Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to negotiate arrangements with the EU for reduced visa requirements for performances by (1) musicians, and (2) other artistic performers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This Government recognises the importance of our world leading creative and cultural industries. That is why it provided an unprecedented £1.57bn package of support to help these sectors through the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, over £1 billion has been awarded to almost 3800 organisations, with at least 75,000 jobs saved so far, and many more freelancers also benefiting from new work that can now be created. At Budget 2021, HMT also announced £300m of additional funding for the Culture Recovery Fund which will be made available to support cultural organisations in England as audiences begin to return. This demonstrates our firm commitment to ensuring that UK culture continues to thrive.
We know that while leaving the EU will bring changes and new processes to touring and working in the EU, it will also bring new opportunities. Leaving the EU has always meant that there would be changes to how practitioners operate in the EU.
UK performers and artists are of course still able to tour and perform in the EU, and vice versa. However, we understand the concerns about the new arrangements and we are committed to supporting the sectors as they get to grips with the changes to systems and processes.
We are now working urgently across government and in collaboration with cultural and creative industries, including through a new working group, to help address these issues so that touring in Europe can resume with ease as soon as it is safe to do so.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the national restrictions to address the COVID-19 pandemic introduced in England on 4 January, and the impact on the cultural sector of those restrictions, what plans they have to establish a third round of the Cultural Recovery Fund, and whether they plan to offer more than the £1.57 billion that they announced for that fund on 5 July 2020.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
DCMS is fully committed to supporting the culture and heritage sectors to survive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over £1bn of funding has already been allocated across arts, heritage and independent cinemas, and we are working hard to ensure that the £400m of round two funding supports as many culturally significant organisations as possible.
We continue to work closely with our Arms Length Bodies to understand the need in the sector and how best to support them as we transition out of lockdown over the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to seek an assurance from appointees for the Chair of Ofcom that they are committed to the future of public service broadcasting in the UK; and if so, how they intend to seek such an assurance.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is supportive of a modern system of public service broadcasting that remains relevant and continues to meet the needs of UK audiences in the future.
The Chair of Ofcom is appointed by the DCMS Secretary of State following a fair and open competition and is assisted in this by an Advisory Assessment Panel. The preferred candidate will be required to attend a pre-appointment hearing with the DCMS Select Committee, following which a report will be published. Both the Advisory Assessment Panel and the DCMS Select Committee will have an opportunity to assess candidates against the published criteria for the role.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is collaborating with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on sharing and preserving digital heritage collections.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The cornerstone of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) collaboration to preserve and share digital heritage collections is, ‘Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World’. The programme sees DCMS and AHRC work with AHRC’s Independent Research Organisations (IROs) and universities with the aim of creating a unified virtual ‘national collection’. It is funded via an £18.93 million investment over five years.
The AHRC’s IROs include many of the world’s pre-eminent museums, galleries and archives, playing a highly significant role in the UK’s international prestige and in its multi-billion heritage tourist economy.
Towards a National Collection forges new partnerships between IROs and universities, amplifying and deepening their joint research power. The programme uses new technology to dissolve barriers between different collections – and open UK heritage to new audiences at home and across the world.
The funding for the programme forms part of the Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF), delivered by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) to drive an increase in high quality multi- and interdisciplinary research and innovation. The SPF ensures that UKRI's investment links up effectively with government research priorities and opportunities.
AHRC and DCMS also collaborated on designing the Capability for Collections Fund (CapCo), an allocation from UKRI’s £315m World Class Labs programme, to upgrade and renew conservation, heritage science and digitisation facilities in museums; and provide the underpinning infrastructure required to unlock the creative, economic and innovation potential of the UK’s heritage assets.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to using the National Lottery Distribution Fund exclusively to support the arts, heritage and sports industries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic over the next three years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Income raised by the National Lottery funds good causes in four broad areas, which are set out in the National Lottery Act 1993: communities 40%, arts 20%, heritage 20%, and sport 20%. The government remains committed to funding these four areas and funds are distributed by 12 Lottery Distributing Bodies (LDBs) at arm’s length from government.
The National Lottery distributors have directed up to £600m of funding to UK charities and organisations to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This has included specific support for the Arts, Heritage and Sports sectors:
Arts Council England reallocated £144 million of National Lottery funding to form their £160 million emergency response package to support individuals and organisations across the cultural sector to deal with the immediate impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has provided £50 million through its Heritage Emergency Fund, which was set up in April to support people and organisations in the heritage sector as a response to the Covid crisis. Phase 1 of this Fund provided grants between £3,000 and £50,000; in phase 2 of the Fund, applicants could apply for grants of up to £250,000.
The National Lottery has contributed £172m towards Sport England’s £210m fund to support the sport and physical activity sector through COVID-19. This includes the £35 million Community Emergency Fund, which is helping community sports clubs and exercise centres to remain open during the pandemic.
More information about the support the National Lottery is providing in response to Covid-19 can be found on the National Lottery Promotions Unit website:
https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response
In addition to National Lottery funding, the government has also provided specific support for these sectors, including investing an unprecedented £1.57 billion, the biggest ever one-off cash injection into UK culture, to tackle the crisis facing our most loved arts organisations and heritage sites. Similarly, the government has provided substantial support to the sport sector, including tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, alongside urgent work to support sport clubs as a result of clubs not being able to admit spectators to stadia from the 1 October.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will consider increasing their annual grant to the National Heritage Memorial Fund as a tribute to those who have lost their lives in the UK to COVID-19.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All spending decisions are a matter for the Chancellor. Government is currently looking at options to offer further support to the heritage sector. The National Heritage Memorial Fund receives £5million a year from the Government.
In this, its 40th anniversary year, it is right to acknowledge the vast contribution that the National Heritage Memorial Fund has made to saving more than 1,200 of the UK’s most iconic objects and places, through grants totalling over £365million.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the forthcoming White Paper on the development of digital technology and the digital economy will include reserve powers to address economic harm on online platforms in order to protect the interests of the UK’s creative industries against piracy and the spread of illegal content.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Development of digital technology and the digital economy is not specifically in scope of the Online Harms White Paper.
As part of the Digital Charter, the Government's overarching strategy to make sure the internet works for everyone - for citizens, businesses and society as a whole - we have already introduced a number of measures to protect the interests of the UK's Creative Industries, including facilitating a Code of Practice signed by search engines and copyright owners. This has reduced the prominence of websites hosting illegal copyright infringing content in natural search results.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to safeguard the use by UK citizens of .eu email addresses after the UK's departure from the EU.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
We aim to ensure that the interests of UK citizens and businesses who have registered .eu domain names are taken into account when the UK withdraws from the EU.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to ensuring that higher education universities, colleges, and institutions are not designated as public authorities for the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The General Data Protection Regulation will apply in the UK from 25th May 2018. HMG is currently considering its legislative approach in respect of the member state flexibilities that are available across a range of affected issues.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the delays that occur between the announcement of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant being made and permission to start being given to the recipient organisations.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Heritage Lottery Fund work closely to support grant recipients in meeting the essential requirements prior to works starting. The HLF are not aware of a general problem with delays around the existing permission to start process, though timings can vary.