Answer from Hansard

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)

When I was appointed as Culture Secretary two and a half years ago, I was horrified to receive a letter from a Member of this House concerning the case of her constituent who had had his film pulled from a prominent arts venue simply because he was Jewish. In response to that, we set up a group convened jointly by Lord John Mann and Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies to look at that issue. It is an ongoing problem. We have taken a number of steps, including asking Arts Council England to conduct an independent audit of how it handles antisemitism, and we have increased the amount of funding that we provide to Jewish organisations, including for security costs, because safety and security can never become an excuse for tolerating antisemitism and allowing Jewish people to be silenced.