Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are taking steps to make up for in full the loss of funding from Creative Europe.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government decided not to seek continued participation in the Creative Europe programme, but to look at other ways of supporting the UK’s cultural and creative sectors.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a domestic successor to the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund, and is not intended to be a replacement for Creative Europe. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is focused on building pride in place and increasing life chances, and delivered through three investment priorities: communities and place, local businesses, and people and skills.
To support independent screen content – including film – to grow internationally, the Government launched the UK Global Screen Fund in April 2021 with initial funding of £7 million. We have committed a further £21 million to this Fund over the period 2022–25 to develop, distribute, and promote independent UK screen content in international markets.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to use the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to make up for the loss of funding from Creative Europe; and if so, how much funding will be provided to that end.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government decided not to seek continued participation in the Creative Europe programme, but to look at other ways of supporting the UK’s cultural and creative sectors.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a domestic successor to the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund, and is not intended to be a replacement for Creative Europe. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is focused on building pride in place and increasing life chances, and delivered through three investment priorities: communities and place, local businesses, and people and skills.
To support independent screen content – including film – to grow internationally, the Government launched the UK Global Screen Fund in April 2021 with initial funding of £7 million. We have committed a further £21 million to this Fund over the period 2022–25 to develop, distribute, and promote independent UK screen content in international markets.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are reviewing the case for making the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras a designated point of entry and exit for items affected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has closely considered the case for designating St Pancras as a CITES Point of Entry and Exit (PoE). Given the nature of CITES trade and the demands a PoE would place on the terminal’s resources and facilities, we do not consider it appropriate to designate it at this time. Defra keeps the list of designated PoEs under review and will continue to work closely with Border Force and industry to evaluate and update the PoE list as appropriate.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve cabotage arrangements for UK musicians touring in the EU.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The dual registration measure came into force in July 2022 to enable eligible specialist events hauliers to transfer their vehicles temporarily between their two operator licences without needing to change vehicle mid-tour.
The measure allows specialist hauliers to undertake journeys in GB on the basis of their GB operator licence and to do the same in the other location on the basis of their EU Community Licence or other third country operator licence. This means specialist events hauliers using the measure benefit by not having their journeys limited by cabotage rules that apply to international operators within each territory, when touring for cultural events.
The Department understands that seven operators – which have an operating base in GB and in the EU or other third country – are currently making use of this measure.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they will make to the government of the United States of America regarding the impact on UK musicians touring in that country of any plans to increase visa costs.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Minister for Media, Tourism and the Creative Industries raised this with the US Embassy on 16 March to make clear the concerns that the UK music industry has about the increase in US visa costs. We will continue to engage the US authorities on this.
US immigration policy is ultimately a matter for the US authorities, so any decision taken on their visa fees will be for them alone. The UK Government cannot interfere in another country's processes and must respect their systems, just as we expect them to respect the UK's processes.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 15 February (HL5298), how many car accidents occurred in England between 2000 and 2016 in which the glare of car lights was recorded as either the (1) main, or (2) a contributory, factor leading to the crash.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The number of reported personal injury road collisions in England involving at least one car, and which had the contributory factor ‘vision affected by dazzling headlights’ assigned to the collision by a police officer attending the scene is shown in the table, for each year between 2005 and 2016. Data on contributory factors was not collected prior to 2005.
Statistics on collisions involving dazzling headlights are produced based on contributory factors assigned by police officers attending the scene of collisions. A reporting officer can assign up to six factors which in their judgement may have contributed to the collision. These factors are not based on a full investigation, and some factors may not be obvious to the officer and are therefore likely to be underreported. No distinction is made as to whether or not a factor is a ‘main’ factor.
Year | Collisions involving at least one car, where ‘vision affected by dazzling headlights’ was recorded as a contributory factor | Total collisions involving at least one car where a police officer attended and at least one contributory factor was recorded |
2005 | 373 | 116,005 |
2006 | 411 | 114,834 |
2007 | 341 | 110,142 |
2008 | 348 | 102,916 |
2009 | 305 | 100,244 |
2010 | 245 | 94,911 |
2011 | 316 | 92,553 |
2012 | 267 | 90,105 |
2013 | 296 | 84,807 |
2014 | 276 | 90,739 |
2015 | 248 | 84,637 |
2016 | 240 | 78,038 |
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 30 January (HL Deb col 415), how many car accidents have occurred in the UK in each of the last five years in which the glare of car lights was recorded as either the main or a contributory factor leading to the crash.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The number of reported personal injury road collisions in Great Britain involving at least one car, and which had the contributory factor ‘vision affected by dazzling headlights’ assigned to the collision by a police officer attending the scene, is shown in the table for each of the last 5 years for which data are available.
Year | *A - Vision affected by dazzling headlights | *B - Total collisions involving at least one car |
2017 | 292 | 81,385 |
2018 | 250 | 74,507 |
2019 | 258 | 69,249 |
2020 | 180 | 51,813 |
2021 | 208 | 57,915 |
Notes
*A - Collisions involving at least one car, where ‘vision affected by dazzling headlights’ was recorded as a contributory factor
*B - Total collisions involving at least one car where a police officer attended and at least one contributory factor was recorded
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Kamall on 20 October (HL Deb col 1168), whether there are ongoing discussions with the arts sector regarding a reduction in VAT on tickets; and what assessment they have made of the effect of such a measure on the sector.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Exceptions to the standard rate have always been limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.
VAT is the UK’s third largest tax forecast to raise £154 billion in 2022/23, helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS and policing.
In addition, a request for a VAT cut should be viewed in the context of over £50 billion of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum.
Currently, there are no plans to reduce the main rate of VAT on tickets for the art sector. However, the Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help enable (1) museums, and (2) libraries, to act as warm hubs during the coming winter.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced an Energy Bill Relief Scheme to support non-domestic energy users (including museums and libraries) with increased energy prices. The support provides a discount on gas and electricity unit prices, applied to energy usage initially between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023. That will support museums and libraries to provide heating to people who visit this winter, but no separate support is being provided specifically to enable the sectors to act as warm hubs.
Public libraries are run by local authorities, as are some museums. In these cases it will be for each local authority to identify the needs of local residents and to make decisions about the use of these community assets to meet those needs, including the provision of warm hubs.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Kamall on 20 October (HL Deb col 1167), when they intend to report on their three-month review of the energy bill relief scheme in determining what further support is required for arts and cultural organisations; and which department or organisation will make that report.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The results of this Treasury-led review will be published by the end of the year.