Select committee: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 7
Ninth Report - Major cultural and sporting events
Published 16 Mar 2022
Paragraph 58
Addressed to Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Major cultural and sporting events All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The news media are vital stakeholders for major events, amplifying them at home and abroad and delivering greater value for money. Moreover, beyond this purely instrumentalist role, there is an intrinsic value to free and reliable reporting of major events. It is, therefore, concerning to hear of increased restrictions on reporting at major events and that the news media’s requirements are not always fully considered in event planning and delivery. DCMS and UK Sport should, in consultation with news media organisations, update the Gold Framework to set out requirements for publicly funded events to protect media freedoms and consider coverage requirements from bid stage and throughout the lifecycle of each event.
From: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Ninth Report - Major cultural and sporting events (HC 259), paragraph 58, 16 March 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 24 June 2022 (deadline 16 June 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and shares its view on the value of major events, but disagrees with its assessment of UNBOXED and of legacy work, and gives a mixed response on strategy, funding and legislation.
- On a strategy for major events, its "current assessment" is that publishing one "is not an immediate priority". It is establishing a cross-Government Events Team and refreshing the Gold Framework for Major Sporting Events, "for publication later this year".
- On football governance, it will legislate to establish the independent regulator "when parliamentary time allows", with a White Paper "for publication in the summer". It says the legislation "cannot be rushed".
- It "disagrees with the Committee's assessment" of UNBOXED, and on legacy and evaluation it agrees they are critical but disagrees that this is "not currently a priority".
- On the listed events regime, it has "no current plans to undertake a full review of the list", but "will therefore undertake a review" of whether its scope should extend to digital rights.