Updates from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events

New Chair

Due to his move to the Ministry of Defence as a PPS, Shaun Davies had to step down as Chair of the APPG. 

We are working on identifying a new Chair, and are in touch with the Speaker’s office regarding the process, which of course is quite complex. At the moment, we have a date for an Extraordinary General Meeting to elect a new Chair, which is currently planned for 22nd October 2025, in Portcullis House, but we are hoping to have a Chair in place before then to enable us to have a simple nomination and swift election on that date.

New DCMS Minister 

You may have seen that on 07 September, we announced Ian Murray as the new Minister of State at DCMS, with responsibility for tourism. However, just four days later, the Ministers brief was amended, with the tourism brief now being held by Stephanie Peacock, who also has Sport, Civil Society and Youth as part of her portfolio.

We have requested a meeting with the new Minister to provide her and her team with a brief on the sector and are in touch regularly with DCMS officials.

Written Question

Just before stepping down, we asked Shaun to submit a written parliamentary question to DCMS on their plans to provide official support to the events sector, following Karl Robson’s move to the Ministry of Justice.

Please see the official DCMS response below:

Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75228):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2025 to Question 45986 on Events Industry, what plans her Department has to change the (a) number and (b) grade of civil servants working on supporting the business events sector. (75228) 

Tabled on: 04 September 2025

Answer:
Stephanie Peacock: 

The Government recognises the significant contribution that business events make to the UK economy, supporting jobs, driving regional growth, and showcasing the UK’s strengths on the global stage. Officials in DCMS continue to engage regularly with industry stakeholders to ensure that government policy reflects the needs of the sector.

The Department keeps its resourcing under review to ensure it can deliver against its priorities effectively, but there are no current plans to change the number or grade of civil servants specifically allocated to supporting the business events sector.

The answer was submitted on 11 Sep 2025 at 17:53.

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