Written evidence submitted by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

WRITTEN EVIDENCE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT TO THE DCMS SELECT COMMITTEE ON MAJOR CULTURAL AND SPORTING EVENTS (14 MAY 2021)

Introduction:

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and national events to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee brought the country together like never before. Ten years later we want to create a new moment of national celebration with a series of major sporting and cultural events. Through the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Festival UK* 2022 and 2022 , we want to make next year one of celebration and renewal for this country as we recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Major events are of enormous importance to the country’s pride, wellbeing and place in the world, reflecting the UK as a confident, outward looking and proud nation. They offer a unique platform to showcase the best of the UK to a global audience of more than 1.5 billion people and promote our country as an excellent place to visit, study and do business.

The government works closely with partners across the country and in a variety of ways to bid for, plan and deliver amazing national events that people can enjoy and remember for years to come. Delivering major events requires many partners playing their part, often with strong leadership and support from government. Their success is very much a team effort. Since 2012, UK Sport - a DCMS arms length body - has secured 123 major sporting events, boosting our economy and global reputation and giving British people the chance to see the best athletes in the world compete. In recent years we have also delivered and supported a number of hugely successful cultural events, not least Hull UK City of Culture 2017, which was backed by £15 million of government and additional National Lottery funding. UK City of Culture 2021 has itself received over £18.5 million from the government, and is expected to attract an additional 2.5 million visitors during its year as City of Culture.

A number of further key events and milestones are being held next year, including Coventry UK City of Culture, UEFA Women’s European Football Championships, the centenary of the BBC, the 40th anniversary of S4C and 75th anniversary of the Festivals.

This unprecedented 2022 programme of events will bring people together, inspire the next generation and be a moment of renewal for this country as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. DCMS is working with our arm’s length bodies and across government to leverage the opportunities from all of the events happening in 2022 to ensure they have maximum impact and create iconic moments to advertise the UK to the world.

1. What does the UK public want from major cultural and sporting events, and how effectively is this being reflected in the planning and programming for events in 2022?

The UK has a long and proud history of staging major global events and maximising their economic and social impact. The government recognises the importance and value of hosting major events and is investing almost £1 billion1 in staging celebratory events to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Birmingham and Festival UK* 2022 (the Festival) next year.

As well as providing moments of joy and celebration, major sporting and cultural events play an important role in delivering growth across many of our key sectors. As we recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the 2022 events will serve a particularly important role in the economic and social renewal of the country. They will inspire the next generation, unite communities across the and celebrate our shared history and future after such a difficult period, and promote the best we have to offer to the rest of the world. We have embedded plans to capitalise on this opportunity and maximise the benefits of the three 2022 major events from the outset.

2022 event programme benefits:

As adverts for the best of the UK, we know that previous similar events have seen a significant uplift in tourism visits. According to the Centre for Retail Research2, an extra 250,000 tourists visited the UK in the Diamond Jubilee period and their additional retail spend was around £53 million.

We will capitalise on the tourism and investment opportunities of Birmingham 2022 through the £24 million Business and Tourism Programme. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for International Trade (DIT) are working with the West Midlands Combined Authority and West Midlands Growth Company on the programme that has been designed to leverage the global profile generated by the Commonwealth Games to attract more investment trade, visitors, events, business and students to the region. While all programmes will have their own distinct branding, images from the events will help promote the UK to key international markets (for example, under the GREAT banner).

Birmingham 2022 is providing a welcome boost for jobs and businesses, with a procurement spend of around £350 million and the creation of more than 30,000 games-times roles. We are supporting the West Midlands Combined Authority to set up a Jobs and Skills Academy to capitalise on these opportunities, giving people the right skills and support to access Games-times roles and then move into long-term employment. Through the Festival we will raise awareness of the strength of our STEAM sectors. We also want to produce content from the 10 projects that can last

1 Total £928 million - £778 million for Birmingham 2022; £120 million for Festival UK* 2022; £28 million for HM Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2 https://www.retailresearch.org/royal-events.html beyond 2022, and travel nationally and internationally to promote creativity and innovation from every part of the UK.

