Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which towns will be eligible to bid for the UK Town of Culture; and what criteria will be used to define what a town is for the purposes of the competition.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The new UK Town of Culture competition aims to boost civic pride in our towns through recognising their cultural contributions to public life and actively supporting their continued development. Regarding eligibility criteria, we will advise small and medium size towns apply to this new competition, and refer larger towns to the UK City of Culture competition. This, however, will not be mandated and it will be for the places themselves to decide which competition they wish to apply for. We will provide further guidelines and support in due course to ensure all places can confidently engage with the competition.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the risk of skin gambling on young people.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Unlicensed skins gambling websites operate illegally outside of the video game ecosystem. Earlier this year, we commissioned independent research to better understand skins gambling and its impact on children and young people. The resulting rapid evidence review on skins gambling was published in September. This review and its conclusions will form part of our consideration when determining what future policy changes may be needed around how to best protect children and young people from skins gambling related harms.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what criteria her Department used to select the delivery areas for the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund; and how often the list of delivery areas is reviewed.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund was launched in January 2023 as an up to £30 million package of funding designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England. In April 2025, the KYN Fund was extended until March 2026, with an additional up to £4.5m of government funding.
The list of 27 areas eligible for KYN funding was identified using the English Index of Multiple Deprivation and the Community Needs Index. To ensure a balanced distribution between area types, the nine highest-need local authorities were selected from each of the three categories: large urban areas, medium urban areas, and rural and small urban areas. Further information on the selection methodology is publicly available on gov.uk under Annex A of the application guidance for the ‘KYN Fund Intermediary Grant Maker Competition’.
The Department does not review the list of KYN Fund delivery areas at specific intervals. This is because organisations within the delivery areas were eligible for funding until the original Fund end date (31 March 2025). In April 2025, the Fund was extended until March 2026, specifically making available uplifts to existing grant awards to organisations in the original 27 eligible delivery areas that had previously received KYN funding between 2022 and 2025.
We recognise that we are unable to reach every area in need of support with a fund of this size. A key objective of the Fund, therefore, is learning about what works in these areas. An evaluation of the Fund will therefore be published in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the press release entitled New youth guarantee for eligible young people and funding for libraries in all primary schools, published on 29 September 2025, whether the funding for new school libraries will include (a) staffing costs, (b) books and (c) technology.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As funding for this initiative will come from the Dormant Assets Scheme over which the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has responsibility, your question has been transferred to my Department.
It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian.
Funding for this programme will come from the £132.5 million that was allocated to increasing disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.
The Government will work with The National Lottery Community Fund to co-design the programme and will announce further details in due course, including definitions, eligibility and funding.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how her Department plans to define a library for the purposes of eligibility under the new primary school library funding scheme.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As funding for this initiative will come from the Dormant Assets Scheme over which the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has responsibility, your question has been transferred to my Department.
It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian.
Funding for this programme will come from the £132.5 million that was allocated to increasing disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.
The Government will work with The National Lottery Community Fund to co-design the programme and will announce further details in due course, including definitions, eligibility and funding.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the introduction of Local Visitor Economy Partnerships on tourism levels in (a) England and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) work collaboratively at local, regional and national levels on shared priorities and targets to support and grow the visitor economy.
Each LVEP sets out how they measure their agreed activities in their annual growth plan. DCMS and VisitEngland continue to monitor the impact of LVEPs by collaborating with them on their identified growth priorities and sharing best practice.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with social media platforms on reducing the advertisement and sale of counterfeit toys online.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the independent regulator for advertising in the UK and enforces the Advertising Codes. These codes include specific rules intended to protect consumers from misleading marketing communications, which would apply to adverts for toys. If advertising includes the omission, exaggeration, or ambiguous presentation of information, it can be considered misleading. The ASA works with online platforms via its Intermediary and Platform Principles to promote greater adherence to the non-broadcast advertising codes, resulting in more responsible advertising online.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 also requires online marketplaces to exercise professional diligence in relation to consumer transactions promoted or made on their platforms, which would include the sale of toys. The Government commenced Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Act, which sets out the rules for unfair trading, in April 2025.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help football clubs prepare for the introduction of the Independent Football Regulator.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Following Royal Assent of the Football Governance Act, every effort is being made to ensure that the Independent Football Regulator is up and running as soon as possible.
Consistent and extensive engagement has been maintained with football clubs and competition owners throughout the passage of the Football Governance Act. The Department will continue to meet with key stakeholders as the focus transitions to the implementation of the new regime.
The Regulator itself is helping prepare the industry for the implementation of the Act. It has started consulting on how the new regime will work and undertaken its first conference to explain how the Regulator will operate, where all clubs from the Premier League to the National League were invited.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what criteria she plans to use to determine funding under the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund is open to bids from accredited museums, museum services and galleries in England that either hold at least one designated collection, or are current Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs).
Bids submitted for consideration must meet at least one of the following criteria:
Material improvements to the display and interpretation of collections, in permanent galleries, exhibition spaces and public spaces, to enhance visitor experience.
Improvements to access and/or interpretation for visitors with disabilities, for children and young people, and/or underrepresented audiences.
Improvements to environmental controls, collections storage and conservation facilities to enhance the care of collections.
Further balancing criteria and an outline of the assessment process can be found in the application guidance here.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the list of designated days for the flying of the Union Flag is kept under regular review; and when the last review took place.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The list of designated days for the flying of the Union Flag is reviewed annually in consultation with No 10 and the Royal Household. The most recent review was completed on 14th March 2025 when the 2025 Designated Days list was published on GOV.UK.