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Written Question
Culture: Autism
Friday 8th September 2023

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 53 of the consultation document entitled Disability Action Plan: Consultation, published in July 2023, what steps her Department is taking to encourage autism-friendly programmes in the cultural and heritage sectors; and whether she (a) has made and (b) plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of those programmes.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport works closely with its arm’s-length bodies, such as Arts Council England (ACE), the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and Historic England (HE), to ensure that the cultural and heritage sectors are accessible to everyone, including those who are autistic.

ACE provides regular funding to disability-led organisations across the country through its National Portfolio Organisation investment programme. This programme includes organisations that support neurodivergent creatives and autism-friendly programming – for example, Unanima Theatre: a new joiner to the 2023–26 investment programme, which has an exclusively learning disabled and autistic cast who draw on their lives and experiences when creating work.

More broadly, ACE has worked to increase the investment in disability-led organisations across the National Portfolio; within the current portfolio there are now 32 such organisations. ACE monitors each organisation throughout the funding period, in this case 2023–26, to ensure they deliver the plans and activity agreed with ACE.

NLHF regularly funds projects that focus on autism. In 2022, it awarded £245,104 to The National Autistic Society which celebrated and preserved the stories, voices and memories of autistic people. In the same year, VocalEyes was awarded £99,814 to launch a digital heritage volunteering initiative providing neurodiverse people with valuable heritage volunteering experience and contributing to vital access and inclusion work in the sector. As a funding body, NLHF expects funding recipients to report back on expected outcomes and the intended effectiveness/impact of the programme.

Finally, HE has recently launched a new funding round for its Everyday Heritage Grants programme, with neurodiversity and disability identified as groups of people HE is particularly keen to engage and fund. HE will be measuring funded projects looking at the impact on wellbeing outcomes.


Written Question
Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Disability
Thursday 29th June 2023

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.

Answered by John Whittingdale

In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport had four policies included in the National Disability Strategy. These were to: introduce a new free arts access card to make it easier for disabled people to enjoy the arts and cultural venues across the UK; make the UK the most accessible tourism destination in Europe; work with Sport England to address the inequalities faced by disabled people in sport and physical activity; and explore how to improve the accessibility of private sector websites.

Firstly, we are continuing to develop the Arts Access Card Scheme, which will make it easier for disabled people to enjoy arts and cultural venues across the UK. The pilot of the scheme is scheduled to launch in spring 2024.

Secondly, we are progressing our ambition for the UK to be the most accessible tourism destination in Europe by engaging with stakeholders, including VisitEngland, VisitBritain and the Tourism Industry Council Working Group, and we are also aiming to host a series of ministerial roundtables to discuss the barriers disabled people face as tourists.

Thirdly, we are continuing to address the inequalities faced by disabled people in sport and physical activity. As such, Sport England has provided £1 million of specialist disability investment as part of its ongoing ‘recover and reinvent’ work, 47 grants through the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Activity Fund to projects benefiting autistic people and £40 million in the 2 financial years to March 2023 through the Tackling Inequalities Fund and Together Fund (reaching 1,900 projects directly supporting disabled people).

The action in the NDS for DCMS to explore how to improve the accessibility of private sector websites now falls under the auspices of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.

Ahead of this, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.


Written Question
Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Disability
Monday 17th April 2023

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of people employed within her Department have recorded that they have a disability.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

As at 1 April 2023, 10.1% of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) employees have declared a disability. This answer does not include staff from DCMS who have moved to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and does not include any Executive Agencies or Arms Length Bodies.


Written Question
Telecommunications
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have had with representatives of companies with powers under the Electronic Communications Code since March 2021.

Answered by Matt Warman

The full list of Ministerial meetings is published on GOV.UK on a quarterly basis.

Ministers and officials meet with representatives of companies with powers under the Electronic Communications Code (the Code), on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of policy and delivery matters, including those related to the Electronic Communications Code.


Written Question
Telecommunications: Infrastructure
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an estimate of the number of local authorities that have had reduced rental income from telecommunications apparatus following renegotiations with (a) network and (b) infrastructure providers after the Electronic Communications Code was reformed in 2017; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Matt Warman

The reforms made to the Code in 2017 were intended to make it cheaper and easier for digital infrastructure to be deployed, maintained and upgraded. These reforms recognised the increasing importance of digital communications services to UK consumers and businesses, and to the wider economy.

The Government recognised that the reforms would mean landowners receiving lower payments for allowing their land or buildings to be used than had previously been the case. However, these changes were only introduced following an extensive period of consultation and research, and were considered necessary to reduce operator costs and encourage the industry investment required for the UK to get the digital communications infrastructure it needs.

The 2017 reforms did not retrospectively alter the terms of agreements that had been completed before the 2017 reforms came into force. However, once a Code agreement expires, it is open to either the operator or the site provider to seek a renewal of that agreement and negotiate new terms.

