Will next week’s Spending Review see the abolition of the culture department? Last month I reported on speculation in Whitehall that the DCMS, which small-staters have long had in their sights, could be scrapped by the government. Shadow culture minister Dan Jarvis told me that while he was “not convinced” that significant savings could be made by scrapping the department, “the government could go down this road to demonstrate that it is ‘leading by example’ in these tough times and has found way in which ‘to do things more efficiently’.”
But in response to a written question from Jarvis on whether “he has any plans to abolish the Department for Culture, Media and Sport”, David Cameron has offered an unambiguous “no”. That, however, doesn’t rule out the distribution of some of its responsibilities to other departments. Asked on The World At One to comment on reports that the DCMS is “at risk of having some of its responsibilities taken away and even abolished altogether”, Maria Miller gave a notably equivocal answer:
Our department does a huge amount of work, not just in this area [internet pornography] but across the board with arts, media, sports, equalities and women’s issues. These are the issues the government is working hard on, I think as a department we’ve never been busier, we’ve never had more to do, so I think actions speak louder than words.
Asked whether she was “sure” no responsibilites would be taken away, Miller, whose aides have been promoting her status as “the only mother” in the cabinet in a bid to save her job, refused to say that she was:
I know that the work that we’re doing, whether it’s on the equal marriage bill that’s going through the Lords at the moment, whether it’s the work we’re doing around the internet, or, indeed, the work that we’re doing supporting, actively supporting the role of the arts, culture and our museums in this country are of incredible importance and, as I say, I don’t think there’s even been a busier time in our department and I don’t think we’ve ever had more to do which really matters to the future of this country.
Based on that answer, it seems that the DCMS, at least in its present form, may well cease to exist.
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