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Public spending watchdog to investigate so-called ‘festival of Brexit’

11 Oct 2022 5 minute read
Unboxed: About Us on a wet and windy Maes in Caernarfon

The public spending watchdog will investigate the UK Government’s so-called “festival of Brexit” amid concerns that visitor numbers were less than 1% of early targets.

Events held in Wales included the About Us light show in Caernarfon, a ‘Dream machine’ in Cardiff and GALWAD: A story from our future in Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea and Blaenau Ffestiniog which came to an end last week.

In Wales, events were run separately by the Welsh Government through Creative Wales. But there are concerns about how the UK Government handled the overall project.

A cross-party parliamentary committee has now asked the National Audit Office (NAO) to look into how the £120 million project was managed across the UK to “help get to the bottom of how so much taxpayer money could be frittered away for so little return”.

In August, Politics Home reported that the festival – which is supposed to evoke the spirit of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the 1951 Festival of Britain – had received 238,000 visitors compared with organisers’ initial “stretch target” of 66 million.

But the organisers say those figures “misrepresent the public engagement” and reflect attendance at only eight of 107 physical locations within the event’s programme.

Named Unboxed: Creativity in the UK, the event has been running throughout the year and is billed as a “celebration of creativity across all four nations of the United Kingdom”.

The initiative was originally unveiled in 2018 by Theresa May as Festival UK* 2022 and was due to be a nationwide festival of creativity following the UK’s departure from the European Union. Jacob Rees-Mogg previously dubbed it the Festival of Brexit.

The event was rebranded as the Unboxed festival under Boris Johnson’s premiership.

Irresponsible

The Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) called for the investigation last month after previously finding the festival to be an “irresponsible use of public money” and criticising its planning as a “recipe for failure”.

According to the committee’s highly critical report, published in March, the event’s organisers rejected its characterisation as a festival of Brexit.

The Government and organisers said the programme has reached every part of the UK, in more than 100 towns, cities and villages, spreading work, opportunities and opening up access to culture.

Chairman of the DCMS Committee, Conservative MP Julian Knight, said: “That such an exorbitant amount of public cash has been spent on a so-called celebration of creativity that has barely failed to register in the public consciousness raises serious red flags about how the project has been managed from conception through to delivery.

“The NAO’s investigation will bring welcome and thorough scrutiny and help get to the bottom of how so much taxpayer money could be frittered away for so little return.”

Shambles

Calling for the investigation in September, Mr Knight said the design and delivery of the festival “has been an unadulterated shambles”, adding: “The paltry numbers attracted to the festival despite such a hefty investment highlight just what an excessive waste of money the whole project has been.”

The committee referenced the reported attendance figures when requesting the investigation.

Responding, the NAO’s comptroller and auditor general Gareth Davies has proposed a “short, focused report on Unboxed which could act as the basis for future questioning during a committee session with DCMS”.

He said the inquiry could be completed and his report published by the end of this year with the scope and exact timetable yet to be announced.

Mr Davies, in a letter to the committee’s chairman, said: “You suggested that the committee would like to know whether there have been failures of management, whether political pressures kept the project alive and whether DCMS knew that its visitor number projections were unrealistic when it responded to your committee’s report earlier this year.”

“I expect that we should be able to report on the costs and benefits associated with Unboxed, its management as a programme including accountabilities and decision-making processes, and planning work undertaken, including forecasting of visitor numbers,” he said in a letter to the committee’s chairman.

Inclusive

A DCMS spokesperson said: “We do not agree with the select committee’s views.

I“Unboxed has helped open up access to arts and culture across the country with an inclusive and groundbreaking programme of live and digital events, designed to bring people together and delivered in partnership with the devolved nations of the UK.

“More than four million people have engaged in Unboxed programming so far and these numbers are set to rise further.”

A spokesperson for Unboxed: Creativity in the UK said: “The numbers reported misrepresent the public engagement with Unboxed and reflect attendance at only eight of the 107 physical locations within the programme.

“Unboxed’s art, science and tech commissions have been presented in over 100 towns, cities and villages, engaged millions across live and digital and employed thousands of creatives around the UK.

“The Unboxed programme continues until the end of the year.”


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Robin Lynn
Robin Lynn
1 year ago

“Named Unboxed: Creativity in the UK, the event has been running throughout the year…”

Who knew?

Marc
Marc
1 year ago

Oh the irony! Jacob Rees Mogg declared it a ‘festival of Brexit’ and it turns out to be “an unadulterated shambles”,

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
1 year ago
Reply to  Marc

Just like Brexit itself

Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
1 year ago

There was a “Festival of Brexit”?

  1. WHEN? I have an excellent memory and have no recollection of such an event. Was it that stupid One Britain Great Nation drivel?
  2. Who got paid the £120m?
  3. Having a Festival of Brexit is like having a Festival of Colon Cancer. Not really something worth celebrating surely?
Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
1 year ago

There is nothing to celebrate about Brexit

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