Plans, priorities and cuts for the Department for Culture, Media in light of the Comprehensive Spending Review

In light of the Coalition Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, the following government press release has been released, outlining what the announcements mean for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport:

"Over the course of the Spending Review period, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will reduce overall resource spending by 24%. The core DCMS capital budget will reduce by 32%. The total administration budget for the Department and its arm’s length bodies will be reduced by 41%.

This settlement:

• Protects the core cultural offer by making significant administrative savings across the Department and its arm’s length bodies - 41% reduction overall, and core department and Arts Council admin cut by 50%
• Maintains the planned Olympic budget to enable DCMS to deliver a safe and successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.
• Contributes to economic growth - securing investment of £530 million over the spending review period (including £300m from the TV licence fee) to boost the UK’s broadband infrastructure.
• Focuses resources on frontline services that the public value - limiting cuts to museums, grant-funded arts organisations and Whole Sport plans to only 15 per cent, and retaining the much-valued free admission to our national museums and galleries.
• Provides funding for Tate Modern, British Museum and British Library (Boston Spa) capital projects.

This means making some significant savings to other areas of spend, including:

• Overall budget cuts to Sport England (around 30pc), UK Sport (around 30pc), and more than 30 per cent reductions to both English Heritage and Visit Britain.
• Cutting funding to Welsh language broadcaster S4C by 24 per cent, and to the British Film Institute by 15 per cent.
• 19 of DCMS’ 55 public bodies will be abolish or reformed. Includes the abolition of the UK Film Council and Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

In addition the Government has agreed with the BBC that the TV licence fee will fund BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring, and S4C saving the Exchequer £340m from 2014-15. BBC and HMG also agreed that the TV licence fee will be frozen until 2016-17.

Through this, the Department are adopting ideas suggested through the Spending Challenge process, including:

• Eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy in favour of supporting the front line, including through cutting and reforming many of our public bodies, and making significant cuts in the administration budgets of those that remain; and
• Exploring other suggestions including measures to encourage greater philanthropy.

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt, said:

“To deal with an unprecedented financial deficit we have been forced to make some incredibly difficult decisions. But, in the current economic climate, this is a good settlement for DCMS’s sectors. We will deliver a safe and successful Olympics in 2012 when the eyes of the whole world will be upon us. And by cutting bureaucracy and waste and prioritising the services valued by the public we will be able to protect our sporting and cultural core for the long term.”