Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to involve (a) gyms and (b) personal trainers in promoting health and fitness during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Physical activity is crucial to the health and wellbeing of the nation. We have been working closely with our national sports council Sport England to continue to promote health and fitness during lockdown. Sport England have launched the Join the Movement campaign which provides tips, advice and guidance on how people can keep or get active in and around the home.
Join the Movement has involved the health and fitness industry, including partners like ukactive, in the development of the campaign. Its online hub offers free exercise content and advice from organisations such as the NHS. Workouts from fitness brands and influencers such as Les Mills on Demand, The Body Coach (Joe Wicks) and FiiT are also available via the hub, many of whom are offering extended free trials to help people get active at home.
As part of the campaign, Sport England are keen to hear from those who have more content to share and they have also urged those who share their ambitions and values to help spread the message of Join the Movement across the nation.
In addition, the 450 school games organisers, funded by government have been redeployed to help children and families to get active at home using online content.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
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 ensure that (a) mass participation sporting events and (b) spectator sports can function effectively after the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the impact that covid-19 is having on the sporting sector. The Chancellor has announced an unprecedented package of measures to help businesses in this period, including £330 billion worth of government-backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses across the UK.
The Government is keen to ensure mass participation sporting events and spectator sports can function effectively once the covid-19 outbreak has subsided. We are engaging regularly across the sector, including working with competition organisers, to understand how sports are planning to return and the circumstances in which they foresee it may be possible for events to go ahead. But we have been clear throughout that this can only happen when it is safe to do so and in line with the public health guidance of at the time.
Advice on sporting events has at all times been in accordance with the latest scientific and medical advice. The Government has been taking a clear, phased approach to tackling the virus, led by our medical experts and our absolute priority is to protect people's health. However the situation continues to evolve and we will update guidance as the medical advice changes.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to meet the demands placed on the national broadband infrastructure to support people using the internet whilst in self-isolation.
Answered by Matt Warman
Overall, the telecoms sector is well prepared for the impacts of Covid-19 on national broadband infrastructure; its plans are extensive and there is currently sufficient network capacity to support the various needs of consumers during the pandemic.
The Government recognises how important good connectivity is across the United Kingdom, as an increasing number of people have to self isolate. With that in mind, I am pleased that we have worked with the industry to announce additional measures to protect and support consumers, including the vulnerable and those who may become vulnerable due to Covid-19 related circumstances. A joint statement from the Government, industry and Ofcom was published on 29 March 2020 highlighting these commitments.
This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-agrees-measures-with-telecoms-companies-to-support-vulnerable-consumers-through-covid-19
I remain in regular touch with Ofcom and the relevant companies and will continue to keep the situation under review.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the financial stability of (a) gyms, (b) amateur sports clubs and (c) community sport event organisations and (d) other parts of the fitness industry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor has announced an unprecedented support package including: a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, where small and large employers will be eligible to apply for a government grant of 80% of workers’ salaries; a deferral of the next quarter of VAT payments for firms, until the end of June, representing a £30bn injection into the economy; £330bn worth of government backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses; and a Self-Employed Income Support Scheme will help eligible freelance workers receive up to £2,500 per month in grants for at least three months.
During the Coronavirus outbreak I have engaged regularly with the sport sector to understand how it can benefit from this support, and address any remaining issues.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
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 ensure the adequate supply of cabinet space for routing superfast broadband to individual properties.
Answered by Matt Warman
I refer the Honourable Member for Bosworth to my answer to his question, reference number 28001, on Monday 23 March.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
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 ensure the adequate supply of cabinet space for routing superfast broadband to individual properties in Bosworth.
Answered by Matt Warman
Openreach has a standard internal process whereby they monitor the capacity available within individual cabinets. Where cabinets are nearing maximum capacity they will deploy additional capacity. It is in Openreach’s commercial interest to do this as additional take-up of broadband services equates to additional revenue.
Building Digital UK (BDUK), the broadband delivery arm within DCMS, has standard arrangements within their Superfast contracts such that if take-up of these services exceeds a certain threshold - where a given postcode is more commercially viable than Openreach predicted - then a proportion of the public subsidy is returned to BDUK via what is termed “Take-up Clawback”.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve mobile phone connectivity in Bosworth constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the mobile network operators’ (MNOs) Shared Rural Network (SRN) proposal. The proposal would share investment costs between the MNOs and government and increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025. It will be underpinned by a legally binding coverage commitment from each operator.
The Government's in-principle support is subject to detailed negotiations. While this is not yet a done deal, the Prime Minister has made improvements to rural mobile coverage part of his first 100 days pledge. I will continue to work with the sector to make that happen.
The exact site deployment plans and timescales will be managed by the MNOs themselves in order for them to best deliver the agreed coverage outcomes. So until the operators’ final radio planning exercise is complete, neither the Government nor the operators will know the precise location or number of new or upgraded masts. However, the operators will be consulting with local communities as their roll out plans become clearer.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department will take to use the legacy of Euro 2020 to improve grassroots football facilities in Bosworth constituency.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Government is committed to ensuring people across the country have access to football facilities, which is why we committed to investing £550m into grassroots football facilities over the next 10 years.
The government has also committed £1m to support The Football Association’s and Sport England’s programme to raise awareness and promote Euro 2020 across England. This includes improving football facilities around the country - known as the ‘National Promotion Programme’. The ‘National Promotion Programme’ will focus on both new and existing community football facilities, forming part of the existing National Football Facilities Strategy.
The Football Foundation, who provide Exchequer funding on behalf of Sport England as well as other investments funded by the FA and Premier League, have already invested £1,803,840 for football projects in the constituency of Bosworth. This includes £1,750,044 for facilities that have supported Hinckley United FC, the Richmond Park Sporting Hub, Market Bosworth Sports Club, and Greentowers FC Hinckley.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
What steps her Department is taking to improve broadband connections in Bosworth constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government has made good progress in Bosworth, with over 97% of premises able to access superfast speeds. This is up from 57% in 2010.
Only 1% of premises in the constituency of Bosworth have speeds below 15 Megabits per second. This is testament to the great work undertaken by the Superfast Leicestershire superfast broadband rollout programme, which has been boosted by just under £8 million of central government funding. In October 2018 the 600th Superfast Fibre cabinet in Leicestershire was unveiled in Market Bosworth.