Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether adult gaming centres are classified as non-essential retail under covid-19 guidance; and whether those centres will reopen once the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government has published guidance to help businesses understand how to make workplaces Covid-secure and help tackle the spread of the virus. Adult Gaming Centres should follow the shops and branches guidance in addition to Bacta’s specific guidance for FECs and AGCs to ensure they can operate as safely as possible when they are open.
The shops and branches workplace guidance was intended as guidance for those businesses on how they could operate safely when the regulations permitted them to do so after the first national lockdown and beyond. It does not have a direct bearing on the timing for reopening of the businesses included in the guidance.
As announced by the Prime Minister, we intend to publish our plan for taking the country out of lockdown in the last week of February. That plan will depend on the continued success of our vaccination programme, and on a sustained reduction in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will allow competitive ice skaters who are over 18 and who are not elite athletes to access ice rinks to train when the covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021 ends.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
On Monday 4 January the Prime Minister announced a national lockdown and instructed people to stay at home to control the virus, protect the NHS and save lives. The National Restrictions are designed to get the R rate under control through limiting social contact and reducing transmissions. Therefore, indoor and outdoor sports facilities, including ice rinks, must close.
Previously, outdoor skating rinks could stay open across all tiers and indoor skating rinks could open in Tiers 1 and 2. Ice rinks were closed in tier 3 and 4 as they are primarily used for the purpose of entertainment. This is consistent with other venues used for entertainment purposes across the economy which were also closed. To allow those who need to access ice rinks, in tier three, exemptions were made for sport for educational purposes, people with disabilities, supervised activity for under-18s and elite athletes.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold discussions with the TV Licensing Authority on the (a) the time taken to process cheque payments from people over 75 and (b) issuing reminder letters to people who have already paid for their TV licence.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC and TV Licensing are responsible for the collection and enforcement of the licence fee, not the government.
The government is therefore not involved in how TV Licensing processes payments, including cheques, or how and when it issues reminder letters.
However, the government expects TV Licensing to collect the licence fee in an efficient and proportionate manner, and to ensure particularly sensitive handling for those aged 75 and over who may be affected by the BBC’s changes to the over 75 concession.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 providing grants to churches and other places of worship which face potential closure as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Listed places of worship represent some of the nation’s finest heritage. The Government recognises the very significant impact that Covid-19 has had on places of worship to continue to operate and on the ability of congregations to maintain them.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has announced significant cross-sector support to deal with the impacts and aid recovery. This includes a £1.57 billion Cultural Recovery Fund announced earlier this year aimed at helping key cultural and heritage organisations, including listed places of worship. The Fund has and will continue to provide grants to cover operating costs, support organisations become financially viable again and finance stalled capital projects. In addition, many places of worship have been eligible for other Covid-19 funding schemes including the emergency grant schemes run by Historic England and the National Lottery earlier this year.
The Government is committed to supporting places of worship and will continue to monitor both the impacts of the pandemic and the wider challenges that places of worship face.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support the Government will provide to charities who are responding to the covid-19 outbreak but are unlikely to benefit from the support schemes announced to date.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government is aware that the coronavirus outbreak has caused a series of economic challenges to charities at a time where they are seeing an increased demand. The £750m funding package announced by the Chancellor is specifically aimed at supporting those who need to continue providing their services as part of the national coronavirus response.
£360 million will be directly allocated by government departments to charities providing key services and supporting vulnerable people during the crisis.
A further £310m will be granted to charities through the National Lottery Communities Fund (NLCF) in England and £60m via the Devolved Administrations. We expect the application system for the National Lottery Community Fund grant pot in England to be operational shortly.
Unfortunately, we cannot match every pound of funding charities expected to receive this year. Many charities will have to assess whether they can access cross-cutting support measures announced by HM Treasury. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme; access to a Business Interruption Loan, and schemes to defer VAT bills to the end of June, and pay no business rates for charity shops next year.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 role that physical education and school sport can play in promoting mental wellbeing amongst children and young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Physical education and school sport is vital in promoting mental wellbeing amongst children and young people. The recent publication of data from the Active Lives: Children and Young People survey confirms that active children are happier: the most active children report a mean happiness score of 7.5 (out of 10), compared to 6.8 for those who are less active. Benefits include building confidence, managing anxiety and depression, and increasing self-esteem, cognitive skills and improving learning and attainment.
In December last year the Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education published Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper, which highlighted how important physical activity is for good mental health and wellbeing. Furthermore, the cross-government sport strategy, Sporting Future, sets mental wellbeing as one of its five key outcomes.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 7 December 2017 to Question 116539, on Offences against children: sports, when the Government plans to extend the definition of a position of trust to include sports coaches.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Proposals are being developed to extend the definition of a ‘position of trust’ in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, to bring into that definition sports coaches who hold a position of trust in relation to a child aged 16 or 17 under their care. We are working to finalise our proposals in early 2018 and will have a clearer view of timing once we have done so.