Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding from the National Leisure Recovery Fund has been allocated to (a) Wakefield Council and (b) councils in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. The National Leisure Recovery Fund sought to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million was available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which was allocated in a single funding round. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function. This is in addition to the wider financial support provided to councils throughout the pandemic.
Leisure services for Wakefield Council are delivered in-house under the brand Aspire Health. Therefore, they were not eligible to apply for the National Leisure Recovery Fund and would have been able to access support through the Local Government Income Compensation Scheme.
Of the five local authorities in West Yorkshire, only Kirklees submitted an application to the National Leisure Recovery Fund. They were awarded a total of £1,175,523.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support his Department has recently provided to media outlets based in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government is committed to supporting local and regional media outlets as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. Local newspapers have benefited from a number of recent interventions, including the extension of business rates relief for local newspaper office space in England for an additional five years; the investment of £2 million in the Future News Fund; and the zero-rating of VAT on e-newspapers.
During the pandemic, many newspapers have also benefited from a unique and unprecedented government advertising partnership, designed to deliver important messages to UK citizens. Newspapers received up to £35 million additional government advertising revenue as part of the first phase of our coronavirus communications campaign. The campaign has subsequently been extended with at least 60% funding going to smaller regional and local titles. The Wakefield Express and Dewsbury Reporter are both included in the Partnership.
Looking ahead, the government announced in November 2020 that it will establish a new pro-competition regime for digital markets. At the heart of this will be a mandatory code of conduct to govern the relationships between dominant firms and those that rely on their services, including news publishers. The code will be a significant intervention in the government’s effort to support the sustainability of the news publishing industry, helping to rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely.
We will continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining high-quality news journalism at a local level.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plan to take to encourage visits to museums as covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.
DCMS has been working closely with the museums sector to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously. Under the roadmap, we seek to reopen outdoor elements of museums and galleries in Step 2 (no earlier than 12 April), with indoor elements at these attractions opening at Step 3 (no earlier than 17 May).
The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department (a) has spent to date and (b) plans to spend in total on tackling covid-19 disinformation online.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Addressing the challenges of COVID-19 disinformation is a whole of Government effort. That is why we stood up the Counter Disinformation Unit in March 2020, drawing on resources from a number of existing cross-government teams, giving it the flexibility to respond to a range of different issues as needed.
We have reallocated staff from within the Department to boost the size of the team at DCMS. We continually review the requirement and work flexibly across government to ensure the unit is sufficiently resourced, allowing us to surge capacity where it's needed.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to encourage people to participate in indoor group sports after covid-19 restrictions have been eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we have made sure that people can exercise throughout the national and local tiered restrictions. We will continue to promote sport and physical activity and encourage the usage of indoor sports facilities such as gyms as part of Step 2 of the Roadmap.
Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. On top of wider economic support, the Government has announced a £100m support fund for local authority leisure centres to ensure these important facilities remain available once public health restrictions are lifted. This is on top of the £270m which Sport England have committed to providing to the Grassroots sports sector.
We know how important sport is for young people’s physical and mental wellbeing. That is why the Culture Secretary and Education Secretary are working closely with our national sports and Sport England on an extensive offer of activities in schools over the summer.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Wakefield benefits from the rollout of (a) superfast broadband and (b) 5G.
Answered by Matt Warman
Since its inception in 2012, the Superfast Broadband programme has delivered superfast broadband coverage to 5.3 million premises, which constitutes 17% of all households in the UK. As part of this programme, to date, superfast coverage has been provided to c12,000 premises within the Wakefield District.
According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14001009), superfast broadband speeds in the Wakefield constituency are above the national average with superfast connectivity (>=30Mbps) of 98%. The UK average is 96.7%, and the average in England is 97.2%.
We are, however, not resting on our laurels and have a project running in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to utilise the latest Fixed Wireless technology to further deliver superfast broadband connectivity across the West Yorkshire region, including an additional 1,000 premises in the Wakefield district.
The government is committed to providing world-class digital infrastructure, and our ambition is for the majority of the population to have access to 5G by 2027. Approximately 3,000 mobile base stations now provide 5G services across the UK, and it is available in 200 towns and cities including Wakefield.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to help increase the uptake of sport by the general public as covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. From 8 March, sport can take place in school for all children, or as part of wraparound activities if children are attending in order to enable their parents to work, seek work, attend education, seek medical care, or attend a support group. Any organised outdoor sport can restart on 29 March.
The Government has provided unprecedented support to the sport sector to ensure these facilities are able to open. Beyond elite level sport, on the 22nd October 2020, the government announced a £100 million support fund for local authority leisure centres. Sport England are also providing £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. Sport England’s new strategy, ‘Uniting the Movement’, dedicated an additional £50 million to support grassroots sports clubs and organisations.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the long-term sustainability of museums in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has demonstrated the significance it places on culture through the Cultural Recovery Fund. This £1.57bn support package to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions, is the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture. The funding will support our critical cultural and heritage institutions to survive and recover through the coronavirus pandemic.
My department has been working tirelessly with our Arms’ Length bodies to process the awards and I am pleased organisations across the country have benefitted including The Hepworth Wakefield, which was awarded £146,726, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was awarded £804,013 from the Fund.
The National Coal Mining Museum is also supported via Grant in Aid distributed through the DCMS- sponsored Science Museum Group.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help preserve historic sites in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Heritage policy ensures that the historic environment across all parts of England are protected and conserved for the benefit of present and future generations. Through statutory functions (for example, making listing and scheduling decisions to protect our most special buildings and ancient monuments) and also through the bodies it funds such as Historic England, DCMS seeks to promote understanding of and access to the historic environment.
Within the Wakefield constituency, Wakefield Upper Westgate is a High Street Heritage Action Zone under the Government funded High Street Heritage Action Zone £92million scheme. A Historic England grant of £1,899,994 with match funding of just under £2.4m will see the repair and conversion of around 20 priority historic buildings along Westgate.
In addition to this, as of the end of the financial year 2019/20 the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a total of 91 projects worth £26m in the Wakefield constituency. This includes two awards totalling £5m to The Hepworth, 10 awards totalling £10.1m to the National Coal Mining Museum, 6 awards totalling £3.8m to Wakefield Cathedral and £2.8m to Pontefract Market Place.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the viability of jobs in the events industry.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are aware that the events and exhibition industry, as well as other sectors, have been severely impacted by Government measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
My department continues to closely assess the impact on all aspects of the events industry, including employment. We are also in regular contact with Her Majesty’s Treasury to closely assess the effectiveness of COVID-related support measures for the events industry.
Businesses can continue to access the Government’s UK wide support package. This includes the Bounce Back Loans scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
As the Chancellor announced on 24 September, we are also offering affected businesses generous terms for the repayment of deferred taxes and government-backed loans, as well as extending the application window of the government-backed loan schemes.
We continue to engage with stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to monitor the situation facing companies across the UK.