Goodbye DCMS? Government ‘considering abolition’ of department

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) could be “abolished” with its responsibilities split between three other government departments, it has been claimed.

An article published by the Sunday Times on 3 May says government is considering axing the department and distributing its existing policy areas between the Treasury, the Department for Education, and the Department for Business and Trade.

“Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, is set to lose her job over her handling of schools reforms,” the article, written by Tim Shipman, chief political commentator at the Sunday Times, says.

The piece, which did not attribute any sources for the information, added: “Peter Kyle, the Blairite loyalist Science Secretary, is tipped to replace her.

“Starmer’s team also wants to abolish the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – splitting it between the business department, the education department and the Treasury – allowing them to fire Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State.”

The Sunday Times article, examining Labour’s response to local election results that saw significant gains for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, comes three months after the i Paper reported that Nandy is among government ministers whose positions may be under threat in a spring cabinet reshuffle.

Major shake-up

If DCMS were to be abolished, it would represent arguably the most significant central government shake-up to the policy area in more than 30 years.

DCMS was established on 14 July 1997 under Tony Blair’s premiership, replacing the Department for National Heritage, established by former Conservative Prime Minister John Major in 1992. That department was responsible for policy areas related to the arts, broadcasting, film, sport, architecture and historic sites, royal parks, and tourism.

Before that, responsibility for cultural interests was shared among a number of departments.

Arts and libraries, although a separate department, had no minister in the Cabinet. Broadcasting came under the Home Office, tourism under the Department for Employment, heritage under the Department of the Environment, sport under the Department for Education and film was part of the Department of Trade and Industry.

‘Dependent on arm’s length bodies’

Writing on X, art historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor said that while “there’s lots wrong” with DCMS, “taking culture out of Cabinet would be a mistake”.

“The arts could probably go into [the Department for Education]. But there’ll inevitably be funding cuts. A cabinet minister is more able to lobby the Treasury for money than a junior minister in another department,” Grosvenor, a former special advisor within DCMS for the then Labour shadow government, said.

“What the [government] should do instead is radically reform DCMS. It is made helpless by being so dependent on arm’s length bodies. These mean the government spends money, but has little control over it.

“You might say that’s a good thing. We don’t want the Arts Minister interfering in the Arts Council. Well, I think we do. Public funding requires public accountability. Otherwise, you get (at worst) the Post Office scandal.

“DCMS has 35 [arm’s length bodies]. The cost in bureaucracy of running them – of inventing all that accountability – is huge.

“If DCMS ministers don’t want to be abolished, they need to make DCMS more politically valuable. Not just an accounting department funnelling money from Treasury to [arm’s length bodies], with little to show for it.”

Speaking on Times Radio, general secretary of performers’ union Equity Paul W Fleming said scrapping DCMS would be a “retrograde step”.

Back-office savings

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review, which will set government departments’ budgets until at least 2029, is due to conclude on 11 June.

A Treasury report, published alongside the Spring Statement in March, says the government intends to make savings on back-office functions totalling £2.2bn in 2029/30 to “ensure that front line services are prioritised”.

Last month, the deadline for submitting responses to a survey informing the ongoing review of Arts Council England was extended by two months.

The survey was initially due to close on 24 April, but will now remain open until midday on 30 June.