Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
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![]() 100 Parliament Street – partly occupied by DCMS on the windowless 4th floor | |
Department overview | |
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Formed | 1997 |
Preceding Department |
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Jurisdiction |
England (culture, sport) UK (media) |
Headquarters |
100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ, England |
Employees | 550 (approx) |
Annual budget | £1.4 billion (current) & £1.3 billion (capital) for 2011–12[1] |
Minister responsible | |
Department executive | |
Child Department | |
Website |
www |
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet.
It also has responsibility for the tourism, leisure and creative industries (some joint with Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). The department was also responsible for the delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and the building of a Digital Economy.
History and responsibilities
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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of the United Kingdom |
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DCMS originates from the Department of National Heritage (DNH), which itself was created on 11 April 1992 out of various other departments, soon after the Conservative election victory. The former Ministers for the Arts and for Sport had previously been located in other departments.
DNH was renamed as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on 14 July 1997, under the Premiership of Tony Blair. It was renamed to Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 3 July 2017, staying DCMS under the Premiership of Theresa May to reflect the department's increased activity in the Digital sector. [2]
2012 Olympics
DCMS was the co-ordinating department for the successful bid by London to host the 2012 Olympics and appointed and oversees the agencies delivering the Games' infrastructure and programme, principally the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and LOCOG.
The June 2007 Cabinet reshuffle led to Tessa Jowell MP taking on the role of Paymaster General and then Minister for the Cabinet Office while remaining Minister for the Olympics. Ministerial responsibility for the Olympics was shared with Ms Jowell in the Cabinet Office, but the staff of the Government Olympic Executive (GOE) remained based in DCMS.
2010–present
Following the 2010 general election, ministerial responsibility for the Olympics returned to the Secretary of State. Although Jeremy Hunt's full title was Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the Department's name remained unchanged. On 4 September 2012, Hunt was appointed Health Secretary in a cabinet reshuffle and replaced by Maria Miller. Maria Miller later resigned due to controversy over her expenses. Her replacement was announced later that day as Sajid Javid.
After the 2015 general election, John Whittingdale was appointed as Secretary of State, tasked with initiating the BBC Charter review process. DCMS received full responsibility for the digital economy policy, formerly jointly held with BIS, and sponsorship of the Information Commissioner's Office from the Ministry of Justice.
Whittingdale was replaced by Karen Bradley after the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU in July 2016. The Office for Civil Society moved from the Cabinet Office to DCMS as part of the same reshuffle.
Policy areas
It is responsible for government policy in the following areas:
- the Arts
- Broadcasting, including the BBC
- Internet and international ICT policy
- Telecommunications and broadband
- Civil society
- Charities
- Creative industries
- Historic environment
- Architecture and design
- Cultural property and heritage
- Digital economy
- Entertainment licensing
- Gambling and racing
- Press freedom and regulation
- Libraries
- Museums and galleries
- National Lottery
- Tourism
- Sport
- Olympics legacy
Other responsibilities
Other responsibilities of DCMS include listing of historic buildings, scheduling of ancient monuments, export licensing of cultural goods, and management of the Government Art Collection (GAC).
The Secretary of State has responsibility for the maintenance of the land and buildings making up the historic Royal Estate under the Crown Lands Act 1851. These inherited functions, which were once centralised in the Office of Works, are now delivered as follows:
- The Royal Parks are maintained by an executive agency within DCMS, the Royal Parks Agency;
- The Unoccupied Royal Palaces in England are managed by a contract with Historic Royal Palaces;
- Maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces in England was funded by an annual Grant-in-Aid to the Royal Household until 31 March 2012. The Secretary of State for Culture retains legal responsibility for these palaces, but from 1 April 2012 this funding was amalgamated with the Civil List into a single Sovereign Grant administered by HM Treasury. DCMS continues to make a separate small grant to the Royal Household for the maintenance of Marlborough House
The Department also has responsibility for state ceremonial occasions and royal funerals. However, responsibility for the Civil List element of Head of State expenditure and income from the separate Crown Estate remains with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
DCMS works jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on design issues, including sponsorship of the Design Council, and on relations with the computer games and publishing industries.
DCMS organises the annual Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph and has responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance in the event of a disaster. In the Government's response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings the department coordinated humanitarian support to the relatives of victims and arranged the memorial events.
Headquarters
The main offices are at 100 Parliament Street, occupying part of the building known as Government Offices Great George Street.
