Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what sectoral support has recently been provided to the operators of English Language Teaching Centres.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We recognise that COVID-19 restrictions are significantly impacting tourism across the country, and that these remain extremely challenging conditions for businesses such as English Language Teaching Centres, which are important to the supply chain.
English Language Schools have been, and are, able to benefit from a wide variety of Government support, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been extended until September, a variety of generous Government backed loan schemes and grants through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme, although this is for England only.
The guidance for the Additional Restrictions Grant funding was updated on 22 March to include the £425m top-up from 1 April 2021. This states that Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that may have been severely impacted by restrictions, but are not eligible for the Restart Grant scheme. The document states that this may include English Language Schools, alongside a number of other businesses.
Although funding issued under the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme is ultimately issued at the discretion of Local Authorities, we encourage and expect them to be sympathetic to applications from English Language Schools, as well as other businesses in the tourism supply chain which have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 financial effect of covid-19 travel restrictions on the operation of English Language Teaching Centres.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We recognise that COVID-19 restrictions are significantly impacting tourism across the country, and that these remain extremely challenging conditions for businesses such as English Language Teaching Centres, which are important to the supply chain.
English Language Schools have been, and are, able to benefit from a wide variety of Government support, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been extended until September, a variety of generous Government backed loan schemes and grants through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme, although this is for England only.
The guidance for the Additional Restrictions Grant funding was updated on 22 March to include the £425m top-up from 1 April 2021. This states that Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that may have been severely impacted by restrictions, but are not eligible for the Restart Grant scheme. The document states that this may include English Language Schools, alongside a number of other businesses.
Although funding issued under the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme is ultimately issued at the discretion of Local Authorities, we encourage and expect them to be sympathetic to applications from English Language Schools, as well as other businesses in the tourism supply chain which have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the total budget is of the Festival UK 2022; and what the spend is to date.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The total budget for the Festival UK 2022 is £120m. The spend to the end of December 2020 is £10.2m, including £3m for the R&D phase which has helped fund 30 creative teams from across the UK. These teams are made up of some of our leading organisations and individuals from science, technology and culture, and this investment has provided paid work for over 100 freelancers.
This does not include any spend by the Devolved Administrations as this budget is subject to the Barnett formula, and is therefore not within the control of DCMS.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 the World Indoor Bowls Championships can take place on 9 January 2021 in Great Yarmouth; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The organisation of the 2021 World Indoor Bowls Championships is a matter for the relevant local authorities and governing bodies for the sport, subject to the overarching public health measures and the appropriate covid secure guidance for the event.
The safety and security of players and spectators in all sports remains of paramount importance and we will continue to be led by wider public health guidance.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what live PFI contracts his Department has; and for each of those contracts (a) what service is provided, (b) when the contract became live, (c) what the remaining term of the contract is and (d) what the annual repayments are.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Department has no live PFI contracts.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 11 February 2020 to Question 11568, on Broadband, how much and what proportion of the funding for the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme has been allocated to (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) England.
Answered by Matt Warman
Currently, no funding is allocated for particular regions across the UK. The Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme is demand-led for Vouchers or Public building connectivity upgrades.
For Vouchers, small businesses and residents in any part of the UK can apply for these via a portal https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/
For Public Buildings, Government Departments (e.g. Department for Education for upgrade of Schools) or Local Authorities submit their public buildings to be assessed against the Programme's eligibility criteria. The value of these differs on a case by case basis, with all local authorities able to submit an interest to the Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme by following the necessary instructions located on our gov.uk page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rgc-programme-key-information.
The Rural Gigabit Connectivity team are currently actively exploring opportunities across Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 11 February 2020 to Question 11568, on Broadband, what steps his Department is taking to determine where the hardest to reach parts of the country are; how areas will be prioritised; what the timescales for the programme are; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
We will pursue an ‘outside in’ strategy to the delivery of gigabit-capable networks, meaning that while network competition serves the commercially feasible areas, the Government will simultaneously support investment in the most difficult to reach areas. The Government intends to invest £5bn in those areas that are likely to be unviable commercially for gigabit-capable network deployment and will require additional funding of some kind.
We are already connecting some of the hardest to reach places in the country through our Superfast broadband programme and £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme. In addition, we are currently working closely with industry, Local Authorities and Devolved Administrations to design this our new £5 billion programme - which includes determining how areas will be prioritised - to ensure we get the best possible value for money for taxpayers. We intend to start procuring contracts next year.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the roll-out of gigabit-capable broadband by 2025; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
Government has pledged £5 billion to support the rollout of gigabit-capable networks to the hardest to reach parts of the country. In addition, the Government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is already supporting rollout of gigabit broadband in rural areas. This funding will be targeted at the premises where we do not expect operators to commercially invest, to ensure that no part of the country will be left behind.
In addition to this, £49m of funding for the Wave 3 Local Full Fibre Networks project has been successfully bid for since the last budget. This is on top of the previously announced £53m million of funding.
We expect that the rest of the UK will get gigabit capable networks through private investment. Therefore, rather than fund rollout in commercially viable areas with public money, we are focusing on breaking down barriers to deployment in order to enable faster rollout by the private sector operators. For example, we have recently introduced the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill into Parliament, which will make it easier for network builders to access blocks of flats where there is an absent or unresponsive landlord.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what comparative assessment he has made of average broadband download speeds in the UK against those in (a) EU countries and (b) other countries throughout the world; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
According to Ofcom’s May 2019 UK Home Broadband Performance report, average download speeds increased by 18% in 2018 to 54.2 mbps. This demonstrates the growing availability and take-up of superfast broadband in the UK.
In comparing the UK to other EU countries, the latest data from the 2019 Digital Society and Economy Index (DESI) report by the European Commission shows that the UK ranked seventh out of 28 EU countries for the availability of superfast broadband. The UK also compares well to countries outside of the EU for superfast availability.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish the (a) funding, (b) timescales and (c) other details of the delivery programme for gigabit-enabled broadband; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government is implementing a number of reforms to make it easier for the private sector to deploy gigabit capable broadband as quickly as possible, building on the recommendations of the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review.
For example, the Government recently introduced the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill into Parliament, which will make it easier for operators to connect leasehold properties to gigabit broadband where the landlord repeatedly fails to respond to requests from operators to access the property. In the Queen’s Speech, the Government also announced it will legislate to ensure new build homes have the infrastructure to support gigabit capable connections by requiring housing developers to work with broadband companies to install these connections in virtually all new build homes, up to a cost cap.
In addition to commercial delivery by the private sector, the Government has announced £5bn of funding to deliver faster broadband in the hardest to reach areas of the UK. The Department is currently consulting with industry on the delivery programme and will announce further details on this programme, and other reforms to support private sector deployment, in due course.