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:
- Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport - The Rt Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP[1]
- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Tourism and Heritage - John Penrose MP[1]
- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and the Olympics - Hugh Robertson MP[1]
- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries (joint with DBIS) - Ed Vaizey MP[1]
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 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:
- Alcohol and entertainment
- Architecture and design
- Arts
- Broadcasting
- Creative industries
- Cultural property
- Gambling and racing
- Historic environment
- Libraries
- Museums and galleries
- Olympics
- Sport
- Tourism
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:
- 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 is funded by an annual Grant-in-Aid to the Royal Household
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:
- Channel Four Television Corporation
- Historic Royal Palaces
- Horserace Totalisator Board (The Tote)
The public broadcasting authorities are:
- British Broadcasting Corporation
- Welsh Fourth Channel Authority which regulates and manages S4C
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:
- Arts Council of England
- Big Lottery Fund formed by the 2006 merger of:
- Millennium Commission
- National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund)
- New Opportunities Fund
- British Library
- British Museum
- British Tourist Authority (VisitBritain)
- Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)
- English Heritage (formally the Historic Buildings & Monuments Commission for England)
- English Sports Council
- Football Licensing Authority
- Geffrye Museum
- Horniman Museum
- Horserace Betting Levy Board
- Imperial War Museum
- Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
- Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA)
- National Gallery
- National Heritage Memorial Fund
- the Trustees of the NHMF also administer the Heritage Lottery Fund
- National Lottery Commission
- National Maritime Museum
- National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside
- National Museum of Science and Industry
- National Portrait Gallery
- Natural History Museum
- Olympic Delivery Authority
- Olympic Lottery Distributor
- Registrar of Public Lending Right
- Royal Armouries Museum
- Sir John Soane's Museum
- Sport England
- Tate Gallery
- UK Film Council
- UK Sport
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Wallace Collection
DCMS also has responsibility for two other bodies classified by the Office for National Statistics[2] as being within the central government sector:
- The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games 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
- 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.
See also
External links
References
- ^ a b c d "Her Majesty's Government". Prime Minister's Office. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ ONS Sector Classification Guide accessesd 13 August 2008 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/MA23.xls
- Ministerial departments of the Government of the United Kingdom
- Arts in England
- English art
- English culture
- British media
- Performing arts in England
- Sports organisations of the United Kingdom
- Sport in England
- Sports ministries
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport
- Ministries established in 1992
- English media