The government investment in the Festival will help us to build back better by promoting the very best of our creativity and innovation through our STEAM sectors to key markets around the world. The Festival will also celebrate our strengths, values and identities, boosting pride in communities across every corner and region of the UK.

Internationally, the UK is driving forward the global sustainability agenda. As part of the programme of events to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the government is working closely with the charity Cool Earth on The Queen's Green Canopy Project which will see communities, charities and local schools planting trees to create a lasting legacy across the four nations. Birmingham 2022 will be the first ever carbon neutral Commonwealth Games. Birmingham 2022 is working with Severn Trent to create 2022 acres of forest, as well as 72 tennis-court-sized mini forests, to be built in urban areas across the West Midlands.

Planning and programming:

We are working closely across government to deliver on the key aims of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Festival and Birmingham 2022 and we have embedded the viewpoints of local people and key stakeholders into the development of the three events.

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games partners looked to the people of the West Midlands to develop the vision and mission of the Games. This included focus groups, community consultations and rigorous local testing to make sure we developed the Games that local people wanted.

The Festival is being shaped by the successful 10 teams, which are now turning their ground-breaking ideas into full production. While the government has set the overarching objectives of the event - to bring people together, celebrate creativity and boost pride in communities, and showcase the very best of the country’s creativity to the world - the programme is being delivered at arm’s length from government by Festival 2022 Ltd, led by Martin Green CBE and his team in conjunction with delivery agencies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the 10 creative teams. There has been huge interest in the event from across the STEAM sectors with almost 3,000 organisations, freelancers and other creatives responding to an open call in 2020 to participate in the Festival’s funded research and development phase. The final 10 teams, selected after a rigorous assessment, aim to reach people of all backgrounds and across the UK through public engagement, participation opportunities and learning programmes to be delivered both live and digitally.

DCMS is also working closely across government and with the Royal Household to ensure there are a range of opportunities around the UK for people to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. And as with previous Jubilee celebrations, we will encourage communities, organisations and individuals across the nation to plan their own events and activities to mark this historic milestone. 2. What needs to happen for major events to successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together?

Major events have a unique ability to unite the country in celebration of all that is great about our United Kingdom and give our communities the opportunity to enjoy, be proud of and inspired by this country's creativity, sport and history. The summer of 2012, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics and Paralympic Games, brought the country together like never before. It is our aim that the programme of events for 2022 foster this spirit, with a succession of high profile, publicly accessible and unifying moments for communities across , Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Having staged a wide range of major events since 2012, the UK has developed a strong pipeline of world-class experts from right across the country who know how to deliver successful events and maximise their potential. A number of these experts are coming together to deliver the programme for 2022, which will benefit from the knowledge transfer and lessons learned from these previous events.

The government works closely with a wide range of stakeholders at all levels to deliver any successful major event, from international sporting federations to local and regional government. We are working collaboratively with representatives from the devolved administrations on the Jubilee and the Festival to ensure that the celebrations can engage with as many people as possible, and we maximise the opportunities to bring people together within and across the four nations.

The Birmingham 2022 delivery partnership includes the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, , the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games England, as well as a number of other local, regional and national partners. The Commonwealth Games Federation Coordination Commission has praised the “unprecedented” level of “supportive collaboration” across the partnership.

Although the nations of the United Kingdom compete separately, the Commonwealth Games are a uniting force in bringing together all 72 Commonwealth nations and territories in a celebration of sport and the Commonwealth. Following its international leg, the Queen's Baton Relay will travel around Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England in the lead up to Birmingham 2022, providing an opportunity for celebration in communities from all four nations of the UK on its way. The journey of the baton containing the Queen’s message creates a platform for connection between nations, communities, people and athletes across the Commonwealth, as well as offering an opportunity to celebrate and promote the achievements of those that are chosen to carry it.

The Festival is being designed from the outset to be as accessible as possible, both live and digitally, so that everyone across the UK and the wider world can experience it, with the aim to reach 66 million people. The Festival company is working with the government to deliver the Festival in partnership with the three devolved administrations. The success of the programme will be based on the effective cooperation and partnership of the four governments and their respective delivery bodies to create 10 amazing Festival projects.