Most Code agreements are agreed on a consensual basis and often include a confidentiality clause, which means that information about its financial terms agreed cannot be shared with others or made publicly available, except in limited circumstances or with the other party’s permission. It is therefore not possible to estimate the number of local authorities which may have seen a reduction in rent following the expiry and renegotiation of Code agreements on their property since 2017.


Written Question
Tourism: Disability
Thursday 3rd March 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2022 to Question 113206 on Tourism: Disability, on what date the ministerial meeting with Cross-Government Accessibility Ambassadors went ahead; whether he plans to publish the minutes of that meeting; and when Ministers in his Department plan to meet with them again.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Cross-Government Accessibility Ambassadors meeting took place on 8th February. The minutes from the meeting have not been published. The attendees were Heather Smith - National Trust, Allan MacKilliop - BBC, Ross Calladine - VisitEngland, Hector Minto - Microsoft, Belinda Blank - CO, Tim Hollingsworth - Sport England and an official from DCMS.

The next meeting has not been scheduled and I plan to meet them regularly.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Disability
Monday 7th February 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published July 2021, what recent steps her Department has taken to (a) encourage and support workplace disability networks, (b) achieve and maintain the highest level of Disability Confident accreditation, (c) ensure responsive and timely support to meet workplace adjustment needs and (d) develop and embed flexible working.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

My Department has a very active and engaged ‘Ability Network’ which champions the needs and abilities of people with disabilities in DCMS. The Network is sponsored by three Senior Civil Servant Champions at Deputy Director, Director and Director General level who help to promote awareness and remove barriers to inclusion. The Chairs benefit from a ‘business deal for networks’ which enables them to dedicate up to 10% of their time to network activity. Senior sponsors meet with the Permanent Secretary (who is the Civil Service Inclusion Champion for Disability) on a quarterly basis and the Network is represented in our Governance structures with a role on the People and Operations Committee which meets monthly. Visibility of the network is supported by our Internal Communications team with regular awareness raising activity including, most recently, a series of events and blog posts for Disability History month which took place in December.

I am proud that DCMS has achieved the highest level of Disability Confident accreditation which we will maintain through continuous improvement of our guidance and toolkits for disabled colleagues and their managers; and by taking forward an evidence based disability action plan which reflects best practice. As part of our commitment to be the most inclusive government department by 2025 we are undertaking a full review of the workplace adjustments process to ensure that adjustments are provided promptly and meet the required need.

DCMS has achieved the PAS 3000 British Standard for Smarter Working which is a key part of our inclusive culture. All staff have the right to request flexible working after 26 weeks’ of continuous service and we look forward to the outcome of the BEIS consultation to see if this can be reduced to a day 1 right. We also encourage staff to consider flexible working through our HR policies and we promote flexible working through internal communications and blogs. In addition, as part of our move to a hybrid working model, staff can request workplace adjustments, with one option to permanently work from home in certain limited circumstances.


Written Question
Exercise: Disability
Friday 4th February 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, what progress her Department has made on developing a new training programme to better enable social workers to promote physical activity to disabled people.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

As part of the National Disability Strategy, Sport England, DCMS's arm’s length body for grassroots sport in England, made a commitment to develop and pilot a new training programme to better enable social workers to promote physical activity to disabled people in 2022. To deliver on this commitment, the Moving Social Work programme has been established to create resources and co-design strategies for the education of social workers. It has four phases; scoping, content production, effectiveness testing and final production.

The programme is currently on track against its delivery plan. The next steps include running a number of ‘knowledge cafes’ as part of the co-production element of the programme.


Written Question
Arts: Disability
Friday 4th February 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, what progress she has made on the launching of a free, UK-wide arts access card by March 2022.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to the development of an arts and cultural sector that is representative of modern society and in which there are no barriers to participation.

As announced in the new Government Disability Strategy, Arts Councils across the UK are working together with the British Film Institute to launch a free, UK-wide arts access card by March 2023. March 2022 will see these organisations start work on their soft launch and pilot. This access card will be usable across all arts and cultural venues, for seamless, barrier-free booking that is responsive to individual circumstances and needs.


Written Question
Tourism: Disability
Friday 4th February 2022

Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, how many roundtables the Minister for Sport and Tourism has held to date with stakeholders across the tourism industry to improve understanding of the barriers disabled people face as tourists.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

My department undertakes multiple discussions with stakeholders on an ongoing basis through forums such as the Tourism Industry Council. My department is currently in the process of establishing a Working Group of the Tourism Industry Council to support the government objectives on Accessibility, and is selecting stakeholders who will participate in that Working Group.

In addition, I am hosting a meeting with Cross-Government Accessibility Ambassadors next week, where the Tourism Accessibility Ambassador will also be in attendance, to gather further insight on how we can improve accessibility across the sector.