Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Sport, what engagement her Department has had with the national football associations across the UK regarding a joint bid for the UEFA European Championships in 2028.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
On Wednesday 23 March 2022, the five football associations of the UK and Ireland submitted a joint expression of interest to host the UEFA European Championships 2028. The UK Government supported this step and we believe that hosting EURO 2028 would be a fantastic opportunity for the whole of the UK and Ireland.
My officials have worked closely alongside the football associations, the government of Ireland and the Devolved Administrations throughout this process, and we will continue to engage closely as we develop our potential bid.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with Twitter representatives regarding disinformation tweeted by official accounts of the Russian Government.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Russian state is waging an aggressive information campaign, including using disinformation spread by official Russian Government accounts to try and justify Russia’s unacceptable military action in Ukraine.
DCMS is working closely with major social media platforms, including Twitter, to ensure disinformation, and coordinated inauthentic or manipulated behaviour, is removed in line with platforms’ terms of service, and authoritative content which accurately depicts the ongoing situation in Ukraine is promoted across their services.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to increase co-operation between Scottish museums and museums elsewhere in the UK.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government welcomes cooperation between Scottish museums and museums across the UK. While culture is a devolved matter, and sponsored museums are arms-length bodies which are operationally independent, the Government provides significant support to museums, including grant-in-aid funding, exhibitions tax relief, and the VAT refund scheme.
In line with a recommendation from the 2017 Mendoza Review of museums, DCMS and the National Museum Directors' Council worked together to devise a Museums’ Partnership Framework, which was published in October 2018. National Museums Scotland are fully involved in this project. DCMS is currently analysing the responses to a survey on the amount of collaboration that currently occurs, and will publish a report later this year.
Examples of recent cooperation involving Scottish museums include V&A Dundee, recently nominated for the Art Fund Museum of the Year award, which is a spectacular partnership showcasing hundreds of V&A objects highlighting Scotland's rich design heritage; joint acquisitions and exhibitions such as the Artist Rooms collaboration between Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland; loans such as those from Scottsh museums and organisations to enable the Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; and the Natural History Museum’s Dippy the dinosaur which is touring the UK and was recently exhibited in Glasgow.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support horse racing venues after the recent equine flu outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) is an arms-length body of DCMS which is responsible for collecting a statutory Levy from betting operators which it distributes in line with its statutory duties to support British horse racing. In April 2017, the Government implemented significant reforms to the Levy, resulting in a £45m increase in statutory Levy income in 2017/18.
The HBLB provides over £200,000 annually for the Equine Influenza Programme, and a further £150,000 towards the Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance Programme, provides British racing with expert information and provisions to minimise the impact of equine diseases and respond quickly to outbreaks.
HBLB has committed to pay a contribution to owners or trainers for the costs incurred where the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) recently required test samples to be taken for equine influenza, including the cost of the swabs and the veterinary fees involved. In addition, HBLB has committed £321,500 to support the rescheduling of replacement races and fixtures following the recent suspension, and will continue discussions with the BHA regarding funding for further races and fixtures as required. The BHA have now scheduled a number of additional fixtures from February 20th onwards.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 (a) how widespread social exclusion is in rural areas and (b) the effect of his Department’s policies on social exclusion in rural areas.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through the evidence gathered in the 2017-18 Community Life Survey in England, indicators linked to social exclusion do not show a significant difference between urban and rural areas. Adults living in rural areas are less likely to say that they often/always feel lonely than people living in urban areas (3% compared with 6%). In addition, adults living in rural areas are more likely to say they feel they belong to their immediate neighbourhood (68%) than those living in urban areas (61%).
The cross-government loneliness team, based in DCMS, is overseeing the implementation of England’s first Loneliness Strategy, with policies for both rural and urban areas. Government has also unlocked £20 million to tackle loneliness across England including the £11.5m Building Connections Fund, from which evidence will be gathered on what interventions work in different places, including rural areas. Guidance has also been published with the Office for National Statistics to establish a consistent way of measuring loneliness.
In its response to a House of Lords’ report on the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act in May 2018, the government reiterated its commitment to rural proofing all policies. DCMS supports this through engagement with rural stakeholders and utilising Defra guidance and statistical information.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the contribution of the horseracing industry to the economy in Scotland.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Government recognises the valuable contribution horseracing makes to rural economies across Britain. A recent economic impact study commissioned by Scottish Racing found that the Scottish horseracing industry generated £302 million in revenues in 2016, sustains 3,430 jobs, and generates £30m of tax revenues per annum. Further detail is provided in Scottish Racing’s 2016 Annual Review: http://www.scottishracing.co.uk/annual-review/
In April 2017 the Government implemented reforms to the Horserace Betting Levy, which extended the Levy to offshore online operators. This is expected to result in a significant increase in Levy income for the benefit of the sport across the whole of Britain.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of whether mobile phone providers have met their legally binding agreement to provide a mobile phone signal to 90 per cent of the UK’s landmass by the end of 2017.
Answered by Margot James
The regulator Ofcom is responsible for enforcing spectrum licence obligations and it is assessing whether mobile network operators have met their licence obligations that were agreed in 2014. Ofcom plans to publish its assessment in early 2018. In 2017 the Government granted Ofcom new powers to issue fines to mobile operators in the event that they do not meet their licence obligations.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how the agreement with mobile phone providers to provide a mobile phone signal to 90 per cent of the UK’s landmass by the end of 2017 will be enforced.
Answered by Margot James
The regulator Ofcom is responsible for enforcing spectrum licence obligations and it is assessing whether mobile network operators have met their licence obligations that were agreed in 2014. Ofcom plans to publish its assessment in early 2018. In 2017 the Government granted Ofcom new powers to issue fines to mobile operators in the event that they do not meet their licence obligations.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of strengthening future license conditions for the 5G spectrum auction in order to improve telephone and data signal in remote parts of the UK.
Answered by Margot James
The regulator Ofcom is responsible for enforcing spectrum licence obligations and it is assessing whether mobile network operators have met their licence obligations that were agreed in 2014. Ofcom plans to publish its assessment in early 2018. In 2017 the Government granted Ofcom new powers to issue fines to mobile operators in the event that they do not meet their licence obligations.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of rural premises in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) England have access to superfast broadband.
Answered by Margot James
Ofcom's 2017 Connected Nations report includes the following percentages in figure 5, measuring superfast availability at 30Mbit/s in May 2017, showing percentage point changes from a year earlier (pp).
| Urban coverage, % premises | Rural coverage, % premises |
UK | 95% (↑2pp) | 66% (↑7pp) |
England | 95% (↑1pp) | 69% (↑6pp) |
Northern Ireland | 97% (↑1pp) | 57% (↑5pp) |
Scotland | 94% (↑4pp) | 56% (↑10pp) |
Wales | 96% (↑3pp) | 66% (↑10pp) |
Source: Ofcom analysis of operator data