Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to ways to support the BBC’s work in relation to classical music, particularly in relation to young musicians.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The BBC continues to hold a uniquely important role as a cornerstone of the whole of the UK’s creative economy, including playing an important role in the provision of music.
As part of the Charter Review process, the Government is looking at how the BBC can best use its significant public funding to act differently to other broadcasters and prioritise genres and activities that would otherwise be underserved by the market. We are considering options to ensure that the BBC drives opportunities and good jobs across the UK, including in the creative sector and the arts.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the BBC charter renewal process will consider the impact of changes on the music sector.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The BBC continues to hold a uniquely important role as a cornerstone of the whole of the UK’s creative economy, including playing an important role in the provision of music.
As part of the Charter Review process, the Government is looking at how the BBC can best use its significant public funding to act differently to other broadcasters and prioritise genres and activities that would otherwise be underserved by the market. We are considering options to ensure that the BBC drives opportunities and good jobs across the UK, including in the creative sector and the arts.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps with relevant football bodies to help increase British Asian representation in football (a) on and (b) off the pitch.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps with relevant football bodies to help increase the level of volunteering in grassroots football.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with public service broadcasters on commissioning (a) film and (b) TV products from media organisations within the UK.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Individual commissioning decisions are a matter for the public service broadcasters (PSBs) themselves, which are operationally and editorially independent of Government. In 2022, commissions by PSBs were worth more than £1.5 billion to the independent production sector in the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to ensure there are no uninsulated overhead electricity cables at domestic sport facilities.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. It is for individual sports clubs to carry out risk assessments and put in place mitigations that will improve player safety.
Sport England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport arm's length body for grassroots sport, is not a regulator of community sport but does provide guidance to help sports clubs carry out risk assessments, as do national governing bodies of sport.
For each new sports facility built, there is a legal obligation shared between developers, designers and contractors to promote health and safety. This applies throughout the entire project cycle from design and construction through to operation, maintenance and demolition. This obligation is given in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations - https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/index.htm. Any breach of these regulations is a criminal offence.
In addition, Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 outline ongoing duties to protect workers and members of the public from risk.
The Health and Safety Executive and others, including the Energy Networks Association, have also produced guidance in relation to safety around overhead lines.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an estimate of the number of volunteers there were in amateur football in (a) 2010, (b) 2019 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government tracks activity levels through Sport England’s Active Lives surveys. Two surveys run annually: Active Lives Adult, and Active Lives Children and Young People. These surveys measure the activity levels of people across England and allows the Government to collect accurate data on what and how much sport and physical activity different groups are participating in. You can find out more about the surveys on Sport England's website.
2009/10
Active People survey - 15.2 million people took part in sport and wider physical activity for an average of at least 30 minutes a week.
Children and young people - Sport England only started collecting data in 2017.
2018/19
Active Lives Adult survey - 28.6 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young People survey - 3.3 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
2022/23
Active Lives Adult survey - 29.5 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young people survey - 3.5 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
It’s important to note that comparing data on a consistent basis across this time is not possible as the methodologies and metrics employed changed to reflect changes in the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidance.
Since 2010, the CMO guidelines on physical activity changed from five separate sessions of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity in a week to at least 150 minutes of moderate equivalent intensity physical activity a week. In addition to this, Sport England’s remit has extended to include recreational activities and active travel.
Sport England does not record the number of volunteers in amateur football.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an estimate of the number of people that played grassroots sport in England in (a) 2010, (b) 2019 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government tracks activity levels through Sport England’s Active Lives surveys. Two surveys run annually: Active Lives Adult, and Active Lives Children and Young People. These surveys measure the activity levels of people across England and allows the Government to collect accurate data on what and how much sport and physical activity different groups are participating in. You can find out more about the surveys on Sport England's website.
2009/10
Active People survey - 15.2 million people took part in sport and wider physical activity for an average of at least 30 minutes a week.
Children and young people - Sport England only started collecting data in 2017.
2018/19
Active Lives Adult survey - 28.6 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young People survey - 3.3 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
2022/23
Active Lives Adult survey - 29.5 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young people survey - 3.5 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
It’s important to note that comparing data on a consistent basis across this time is not possible as the methodologies and metrics employed changed to reflect changes in the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidance.
Since 2010, the CMO guidelines on physical activity changed from five separate sessions of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity in a week to at least 150 minutes of moderate equivalent intensity physical activity a week. In addition to this, Sport England’s remit has extended to include recreational activities and active travel.
Sport England does not record the number of volunteers in amateur football.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support lower budget film and TV programmes.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. This was set out in June 2023 in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which was accompanied by £77 million of new funding to support the sector’s growth.
We are taking steps to support producers of all sizes and the production sector more generally. This includes generous tax reliefs across studio space and visual effects, investing in studio infrastructure, and supporting innovation and promoting independent content through the UK Global Screen Fund.
At Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor also announced the UK Independent Film Tax Credit. Eligible films with production budgets (excluding marketing and distribution) of up to £15 million will be able to opt-in to claim enhanced Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit at a rate of 53% on their qualifying expenditure.
This is in addition to our long standing interventions supporting the independent television production sector, including the independent productions quota and associated Terms of Trade regime, which have been extremely successful in furthering the diversity of the sector and its output.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help encourage visitors to libraries.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
We will be publishing a refreshed Government strategy for public libraries later this year, informed by the independent review of English public libraries conducted by Baroness Sanderson of Welton which engaged with a wide range of interested parties, including through the series of roundtable meetings she held across the country.
One of the recommendations of Baroness Sanderson’s review was that Libraries Week be moved from October, which often clashes with the party conference season, to a time in the year when MPs and peers can more easily engage with it and promote the work of libraries in their local area. We are delighted that, from this year, Libraries Week will take place at the end of June (this year, 24–30 June).
The forthcoming strategy will set out our plans to ensure that people across the country can benefit from excellent library services, and HM Government will explore opportunities to increase library use and engagement especially by children in line with Baroness Sanderson’s independent review recommendations.
In addition, the £20.5 million, DCMS-funded Libraries Improvement Fund is supporting public library services across England. The fund is supporting 95 projects to enable library services to upgrade their buildings and improve digital infrastructure, increasing their potential to develop more flexible spaces and improving digital access, thereby increasing library access and use.