This collaboration and the UK’s diversity is reflected in the makeup of the 10 creative teams tasked with developing the key moments as part of the Festival. These teams are made up of individuals and organisations drawn from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and with creatives that represent the diversity of the UK as well as different disciplines including science, technology, engineering, maths and the arts. This will help the Festival champion the best of UK creativity, and recognise its importance in people’s lives and our collective futures.

To celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, DCMS works closely with the devolved administrations to ensure that the celebrations extend across the United Kingdom. The additional UK-wide bank holiday at the beginning of June will enable communities and individuals from right across the UK to come together in celebration, with an extensive programme of public events, mixing traditional British pageantry with nationwide community celebrations. As with previous Jubilee celebrations, we will be encouraging communities, organisations and individuals across the nation to plan their own events and activities enabling them to come together to mark this historic milestone. Through the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, we will engage with overseas nations, not least those of the Commonwealth, to celebrate Her Majesty’s seven decades of service.

Together, the events that will make up our year of national renewal in 2022 give us all something to look forward to. There will be a number of opportunities for communities across the whole of the UK to come together, both in person and in spirit, to feel proud of our past, and look forward to a bright, confident future for our country.

3. How should the success of major cultural and sporting events be measured and what should their legacies be?

There are a clear set of ambitions for each government-funded event to be held in 2022 that will provide tangible benefits to the lives of people and communities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Together, these events represent an almost £1 billion investment that will drive tourism, support jobs and businesses and provide a platform for the UK to shine on a global stage.

While Birmingham 2022, the Festival and Platinum Jubilee each have their own plans to deliver their optimum impact and leave a legacy, the fact that DCMS is coordinating the three events will help to maximise their reach and ensure value for money.

2022 event programme legacy:

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games plans to deliver a number of firsts including the first games with more women’s medals than men’s, the largest integrated para-sport programme for any Commonwealth Games, the first carbon- neutral games, the largest Business and Tourism programme of any Games and the first Games to fully integrate volunteers from all delivery partners into a united volunteering programme. Birmingham 2022 is also being delivered in a significantly shorter timeframe than normal for delivery of a major multi-sport event, stepping in when a new host was needed in 2017.

Games partners have recently published the Legacy Plan for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, setting out the aims and ambitions for the legacy of the 2022 Games. These include delivering 35,000 jobs and skills opportunities, engaging one million children and young people through a tailored learning programme, reaching up to 2.5 million people through the Cultural Programme and accelerating major transport improvements.

This event will also provide a substantial sporting legacy. More than £100 million is being invested to transform into a world-class athletics venue and create a new state-of-the-art aquatic facility in that will turn the area into a major and centre, with both facilities set to be used by their local communities for years to come. A further £5 million (£4 million from Sport England and £1 million from Birmingham City Council) is being invested to create more opportunities for people in Birmingham and the West Midlands to get active.

The Festival will deliver a strong and enduring legacy across the UK aligned to its objectives to bring people together and boost pride in communities, and showcase the very best of the country’s creativity to the world, supporting inward business and investment to the UK. We want people to come and enjoy the Festival projects, be amazed and inspired by them and raise awareness of the strength of our STEAM sectors. We also want to produce content from the 10 projects that can last beyond 2022, and travel nationally and internationally to promote UK creativity and innovation. The Festival’s legacy will continue to be developed by further engagement with key stakeholders such as government departments, the devolved administrations, our arm’s length bodies and the Festival creative teams to ensure that a lasting impact will be felt right across the UK’s communities and STEAM sectors.

The Platinum Jubilee will offer opportunities for every community in the UK to create their own celebration of Her Majesty’s enduring service. Key highlights will inspire a sense of national and community pride and shared history. We will encourage communities to find their own unique way to celebrate and share this moment of national unity. In 2012 there were an estimated 9,500 street parties that took place across the UK and 8.5 million people that participated in Big Jubilee Lunches, which around 50 of the UK’s largest community groups, membership organisations and charities supported. Jubilee events have huge international reach with the Diamond Jubilee attracting a worldwide audience of approximately 2 billion TV viewers, promoting the best of the UK to the rest of the world. And the events give a significant boost to tourism with an estimated 250,000 additional tourists visiting the UK in the Jubilee Period with their additional retail spending totalling around £53 million.

Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 will develop a lasting legacy through increased job opportunities, civic pride and tourism to the city and region. In addition to this, Coventry City of Culture has developed a digital gallery that will showcase the city's strengths in 5G and creative technology, reaching 250,000 visitors and boosting the visitor economy by more than £5 million annually.

The 2022 programme of events is a unique opportunity to showcase the best of the country to the world and leave a real and lasting legacy for the British people. With such a significant amount of public funding underpinning the delivery of these events, we are determined to ensure that the legacy is maximised to drive tourism, support jobs and businesses and provide a platform for the UK to shine on a global stage.

Evaluation:

The impacts of the three events will be measured through a series of robust evaluations. We will establish the impact of our activities on community cohesion at the local, regional and national level and assess the difference in participation levels across different groups in society. We will focus specifically on volunteering, physical activity, and participation at national events, including ceremonials.

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games’ independent external evaluation will assess the economic, social and environmental outcomes and impacts of hosting the Games at the local, regional and national level. In addition, the evaluation will also aim to capture and communicate the wider benefits of hosting a major multi-sport event and help contribute to the evidence base to inform decisions on whether the UK should bid for future multi-sports events.

The independent external evaluator for the Festival will work closely with DCMS, Festival 2022 Ltd and the devolved administrations to measure the national and local impacts of Festival UK 2022. This includes but is not limited to, the social, economic and cultural impact and outcomes of the Festival and its events. This will align, where necessary, with the evaluations of the other 2022 events, to identify any synergies across major events in 2022 and measure their impact coherently.

We will work with partners to ensure that awareness and impact on national pride arising from the Platinum Jubilee is captured so that we are able to reflect on the nation’s engagement with the celebrations as a whole.

4. What are the challenges facing the delivery of major cultural and sporting events in 2022, and the bid to host the World Cup 2030?

The UK has developed a fantastic track record over the past decade in delivering major events. The government is determined to continue to build on this hard-earned reputation as we look forward to 2022 and beyond.

There is increasing global competition to bid for and secure major international events, with countries around the world recognising the economic and social opportunities these events bring. This is a particular challenge for the potential UK and Ireland bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which involves an extremely competitive bidding process as one of the most prestigious global sporting events. The Football Association and government partners of the UK and Ireland are carrying out feasibility activity to assess the viability of a bid. If a decision is made to proceed, the bid would need both to score highly against FIFA’s technical criteria and represent a compelling proposition to the global football community. To mitigate this, bid partners are focused on setting up the right governance structure, and producing an attractive hosting proposition which will appeal to and align as closely as possible with FIFA requirements.

There is also a trend of increasing costs associated with hosting major international events. However Birmingham 2022 is bucking this trend, with the total public investment in the Games, £778 million, significantly lower than the previous Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast in 2018, which totalled £967 million.

Although the UK has had unprecedented success in delivering major events in recent years, we have had to adapt our plans for the delivery of the 2022 event programme in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. DCMS and other government departments are working collaboratively with key stakeholders and delivery partners to mitigate this challenge.

There are a number of other major events due to take place between now and 2022, which we continue to observe closely so we can ensure we adopt any learnings we need to. DCMS is also leading the Events Research Programme, which aims to examine the risk of transmission of Covid-19 from attendance at events and explore ways to enable people to attend a range of events safely. To achieve this, the programme will explore how a combination of testing and non-pharmaceutical interventions can inform decisions on safely lifting restrictions at events. The programme is of major interest to the three major 2022 events and we continue to monitor it closely.

Covid-19 has meant Coventry UK City of Culture’s start has been postponed and will now run from May 2021 to May 2022. As the first major cultural programme of its scale, breadth and length to take place since the start of the pandemic, it will start under restricted conditions and phase its events as the loosening of restrictions in the UK takes place. Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 will open on 15 May with a celebratory moment, designed to showcase the city and be enjoyed from home in line with Covid-19 restrictions. The organisers have continued to work closely with government and local partners to ensure the programme has been planned in a flexible and responsive way, so it can be delivered safely while still celebrating the city and its people. Coventry City of Culture Trust has also reaffirmed its commitment to present several major and ambitious undertakings across the year.

