The Government believes that a vibrant cultural, media and sporting sector is crucial for our well-being and quality of life. We need to promote excellence in these fields, with government funding used where appropriate to encourage philanthropic and corporate investment.

• We will maintain the independence of the BBC, and give the National Audit Office full access to the BBC’s accounts to ensure transparency.

• We will enable partnerships between local newspapers, radio and television stations to promote a strong and diverse local media industry.

• We will maintain free entry to national museums and galleries, and give national museums greater freedoms.

• We will work with the Scottish Government to deliver a successful Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, and ensure that the 2013 Rugby League and the 2015 Rugby Union World Cups are successful. We will strongly support the England 2018 World Cup bid.

• We will work with the Mayor of London to ensure a safe and successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012, and urgently form plans to deliver a genuine and lasting legacy.

• We will examine the case for moving to a ‘gross profits tax’ system for the National Lottery, and reform the National Lottery so that more money goes into sport, the arts and heritage.

• We will stop wasteful spending by National Lottery distributors by banning lobbying activities and restricting administration costs to 5% of total income.

• We will use cash in dormant betting accounts to improve local sports facilities and support sports clubs.

• We will encourage the reform of football governance rules to support the co-operative ownership of football clubs by supporters.

• We will support the creation of an annual Olympic-style schools sport event to encourage competitive sport in schools, and we will seek to protect school playing fields.

• We will cut red tape to encourage the performance of more live music.

• We will introduce measures to ensure the rapid roll-out of superfast broadband across the country. We will ensure that BT and other infrastructure providers allow the use of their assets to deliver such broadband, and we will seek to introduce superfast broadband in remote areas at the same time as in more populated areas. If necessary, we will consider using the part of the TV licence fee that is supporting the digital switchover to fund broadband in areas that the market alone will not reach.