Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing measures to ensure that large charities publish key performance indicators if they are to continue receiving tax relief.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All registered charities must prepare annual accounts and a trustees’ annual report. These provide a comprehensive review of the activities of the charity, and the charity’s financial position. The purpose is to ensure the charity is transparent and accountable for its activities and financial management. The annual accounts and reports of registered charities with an annual income over £25,000 are publicly available via the register of charities on GOV.UK.
Charities can be eligible for certain tax exemptions and reliefs if they are established for charitable purposes only and recognised by HMRC.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions her department has had with (a) Havering Council and (b) other groups in the London Borough of Havering about (i) the preservation of buildings of British cultural heritage, (ii) the promotion of cultural heritage, and (iii) in the context of the Mayor's London Plan which identifies Romford as an Opportunity Area with the potential for 5000 new homes by 2041, the extent to which that ambition is compatible with the preservation of Romford's cultural heritage.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS has had no recent discussions with Havering Council or other groups in the London Borough of Havering about these matters.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many Building Preservation Notices (BPNs) have been issued in the past five years in the London Borough of Havering.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is not aware of any Building Preservation Notices having been served in the London Borough of Havering within the last five years.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many designated listed buildings, itemised by grade of listing, are in (a) Romford and (b) Havering.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The current number of Listed Buildings in Romford, and in the London Borough of Havering, is detailed in the table below:
| Romford | London Borough of Havering |
Number of Grade I Listed Buildings | 0* | 6 |
Number of Grade II* Listed Buildings | 1* | 15 |
Number of Grade II Listed Buildings | 10* | 126 |
Total | 11* | 147 |
* These figures represent a subset of those for the London Borough of Havering.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 with the Church of England to help support the preservation of the Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Edward the Confessor in Romford.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Whilst the government does not engage directly with the Church of England on providing support for specific places of worship, there is wider support for these sites available through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS). This is a scheme that provides grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed churches and cathedrals.
The Government recognises that listed places of worship represent some of the nation’s finest heritage and that the growing costs of repairing and maintaining these significant historic church buildings is challenging. On this, the government maintains a close working relationship with the Church of England to understand these pressures and maintains the LPWGS as a source of support for the preservation of historic fabric.
We have no record of the Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Edward the Confessor receiving funding from the LPWGS. However, from 2014 to present £237,726 has been offered to other listed places of worship in Romford.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 increase broadband speed in Romford.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is delivering the biggest broadband upgrade in UK history. Partly as a result of our measures to bust barriers and drive competition in the UK market, 85.5% of Romford’s premises now have access to gigabit capable connections, up from 6% in September 2020.
More broadly, 70% of UK premises can access gigabit-capable broadband, continuing a rate of incremental growth in line with meeting the target of at least 85% gigabit-capable coverage across the country by 2025. Where private sector deployment is not viable without subsidy, our £5bn Project Gigabit will contribute to nationwide coverage.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with her counterpart in the Channel Islands on (a) the potential merits of allowing Starlink to operate in the Channel Islands and (b) steps that could be taken to support faster internet speeds in remote parts of the Channel Islands.
Answered by Matt Warman
You may know that Ofcom has recently implemented an updated licensing framework for non-Geostationary Satellite networks in the UK. My officials will liaise with your office, relevant colleagues in the Channel Islands and Ofcom to arrange an exploratory meeting between officials.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the budget is for the Counter Disinformation Unit in 2022-23; and if it is operational as of 23 May 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Counter Disinformation Unit has been operational since March 2020. The Unit works across Government to build a picture of the scope, scale and reach of disinformation and misinformation and works with a range of partners, including social media platforms, civil society, and academia to tackle it.
The Government takes disinformation and misinformation seriously and ensures the CDU has appropriate funding to tackle it. It would not be appropriate to comment on funding levels publicly as doing so would give malign actors insight into the scale of our capabilities.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 18 March 2022 to Question 137983, on Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: British Overseas Territories, what plans officials in her Department have to work with representatives of British Overseas Territories to celebrate Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK Government encourages Overseas Territories to join in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has issued guidance to its teams in the Overseas Territories and there are many ways Overseas Territories can get involved including Big Jubilee Lunches, tree planting, the lighting of Beacons and the competition for Civic Honours.
Overseas Territories will also be represented at key Jubilee events, and their flags are currently being flown on Parliament Square in London.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 effect of the Online Safety Bill on the effectiveness of the regulation of harmful online content.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This legislation will create a significant step-change in the experience people have online. The Bill will tackle illegal content and activity; protect children; and give adults greater control of their online experiences, while protecting freedom of expression. The Bill’s systems and processes approach will hold companies to account for holistically considering the design and operation of their services, rather than just responding to events. As a result the Bill will instil a culture of proactive safety and risk management, which will have a substantial positive impact on the regulation of harmful online content.
The Regulatory Policy Committee has issued the Online Safety Bill Impact Assessment with a fit for purpose rating. The Impact Assessment estimated, conservatively, that the Bill will need to reduce a subset of quantified online harms by roughly 2% annually to offset the costs created by the Bill.