Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 the potential merits of allowing pilot events to enable a limited number of people to watch cricket matches.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We want the British public to be able to get back to doing the things they love safely - including going to sports events. But we recognise the challenges that events face to operate in a way that ensures the risk of transmission is sufficiently low while maintaining commercial viability.
Public safety is our main priority and decisions will be made working with local Directors for Public Health for all pilot events included in the Events Research Programme. The pilots will be run across a range of settings, venues, and activities so that findings will support the full reopening of similar settings across multiple sectors. However the point of the Events Research Programme is not to enable people to watch sport, but to gather evidence.
We will ensure that interim results gathered from Events Research Programmes are fed into policy development swiftly to avoid missing reopening opportunities because of insufficient data. The ERP will align its work with other reviews, including covid status certification and social distancing, to ensure the latest research findings are taken into account.
Under the government's roadmap out of lockdown, cricket grounds will be able to admit fans from Step 3, and not before 17th May.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish the Tourism Recovery Plan.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We intend to publish the Tourism Recovery Plan in late spring.
We are continuing to hold discussions across Government and with stakeholders, including via the Tourism Industry Council, to assess how this plan can support the sector’s short and long term recovery from the pandemic.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 the proposal by The Independent Game Developers’ Association to introduce a video games investment fund.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS’ Creative Industries Economic Estimates show that the UK video games industry contributed an estimated £2.9 billion to the UK economy in 2019, up from £0.4 billion in 2010, and its headcount has grown to 27,000, a 47% increase since 2013.
I am pleased that in 2021/22 my Department will be continuing to fund the UK Games Fund, which provides valuable support to early stage games development businesses and talented graduates throughout the UK. We continue to consider what further actions we can take to underpin the games sector’s vital contribution to the UK’s future economic success.
We are looking closely at industry’s most recent proposals, including The Independent Game Developers Association’s (TIGA) updated proposal for the creation of a new, large scale video games investment fund. My officials have met with TIGA to discuss this in more detail and are willing to continue talking with TIGA, Ukie and their industry colleagues as they develop their proposals further.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 effect of the Tourism Recovery Plan on the review of Destination Management Organisations.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The independent review of Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) is an important element of the Tourism Recovery Plan. Both pieces of work will be important for setting out the tourism sector’s recovery from the pandemic.
The independent review of DMOs in England will examine how best to structure and support DMOs at a local and regional level in order to deliver the Government’s tourism policy priorities and support economic growth.
The lead reviewer, Nick de Bois, is conducting the review over Spring 2021, before evaluating his findings and submitting a written report, including his recommendations, to the DCMS Secretary of State by Summer 2021. The review launched in March.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that heritage sites will be able to open in line with the timeframe outlined in the roadmap out of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has been running four policy reviews to inform the roadmap. The following are supporting the safe reopening of indoor attractions:
Social Distancing Review to understand when and under what circumstances social distancing guidance can be lifted or amended
COVID Certification Review to understand the case for introducing certification and the mechanics of a certification programme.
Events Research Programme, led by DCMS, aims to build evidence on the risks associated with transmission and the extent that mitigation measures could address risk of transmission at events. The programme aims to start in April, with pilot events carried out across a range of settings, sectors, venue types, and activity types; many of which are applicable to Heritage sites. The shortlist of pilot events will take into account a range of requirements needed to test different science-led criteria, including but not limited to - indoor and outdoor settings, small and large venues, seated and standing events, different forms of audience participation, transport to events, duration, and ventilation.
In addition, the online Heritage Working Safely Guidance has been updated following each adjustment to COVID regulation, including the recent Roadmap steps. This guidance is for people who work or volunteer in Heritage locations, and aims to help the sector understand how to make their workplaces COVID secure for employees and visitors. This has been produced by DCMS and Historic England.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 the relative safety of heritage sites for visitors compared to other outdoor and indoor venues during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Scientific research has proven that the transmission of COVID-19 is lower outdoors than in indoor environments. Outdoor heritage sites, such as the grounds of castles, historic houses and monuments open to the elements have been open since June 2020. However, sites have been provided guidance by DCMS on how to open sites safely. This includes using pre-booking systems and limiting numbers of visitors and employees on site.
Indoor attractions at heritage sites will be able to re open in Step 3 (no earlier than May 17).
There are some indoor settings which are considered lower risk where household mixing is less likely, for example in shops, barbers and exercise facilities. These will be opening in Step 2 (no earlier than April 12).
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how funding from the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund will be distributed between the arts, culture, museums and heritage sectors.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Last year the government announced the unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the culture sector. The successful applications from the first round were announced late last year, with almost 3,800 organisations receiving over £1billion in funding, saving at least 75,000 jobs.
The successful applications from the second round were announced on Friday 2 April 2021. From this latest round of funding, over 2,700 organisations across arts, culture, museums and heritage have been offered an additional nearly £400 million in grants and loans to help the sector reopen and recover.
Funding from this second round will support organisations to transition from the challenging months of lockdowns and social distancing to welcoming audiences and visitors back to the country’s theatres, museums, cinemas, music venues and heritage sites.
Additionally, the Chancellor announced in the 2021 Budget an additional £300 million to support theatres, museums and other cultural organisations in England through the Culture Recovery Fund. This extra funding, together with other cultural support such as funding for our national museums, means that our total support package for culture during the pandemic is now approaching £2bn.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 reforming VAT on repair and maintenance of historic buildings.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The current VAT system could be regarded as an incentive to demolish existing buildings entirely and start again. As people take ownership of a property - new build or listed - a standard rate is applied to its maintenance and upkeep; in this respect, there is parity of treatment. However, owners of historic properties, particularly listed buildings, are likely to incur higher costs to maintain their homes. The upkeep of buildings, especially those of heritage significance, is in the wider public interest.
As with all tax matters, this is something which HMT keeps under regular review.
My Officials are engaged with the sector to build a robust evidence base and develop targeted interventions that might benefit listed buildings in this space.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 amend the Tourism Sector Deal as a result of the Government announcing the covid-19 recovery strategy.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government will publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in the Spring. Given the significant impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, we now face different challenges to when the Tourism Sector Deal was published. The Recovery Plan will build on the foundations of the Sector Deal.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 26 February 2021 to Question 153362, whether an assessment was made of the potential effect on competition in the high street gaming sector as a result of opening Licensed Betting Offices in Step 2 and Adult Gaming Centres in Step 3 of the covid-19 roadmap.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government has designed the roadmap for reopening premises following careful consideration of the evidence and scientific advice. The roadmap strikes a balance between mitigating the social, health and economic impacts of closures and the need to avoid a resurgence of COVID-19 infections. It also takes account of the cumulative impact of easing restrictions and the need to assess the impact at each step. Under the current roadmap, all non-essential retail will open at Step 2, not before 12 April. Indoor entertainment and indoor leisure will open at Step 3, not before 17 May.
As the business of Adult Gaming Centres consists entirely of customers playing machines within the premises, they are considered to be entertainment and will open at Step 3. The customers of Licensed Betting Offices (LBOs) may enter the premises, place a bet and leave with a betting slip, a transaction more similar to purchasing goods in a shop. While LBOs will be permitted to open at Step 2, they will be subject to a number of additional restrictions as set out in the previous Tier 3 guidance. These include showing no live sport or racing and having no chairs, as well as early closure. Under normal circumstances LBOs are limited to offering a maximum of four gaming machines and only two may be made available under these restrictions.
In recognition of the impact of requiring some businesses to remain closed for a longer period, the Chancellor announced an enhanced package of support at the Budget, including Restart Grants of up to £18,000 per premises, specifically for those which must remain closed beyond Step 2.