortly? I will defer to the Permanent Secretary.”

“Because ours has not.”

“Yes, definitely. I was really pleased to be at the first Beyond The Music conference in Manchester and to have discussions with the people who have been involved, working very closely with the excellent Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who is really passionate about this, and Bev Craig, the leader of the coun…”

“In due course—somebody has been in the Cabinet before.”

“I am very hopeful that we will be able to produce that this side of Christmas.”

“The Permanent Secretary will be able to talk about the capital settlement that we got in the spending review, but this was a point that we particularly pressed with the Treasury because, obviously, there comes a tipping point where either buildings are not viable or it costs far more to do the work. Early investment is…”

“I have had these discussions extensively with CIISA, which we strongly support as a voluntary initiative. I have made clear to them that if, at some point in the future, we believe it is necessary for this to become statutory, that is something that the Government are very open to. However, they believe, and we believe…”

“We are on track and in a position where that should not be the case.”

“I do not, I’m afraid.”

“This is a responsibility that I jointly share with the Foreign Office; it leads on foreign journalists and I lead on UK-based journalists. We are horrified by the number of journalists who have lost their lives during the Gaza conflict. It is estimated to be almost 200 now, which is an extraordinary number of lives. I …”

“It absolutely is. Without undermining the incredible work that Minister Bryant did, that was my request as the Secretary of State. As you would imagine with Minister Bryant, the 10-point plan for music then became a 110-point plan for music, but we are working at pace to make sure we are in a position to announce somet…”

“I was. As you all know, it was a difficult spending review. We inherited a difficult financial environment, and our sectors are often vulnerable in that sort of situation. I was really pleased that we were able to come out roughly flat in terms of our spending settlement—around £9 billion over the spending review perio…”

“I am being optimistic here. There are people across the tech companies and the creative industries who feel very passionately that we have to find a solution to this, who understand both the power of AI and what it can bring, the power of the creative industries, and the need to protect and future-proof them. I have be…”

“Yes. The financial situation facing the country is still very challenging and we are going to have to make trade-offs and choices. At the moment, we are looking at that through business planning and I have met with several members of the Committee and heard representations from many parliamentarians about their priorit…”

“We will do it properly, and we are still on course to be able to produce that Green Paper and the terms of reference this autumn.”

“The key word that you used there was accountability, and it was a word that came up over and over again when I brought a statement to Parliament after the Glastonbury incident. There are real concerns among parliamentarians of all political persuasions about lack of accountability and people not being held to account f…”