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Department for Culture, Media and Sport

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The Department for 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, for example broadcasting. It also has responsibility for the creative industries (some joint with Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) and tourism in England.

Culture, sport and tourism are devolved matters, with responsibility resting with corresponding departments in the Scottish Government in Scotland, the Welsh Assembly Government in Wales and the Northern Ireland Executive in Northern Ireland.

The main offices are at 2–4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DH.

Ministers and Permanent Secretary

The current ministerial team at the DCMS are:

The Permanent Secretary is Jonathan Stephens.

History and responsibilities

Before 1997, DCMS was known as the Department of National Heritage, which was in turn created out of various other departments in 1992. The former Ministers for the Arts and for Sport had previously been located in other departments.

DCMS headquarters in Cockspur Street

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 and LOCOG.

The June 2007 Cabinet reshuffle led to Tessa Jowell 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.

Following the 2010 General Election, ministerial responsibility for the Olympics returned to the Secretary of State. Although Jeremy Hunt's full title is now Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the Department's name remains unchanged and it is still referred to by the initials DCMS and not as DCOMS.

In the Government's response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings the department was given the responsibility of co-ordinating humanitarian support to the relatives of victims and to arrange memorial events.

Its five strategic priorities are children and young people, communities, delivery, economy and via the Government Olympic Executive, the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and its legacy. It is responsible for government policy in the following areas:

The DCMS also manages the Government Art Collection.

The Secretary of State has responsibility for the maintenance of the 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:

DCMS also provides funding to the Royal Household for Royal Communications and Information and the maintenance of Marlborough House. However, responsibility for the Civil List element of Head of State expenditure and income from the Crown Estate remains with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Department also has responsibility for state ceremonial occasions and royal funerals.

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.

The statutory corporations are:

The public broadcasting authorities are:

In addition, responsibility for the Office of Communications (Ofcom) is shared with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).

The DCMS sponsors the following non-departmental public bodies:

DCMS also has responsibility for two other bodies classified by the Office for National Statistics[2] as being within the central government sector:

DCMS is also the major financial sponsor of the following bodies, which are not classed as part of the UK central government

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.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Her Majesty's Government". Prime Minister's Office. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
  2. ^ ONS Sector Classification Guide accessesd 13 August 2008 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/MA23.xls