Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has taken recent steps to work with (a) the Duke of Edinburgh Award, (b) other youth award schemes and (c) volunteer programmes to help promote (i) social cohesion and (ii) community safety.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities like the Duke of Edinburgh Award play in enhancing young people’s wellbeing, as well as significant benefits to social cohesion and community safety.
Recognising this, the government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing imbalances in national youth spending with a firm focus on levelling up.
Young people will also benefit from other elements of the National Youth Guarantee, and a broader package of award schemes and volunteer programmes, including offering the Duke of Edinburgh Award to every state secondary school, expanding uniformed youth groups and the #iwill youth volunteering fund, as well as providing further funding for the National Citizen Service (NCS), to bring young people from different backgrounds together. Additionally, through the Million Hours Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will provide over a million hours of youth opportunities in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what Government (a) funding and (b) guidance is available to voluntary and community sector organisations working to reduce youth offending.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government recognises the vital role that youth services and the voluntary and community sector has in reducing youth offending and the Beating Crime Plan 2021 highlighted the importance of early intervention for all young people; targeted support for those at risk of involvement in criminality; and targeted interventions for those who have started to offend.
The Youth Justice Sport Fund (YJSF) is a recently completed early intervention grant programme led by the Ministry of Justice, delivered across England and Wales between November 2022 and March 2023. This forms part of the £300m package of early intervention funding that was announced in May 2022. The £5m programme supported 220 voluntary and community sector organisations to work with 10–17-year-olds considered vulnerable to involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour, using sport as a vehicle to address problem behaviour.
The government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services. The Youth Investment Fund, an integral part of the National Youth Guarantee, will invest over £300 million in creating and refurbishing up to 300 youth facilities in levelling up priority areas - the majority of which contain at least one anti-social behaviour hotspot. Additionally, through the Million Hours Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will provide over a million hours of youth opportunities in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour. Phase 1 of the fund has already delivered over £3m of funding to over 400 organisations to provide positive activities over the summer holidays.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of prohibiting the sale of tickets for events at a sum greater than their face value.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to cracking down on unacceptable behaviour in the ticketing market and improving people’s chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. That is why we have strengthened the law on ticketing information requirements and introduced a criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets online than allowed. Ticketing sites can help fans buy and resell tickets, but they must comply with the law and should never be used as a platform for breaking it.
Enforcement agencies such as the Competition and Markets Authority, National Trading Standards and the advertising industry's own regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority, have a track record of investigating breaches of consumer law and improving transparency in the ticketing market, and are prepared to go after those who flout the law or abuse the ticketing market. The recent conviction of ticket touts for the unlawful mass reselling of Ed Sheeran tickets at inflated prices and obtained by fraudulent means, is just one example.
We do not believe that price capping is an appropriate solution at this time, as experience in other markets has shown that it would not be an effective tool to address the problem at hand, and would present significant practical challenges in implementation and enforcement. Individuals are able to seek advice or report problems with goods or services bought from a trader based in the UK, and the appropriate advice agency is the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the sale of Chelsea Football Club; and whether the Government will consult on that sale with (a) Ukrainian and (b) other international civil society groups.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 24 May the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) issued a licence to Chelsea Football Club to allow the sale of Chelsea FC PLC. We have worked in coordination with international partners to ensure that relevant licences from other jurisdictions have also been issued.
The Club has now transferred ownership to the Boehly-Clearlake consortium. This means that the Club is no longer subject to sanctions.The proceeds are being held in a frozen account and any onward transfer requires a further Government licence to enable that to happen. Abramovich cannot access those funds without a Government licence.
Abramovich has made a number of public statements regarding his intention to transfer the proceeds to the victims of the war in Ukraine. We have agreed a Deed of Undertaking in which he commits the proceeds to a charity in a jurisdiction agreed by the Government for the purposes of helping victims of the war in Ukraine. Any future movement of the sale revenue will be assessed in line with sanctions obligations and the position outlined in the Deed.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that young listeners and viewers benefit from the Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel in the context of a children's media representative not being appointed to that panel.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is supportive of a modern system of public service broadcasting (PSB) that remains relevant and can continue to meet the needs of UK audiences of all ages in the future. That is why we are conducting a strategic review of PSB – to work out how best to achieve this in light of the challenges the sector is currently facing.
Advice from the Government’s expert PSB Advisory Panel is one element of that review, which draws on multiple sources including Ofcom’s latest review of PSB (‘Small Screen: Big Debate’), and reports from the Select Committees in both Houses of Parliament. Panel members have a wide range of experience and expertise in broadcasting and related industries, including children’s media.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to support children’s television industry after the closure of the Youth Audience Content Fund.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Government is committed to ensuring that young listeners and viewers benefit from a modern system of public service broadcasting (PSB) that remains relevant and can continue to meet the needs of UK audiences in the future. That is why we are conducting a strategic review of PSB – drawing on the work of Ofcom, the Select Committees in both Houses of Parliament, and the government’s own expert PSB Advisory Panel – to work out how best to achieve this in light of the challenges the sector is currently facing.
The three-year pilot Young Audiences Content Fund was designed to test a new way of financing public service TV content. A full evaluation of the pilot Fund will take place following its conclusion to determine its impact on the children’s television industry and the provision and plurality of public service content for young audiences across the UK. The potential of further investment of public funding will be assessed against the Fund evaluation and alongside future public service broadcasting needs.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of correspondence sent by hon. Members to his Department received a substantive response within the service standard in each month of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government recognises the great importance of the effective and timely handling of correspondence.
The Cabinet Office is currently compiling data on the timeliness of responses to Hon. and Rt Hon. members from Government Departments and Agencies. This data will be released, and made available to Members, in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the forthcoming Online Safety Bill to legislate for what constitutes harmful but legal online content following engagement with stakeholders and civil society.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The forthcoming Online Safety Bill will require all companies in scope to assess the likelihood of children accessing their services, and to provide additional protections from harmful material for children, where appropriate. Companies providing high risk, high reach services will be required to take steps in respect of legal but harmful content and activity that is accessed by adults.
The government will set out priority categories of legal but harmful material for adults, and legal but harmful content and activity impacting children in secondary legislation.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to require an independent auditor to assess the steps taken by social media firms to tackle online harms as part of the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Ofcom will be named as the independent regulator for online harms in the Online Safety Bill. Ofcom will be responsible for overseeing and enforcing companies’ compliance with the regulatory framework.
Ofcom will be given the powers to fulfil its new statutory duties and functions effectively, including the ability to gather information from companies to understand how they are tackling online harms. As part of this, Ofcom will have the power to require a company to undertake, and pay for, a skilled person report on specific issues of concern, for example where external technical expertise is needed.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to increase the rate of Theatre Tax Relief.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Secretary of State and DCMS are committed to supporting the cultural sector through this challenging time and we recognise how severely theatres, theatre companies and live music venues have been hit by COVID-19. The Government is supporting these sectors through unprecedented financial measures, including business rate reliefs, the Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the world-leading £1.57 billion support package for culture. DCMS has also worked closely with its arm’s-length bodies to deliver tailored support packages at speed, including the £160m Emergency Funding Package announced by Arts Council England, made possible by Government funding.
In 2018-19, £78 million of theatre tax relief was paid out relating to 3,380 productions, of which 950 were touring and 2,430 were non-touring. Since Theatre tax relief was introduced in September 2014, £208 million has been paid out relating to 8,395 productions. HM Treasury keeps all tax reliefs under review and DCMS continues to engage with these sectors extensively to best understand the challenges they face and consider the additional measures that may be needed to support the long-term recovery of these sectors.