Ministers
The DCMS Ministers are as follows:[3]
Minister | Rank | Portfolio |
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The Rt Hon. Karen Bradley MP | Secretary of State | Overall responsibility for the work of DCMS and the digital economy |
The Rt Hon. Matt Hancock MP | Minister of State (Minister of State for Digital ) | Broadband, Spectrum and Telecoms; Culture; Heritage and Built Environment; Internet and Creative Industries; Libraries; Media; Museums and Galleries |
Tracey Crouch MP | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, & Civil Society | gambling, horse racing, Office for Civil Society, sport, The National Lottery and society lotteries |
The Lord Ashton of Hyde | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State | ceremonials, all DCMS business in the Lords and First World War commemorations |
John Glen MP | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism | Arts, Culture, Heritage, public libraries, museums, national archives, tourism |
The Permanent Secretary is Sue Owen CB.
Bodies sponsored by DCMS
The DCMS has policy responsibility for three statutory corporations and two public broadcasting authorities. These bodies and their operation are largely independent of Government policy influence.
Non-ministerial departments
In September 2015, DCMS gained sponsorship of one non-ministerial department:
Statutory corporations
The statutory corporations are:
- Channel Four Television Corporation
- Historic Royal Palaces
- Office of Communications (Ofcom) – shared with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
The Department was responsible for the Horserace Totalisator Board (The Tote) until the sale of the Tote's business to Betfred in July 2011.
Public broadcasting authorities
The public broadcasting authorities are:
- British Broadcasting Corporation
- Sianel Pedwar Cymru – and the S4C Authority which regulates and manages S4C
Non-departmental public bodies
The DCMS sponsors the following executive non-departmental public bodies:
- Arts Council England
- British Film Institute
- British Library
- British Museum
- Equality and Human Rights Commission
- Gambling Commission
- Geffrye Museum
- Historic England (separated from English Heritage in 2015, formally the Historic Buildings & Monuments Commission for England)
- Horniman Museum
- Horserace Betting Levy Board
- Imperial War Museum
- Information Commissioner's Office
- National Gallery
- National Heritage Memorial Fund (the Trustees of the NHMF also administer the Heritage Lottery Fund)
- National Maritime Museum
- National Museums Liverpool
- National Portrait Gallery
- Natural History Museum
- Royal Armouries
- Science Museum Group
- Sir John Soane's Museum
- Sport England (formally the English Sports Council)
- Sports Grounds Safety Authority
- Tate
- UK Anti-Doping
- UK Sport (formally the UK Sports Council)
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- VisitBritain (formally the British Tourist Authority)
- VisitEngland
- Wallace Collection
The DCMS sponsors the following advisory non departmental public bodies:
- Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
- Theatres Trust
- Treasure Valuation Committee
DCMS also has responsibility for two other bodies classified by the Office for National Statistics[4] as being within the central government sector:
- The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) is a company limited by guarantee, established by a joint venture agreement between the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and the British Olympic Association.
- Churches Conservation Trust
DCMS is also the major financial sponsor of the following bodies, which are not classed as part of the UK central government
- Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
- Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College for the Old Royal Naval College
- Tyne and Wear Museums
Sponsorship of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) transferred to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in June 2007. The Museum of London transferred to the Greater London Authority from 1 April 2008.
DCMS formerly sponsored eight Regional Cultural Consortiums with NDPB status. In July 2008, DCMS announced that the consortiums would be phased out over a twelve-month period and replaced by a new alliance of the regional teams of Arts Council England, Sport England, English Heritage and the MLA.
Devolution
Culture, sport and tourism are devolved matters, with responsibility resting with corresponding departments in the Scottish Government in Scotland, the Welsh Government in Wales and the Northern Ireland Executive in Northern Ireland.
Media-related policy is generally reserved to Westminster i.e. not devolved. These areas include:
Scotland
Reserved matters:[5]
Northern Ireland
Reserved matters:[6]
The British Board of Film Classification also classifies films for viewing in Northern Ireland.
The department's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are as follows:[7]
- Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (architecture, arts, culture, galleries, libraries, museums, sport)
- Department of the Environment (historic built environment)
- Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (tourism)
- Department for Social Development (gambling, liquor licensing)
Wales
Under the Welsh devolution settlement, specific policy areas are transferred to the Welsh Government rather than reserved to Westminster.
See also
References
- ↑ Budget 2011 (PDF). London: HM Treasury. 2011. p. 48. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
- ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/change-of-name-for-dcms
- ↑ "Department for Culture, Media & Sport". GOV.UK. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
- ↑ ONS Sector Classification Guide accessesd 13 August 2008 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/MA23.xls
- ↑ Scotland Act 1998, Schedule 5, Part II
- ↑ Northern Ireland Act 1998, Schedule 3
- ↑ Departments (Transfer and Assignment of Functions) Order (Northern Ireland) 1999
External links
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