A House of Commons culture select committee has criticized the British Government’s delayed reaction to the “existential threat” faced by the U.K.’s cultural industries and spelled out a list of recommendations to get live entertainment back on its feet.

The report says ministers "consistently failed to recognize" the challenges Covid-19 posed and the late arrival of the £1.57b funding package “inevitably led to closures and redundancies in the cultural sector that might otherwise have been avoided.”

The committee concludes: "The Government has been too slow to respond to the needs of the sectors under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s remit during the Covid-19 outbreak. In its response, DCMS has been hampered by its overall spending power, a lack of robust data on ineligibility for support and a fundamental misunderstanding across Government of the needs, structures and vital social contribution of sectors such as the creative industries."

Recommendations include the provision of a sector-specific recovery deal for the performing arts and an investigation into how the market for recorded music is operating in the era of streaming to ensure that music creators are receiving a fair reward.

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