Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
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 help ensure that data from the 1921 census is accessible; and whether her Department has plans for platforms other than Findmypast to host 1921 census data.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The 1921 Census for England and Wales was released on 6 January 2022 by The National Archives and its commercial partner, Findmypast. The cost of creating digital images, transcribing records, and building the infrastructure to present records online was beyond the resources of The National Archives. In order to allow digital access and widen access beyond the physical location of the Census, The National Archives selected Findmypast as its digitisation partner after a fair and open tendering process.
The Census is free to view in digital format at The National Archives in Kew and two regional hubs, Manchester Central Library and The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Findmypast also offers online access to the 1921 Census anywhere, including the viewing of images and transcriptions of records. There are currently no plans for platforms other than Findmypast to host the 1921 Census online. Searching for records on Findmypast is free, and viewing records and transcripts is on a subscription-free, pay-per-view basis. Findmypast has committed to bringing the 1921 Census to its library customers for use in their reading rooms before the end of 2022.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including leisure facilities run in-house by local authorities in the National Leisure Recovery Fund.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The National Leisure Recovery Fund sought to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, to give the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million was available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which was allocated in a single funding round covering the period 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. Eligible local authorities included those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function.
Facilities run in-house were supported through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) Income Compensation Scheme. The MHCLG’s scheme was designed to compensate for transactional income losses that are truly irrecoverable – including transactional income from customer and client receipts generated from the delivery of goods and services and which were budgeted for in 2020/21, this includes budgeted management fee income.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason the Government is not yet in a position to publish the (a) evidence and (b) report on the event research programme.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Events Research Programme report was published on Friday 25 June and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/events-research-programme-phase-i-findings
The Events Research Programme is a joint programme between DCMS, DHSC, and BEIS overseen by an industry-led steering group co-chaired by Sir Nicholas Hytner and David Ross. Evidence from the pilot events is considered by the group to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Secretaries of State for DCMS, BEIS and DHSC on how restrictions could be safely lifted at Step 4 of the Roadmap.
The report has been subject to a comprehensive and rigorous coordination and approval process across departments, academic institutions and ERP governance boards, and takes into account the latest public health data.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham 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 potential merits of extending eligibility to bingo clubs for access to the Culture Recovery Fund.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Culture Recovery Fund is being delivered by DCMS Arm’s Length Bodies - Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, and the British Film Institute. These bodies can spend Government money on individuals or organisations within the sector they are responsible for.
The government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be extremely challenging for businesses, including in the Bingo sector. Bingo clubs have accessed £44m of government support via the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme (£26.8m), Eat Out to Help Out (£600k), Business Rates Relief (£15.9m) and Grant funding (£1.6m). We are continuing to work with organisations in the land-based gambling sector to understand the impacts and how we may be able to support them.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what criteria the Government will use to determine the outcome of the Events Research Programme.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Events Research Programme will run around a dozen pilot events using enhanced testing approaches and other measures to run events with larger crowd sizes and reduced social distancing to evaluate the outcomes.The evidence will then be shared across the event economy so that venues can prepare to accommodate fuller audiences.
Settings will include small indoor venues that have a capacity of circa 200 people, where a gig or comedy night would take place, to large outdoor venues such as Wembley stadium. Decisions on the number of spectators allowed into the pilot events are yet to be taken and will be subject to discussions with event organisers and local authorities.
The programme will include looking at risk factors in indoor and outdoor settings; small and large venues; seated and standing events and different forms of audience participation. The pilots will also test a range of non-pharmaceutical mitigating interventions during non-socially distanced events such as layout of the venue, face coverings and ventilation.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many people will take part in each test event as part of the Government's Events Research Programme.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Events Research Programme will run around a dozen pilot events using enhanced testing approaches and other measures to run events with larger crowd sizes and reduced social distancing to evaluate the outcomes.The evidence will then be shared across the event economy so that venues can prepare to accommodate fuller audiences.
Settings will include small indoor venues that have a capacity of circa 200 people, where a gig or comedy night would take place, to large outdoor venues such as Wembley stadium. Decisions on the number of spectators allowed into the pilot events are yet to be taken and will be subject to discussions with event organisers and local authorities.
The programme will include looking at risk factors in indoor and outdoor settings; small and large venues; seated and standing events and different forms of audience participation. The pilots will also test a range of non-pharmaceutical mitigating interventions during non-socially distanced events such as layout of the venue, face coverings and ventilation.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many test events will take place as part of the Government's Events Research Programme.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Events Research Programme will run around a dozen pilot events using enhanced testing approaches and other measures to run events with larger crowd sizes and reduced social distancing to evaluate the outcomes.The evidence will then be shared across the event economy so that venues can prepare to accommodate fuller audiences.
Settings will include small indoor venues that have a capacity of circa 200 people, where a gig or comedy night would take place, to large outdoor venues such as Wembley stadium. Decisions on the number of spectators allowed into the pilot events are yet to be taken and will be subject to discussions with event organisers and local authorities.
The programme will include looking at risk factors in indoor and outdoor settings; small and large venues; seated and standing events and different forms of audience participation. The pilots will also test a range of non-pharmaceutical mitigating interventions during non-socially distanced events such as layout of the venue, face coverings and ventilation.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the ability of charities working with BAME communities to access the Government's £350 million support for charities.
Answered by John Whittingdale
DCMS and the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF - our distribution partners for the Coronavirus Community Support Fund) have been - and continue to - engage extensively with BAME organisations during the development of the response and are working with a number of organisations to improve the reach of the Coronavirus Community Support Fund.
A diverse advisory panel has been set up to assist in the distribution process for the fund. DCMS will continue to work closely to assess how we can support BAME charities and social enterprises in doing their important work. The Minister for Civil Society holds a fortnightly roundtable to hear directly from BAME civil society organisations to highlight concerns and responses to Covid-19. DCMS will continue to work closely to assess how we can support BAME charities and social enterprises in doing their important work.
We have published clear and comprehensive guidance on the £750 million, plus other sources of support, at
This is a package of emergency response to help groups in need and to provide other essential services. It builds on the significant package of support available across sectors, including the Job Retention Scheme.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham 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 make an assessment of the potential merits of ringfencing funding from the Government's charity support package for charities and organisations working with communities that are disproportionately affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government has pledged £750 million to meet the needs of vulnerable groups disproportionately affected by Covid-19 through targeted support for voluntary and community sector organisations.
A diverse advisory panel has been set up to assist in the distribution process for the fund. DCMS and the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF - our distribution partners for the Coronavirus Community Support Fund) are working with a number of organisations to improve the reach of the Coronavirus Community Support Fund for organisations disproportionately affected.
The government has unlocked a further £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts, which will be distributed to organisations to support urgent work for groups in need to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to emergency loans for civil society organisations and help improve the availability of fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
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 funding from the charity relief package announced in April 2020 is reaching those that most need it.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government has pledged £750 million to meet the needs of vulnerable groups through targeted support for voluntary and community sector organisations on the frontline of the Covid response. This includes £360m distributed through government departments and £200m for the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, being delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund. A diverse advisory panel has been set up to assist in the distribution process for the fund.
The government has also unlocked a further £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts, which will be distributed to organisations to support urgent work for groups in need to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to emergency loans for civil society organisations and help improve the availability of fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.
We have published clear and comprehensive guidance on the £750 million, plus other sources of support, at
The VCSE Support Package builds on the significant package of support available across sectors, including the Job Retention Scheme.