In August 2020 it was decided that athletes and team officials at Birmingham 2022 will be housed in three ‘campus’ villages at the Games, rather than a single site athletes’ village in . This decision was made to withstand the impact Covid-19 has had on construction, given the shorter than normal timeframe for delivery of the Birmingham 2022 Games. The new model has been welcomed by athletes while the new housing and transport infrastructure in Perry Barr, made possible with additional investment from central government, will still be delivered for the people of Birmingham. Despite these challenges posed by the pandemic, great progress continues to be made and the government remains fully committed to delivering a fantastic programme of events in 2022, which will bring people together, inspire the next generation and be a moment of renewal for this country. DCMS continues to closely monitor the impact of Covid-19 and will work with our delivery partners to mitigate any further risks that arise.

Despite these challenges, the government continues to recognise the importance and value of hosting major events. We are looking forward to 2022 being a year of celebration for our nation with three showstopper events held across the UK and to further enhancing our world-class reputation for hosting major events in the years ahead.

Annexes - Description of three events

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

Birmingham will host the 22nd Commonwealth Games between 28 July and 8 August 2022. Birmingham 2022 will be the biggest sporting event ever held in the West Midlands, and the biggest sporting event held in the UK since London 2012.

Birmingham 2022 will be the most inclusive Commonwealth Games in history, featuring 19 sports and 8 para sports over 11 days of action-packed competition, at venues across Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond. It will be the first time in history a major multi-sport event features more women’s than men’s medal events and will have the largest para-sport programme in Commonwealth Games history.

However Birmingham 2022 is not just about 11 days of sport. Backed by £778 million of public investment and with an estimated TV audience of 1.5 billion, the Games will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to put the city, the region and its people on the global stage and will play a key part in supporting the economic recovery of Birmingham and the West Midlands post Covid-19.

“The Games for Everyone” is already proving to be a catalyst for transformation across the West Midlands, attracting new investment and funding, creating jobs and apprenticeships for local people and new opportunities for local businesses, as well as accelerating projects that will ensure the region is ready to host a fantastic sports and cultural celebration.

Festival UK* 2022

Festival UK* 2022 (the Festival) was announced in October 2018. It is a government priority and is backed by £120 million new government investment (with funding to the devolved administrations to deliver their Festival projects through the Barnett Formula).

The Festival is a collection of large-scale, public engagement projects that will showcase the UK's creativity and innovation to the world through a collaboration between Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths across the four nations. It is a major UK-wide festival of creativity and innovation, which will feature 10 major public engagement projects designed to reach millions, bring people together and showcase the UK’s creativity globally.

The teams have been selected from 30 shortlisted projects that took part in a paid research and development phase, following a rigorous assessment. They will now be tasked with taking their ideas through to completion ready for next year’s Festival. It will be a moment of national celebration across the UK, aligned with other major events in 2022, such as the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Platinum Jubilee and Coventry City of Culture.

The Festival is being delivered at arm’s length from government. Each nation has selected a delivery body to commission work. Festival 2022 Ltd. (the Festival company), a subsidiary of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games (OC), will deliver programming in England. Scotland has selected EventScotland, Wales has selected Creative Wales and Northern Ireland has selected Belfast City Council.

Platinum Jubilee

The Platinum Jubilee in 2022 will mark 70 years of Her Majesty the Queen’s reign - the first British Monarch to have reached this milestone.

The first public announcement for Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was made on the 12th November 2020. The announcement detailed an extended Bank Holiday weekend across the UK, with the spring bank holiday moving to Thursday 2 June, and an additional Platinum Jubilee bank holiday on Friday 3 June.

The announcement also explained that, in line with precedent, a Platinum Jubilee Medal will be issued.

DCMS supports the Royal Household in planning the Platinum Jubilee and leads on the government’s input into these celebrations, working closely with the devolved administrations and other government departments.

The programme of events will provide opportunities for both the UK and the Commonwealth to celebrate this historic milestone.