As the Olympics looms, DCMS will play a growing role on the Whitehall stage. Ian Pickering examines the department’s priorities
Over the next two years, DCMS will take a more central position in Whitehall as the countdown to the 2012 Olympics begins in earnest; the department’s new structural reform plan focuses on what culture secretary Jeremy Hunt describes as “an incredibly exciting and busy time”.“Everyone’s eyes are going to be on the UK,” says Helen MacNamara, DCMS head of policy and planning, “so it’s a very important time to show we are able to do this well and do it in a brilliantly British way.” That ‘British way’ involves getting the right legacy – a key element of the original bid, and one to be detailed in a legacy plan expected in December. In this plan, the government is set to focus on transforming the tourism industry, and on kicking off an annual School Olympics set to run as a pilot in summer 2011.
Helping to boost the ‘Big Society’ agenda is another key priority, with the DCMS working on plans to foster a culture of giving in the UK – a strategy on this is also due in December 2010 – and reform the National Lottery. The coalition argues that the lottery has strayed too far from its founding principles and ended up funding projects that either the government should have paid for, or that shouldn’t have been funded at all. “The Lottery for this government is very much about the original good causes: sports, the arts, heritage and the charitable community sector,” says MacNamara.
To support economic growth, DCMS intends to reform the media and develop the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015. The media reforms will identify scope for deregulating the broadcasting sector, and set out the timetable for discussions on the BBC licence fee; the new fee must be agreed by April 2012, and legislative processes for media deregulation and reform of regulator Ofcom will begin that November. The timescales are tight – but then, as MacNamara says, “our secretary of state is quite ambitious.”
The ministerial team
The secretary of state is Jeremy Hunt: the MP for South West Surrey since May 2005, and shadow culture secretary since 2007. A firm believer in using culture, media and sport to boost the economic recovery, he has first-hand experience in the creative world in PR and publishing.
MacNamara comments that Hunt has “a lot of ambition”: while his first priority is to make a success of the Olympics, she says, the structural reform plan does not represent the “totality of his aspirations for the DCMS”. Expect to hear a lot more from Jeremy Hunt as he gets to grips with the department’s diverse brief.
Much of DCMS’s work on boosting the economy will be handled by Ed Vaizey, the minister for culture, communications and creative industries. Working across
DCMS and the business department, Vaizey will focus first on the digital switchover, telecoms and broadband.
Day-to-day work on the Olympics is managed by Hugh Robertson, a former Army officer responsible for sports. Representing a Kent constituency, Robertson spent five years holding this brief in opposition.
Hunt’s minister for tourism and heritage – with responsibility for the National Lottery – is John Penrose, elected MP for Weston-Super-Mare in 2005.