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Written Question
Music Venues: Leasehold
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what support is available to those managing small music venues to enable them to acquire the freehold ownership of those venues in order to create protected leaseholds.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to supporting grassroots music venues, which are crucial to our world-leading music sector.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with industry representatives and across Government to ensure that the live music sector continues to thrive.

That is why we are helping the sector to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging, and diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and to develop new income streams.

This is in addition to other support the Government has provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.


Written Question
Music Venues: Finance
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the potential merits of a ticket levy on large music events and arenas to increase funding for grassroots music.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to supporting grassroots music venues, which are crucial to our world-leading music sector.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with industry representatives and across Government to ensure that the live music sector continues to thrive.

That is why we are helping the sector to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging, and diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and to develop new income streams.

This is in addition to other support the Government has provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.


Written Question
Music Venues: Finance
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits that would accrue from the extension of social investment tax relief to grassroots music venues.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to supporting grassroots music venues, which are crucial to our world-leading music sector.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with industry representatives and across Government to ensure that the live music sector continues to thrive.

That is why we are helping the sector to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging, and diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and to develop new income streams.

This is in addition to other support the Government has provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.


Written Question
Television Licences: Fees and Charges
Wednesday 16th February 2022

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of freezing the TV Licence fee until 2024 on the BBC’s educational output.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government recognises that the BBC’s educational output is an important element of its public purpose. The BBC’s educational offer over lockdown was a demonstration of public service broadcasting at its best and has made a big difference to millions of children across the UK while schools are closed.

The BBC will receive £23 billion over the rest of this Charter period, allowing it to deliver its mission and public purposes and to continue doing what it does best. The Royal Charter requires the BBC to provide specialist educational content to help support learning for children and teenagers across the United Kingdom.

As the BBC is operationally and editorially independent it is up to the BBC to decide how it spends its licence fee settlement. The Government wants to see it deliver the best quality services and output possible with the funding it receives from the public.


Written Question
Leisure: Coronavirus
Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the National Leisure Recovery Fund.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

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 seeks 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 is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be 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.

Government has worked closely with the Sport England, Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible. We are currently in the process of assessing bids for the fund.


Written Question
Football: Governing Bodies
Friday 22nd January 2021

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their commitment in the Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2019, published on 24 November 2019, what progress they have made in setting up a "fan-led review of football governance."

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Football clubs are a vital part of their local communities and must be protected, as we work to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Government continues to have regular discussions with the football authorities on the future direction of the sport, and how to ensure it is sustainable. We are currently deciding on the scope and structure of the fan-led review of football governance, and will announce details of this in due course.


Written Question
Digital Technology
Thursday 14th January 2021

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 20 November (HL10315), what provisions that reduce digital exclusion have been implemented as a result of their continual assessment of varying approaches to promoting digital inclusion; and how the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport defines "vulnerable consumers" in that context.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In response to Covid-19, last year the Government agreed a set of commitments with the UK’s major broadband and mobile operators to support disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers. This included lifting data caps on all fixed broadband packages, and provision of new and generous landline and mobile offers, such as free or low cost mobile data boosts.

The majority of the UK’s leading mobile network operators have also agreed to provide free data uplifts to disadvantaged families with school-age children. Through it’s Get Help with Technology scheme, the Department for Education is also distributing devices to disadvantaged children. Furthemore, we are pleased that all four of the main mobile network operators have committed to working with Oak Academy to zero rate the website, and EE is also zero-rating BBC Bitesize.

In relation to identifying vulnerability in the telecoms sector, Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, requires communication providers to have in place policies and procedures to identify and support customers whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. Such circumstances can include, but not limited to, age, a physical or learning disability, health, income levels, etc.

Ofcom's vulnerability guide, which I attach, provides best practice to communication providers on supporting vulnerable consumers, including setting an expectation on providers that they take an inclusive approach to identifying vulnerable consumers, noting that circumstances that cause vulnerability can be sudden and dynamic, as demonstrated by Covid-19.

The Government has also introduced new essential digital skills qualifications (EDSQs) based on new national standards for essential digital skills. Adults with no or low digital skills can study essential digital skills qualifications for free.


Written Question
Mobile Phones: Disadvantaged
Friday 20th November 2020

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Power Their Potential scheme run by the mobile phone provider Optus in Australia, which allows customers to donate unused data each month to be distributed to those in digital poverty.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government continually assesses varying approaches to promoting digital inclusion when addressing digital exclusion in the UK.

To help support vulnerable consumers with their connectivity and data needs, in March 2020 the Government and Ofcom worked with the UK’s major broadband, landline and mobile providers, who cover most of the market, to develop a package of voluntary industry measures. As part of these commitments, communication providers agreed to give their customers new and generous offers on mobile and landline services. This includes some providers who gave effect to this commitment by giving free and low cost data boosts on mobile, and free calling allowances on landline packages. These were offers which were able to reach consumers quickly compared to data donation arrangements.

Ofcom has also recently published a guide to Treating Vulnerable Consumers Fairly, setting out its expectations and good practice on how vulnerable telecoms consumers should be supported. This includes treating those in financial distress fairly, providing them with payment support options, such as payment holidays, and only disconnecting consumers as a last resort option.


Written Question
ICT: Training
Monday 16th July 2018

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support small businesses and the self-employed to improve their digital skills.

Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde

The Digital Skills Partnership (DSP), announced in the UK Digital Strategy 2017, brings together organisations from across all sectors to tackle the digital skills divide and ensure that digital skills initiatives are better coordinated and targeted more effectively. The aim is ambitious: to improve digital skills and capability levels across the skills spectrum.

The Government-convened Partnership has formed four Delivery Groups to drive forward action in priority areas. The Digital Enterprise Delivery Group, led by Lloyds Banking Group and the Federation of Small Businesses, is working to increase the digital capabilities of SMEs and Charities. This group is developing a peer-to-peer support network for SMEs and those running them and has to date created support materials including toolkits to boost skills and signposting to digital skills opportunities in their local area.

Government is also taking measures to address the UK’s productivity gap, launching the new Business Basics Programme and funding the industry backed Be The Business initiative - both aimed at supporting SMEs to utilise innovative tools and technologies, as well as simple management practices to improve their productivity. There will be a total of £2 million available in the first call of the Business Basics Fund.


Written Question
European Games: Belarus
Monday 9th January 2017

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had, or plan to have, with the British Olympic Committee concerning the presence of UK athletes at the 2019 European Games, in the light of the human rights record of the host country, Belarus.

Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has had no such discussions with the British Olympic Association. The participation of British athletes in the 2019 European Games is ultimately a decision for the British Olympic Association and the appropriate National Governing Bodies of Sport.