Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding the Heritage Lottery Fund has spent in the East Midlands in each year since 2015.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Heritage Lottery Fund has given a total of £88,381,100 to 342 projects in the East Midlands since 2015. This breaks down as per the following table:
Row Labels | Projects awarded | Grant awarded |
2015-16 | 115 | £53,385,100 |
2016-17 | 118 | £20,078,200 |
2017-18 | 109 | £14,917,800 |
|
|
|
Grand Total | 342 | £88,381,100 |
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 support theatres and touring companies in the Midlands.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Since April 2016, Arts Council England (ACE) has invested more than £85,470,000 in theatre in the Midlands, including regular funding to their National Portfolio Organisations, National Lottery Grants for the Arts and Project Grants and Strategic funding. From the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, to the National Student Drama Festival in Leicester, ACE support a diverse range of work which has international appeal, is accessible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, and plays a key role as part of England’s vibrant arts and cultural ecology.
Between June 2016 and March 2018, Arts Council invested £2,737,902 in Strategic Touring in the Midlands region. This programme funded touring work focusing specifically on areas of low engagement with the arts and those that rely on touring for much of their arts provision. It also extended the reach of high-quality work by broadening the range of venues presenting it, as well as forging stronger relationships between audiences, promoters, venues, artists and producers.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to promote Nottinghamshire as a tourist destination overseas.
Answered by Michael Ellis
VisitBritain and VisitEngland are responsible for promoting the UK as a tourist destination, through a range of different initiatives and campaigns.
VisitEngland are also in charge of the £40m Discover England Fund which creates innovative, bookable tourism products throughout England which are aimed at specific international markets. These include:
VisitBritain has also used Nottinghamshire in articles in their Media Centre such as Britain: The Movie Star and Spotlight On: The Midlands and in 2018, one of their multi-national press trips focused on the Nottingham areas, promoting the region to over 8 million readers of the press publications.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many outdoor sports facilities in the East Midlands have been funded by his Department since January 2016.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The government's sport strategy, Sporting Future, makes clear the importance of providing and maintaining sports facilities for the whole community to use.
Since 2016, the government -via Sport England- has invested £34.5 million in facilities and projects in the East Midlands. This includes over £1.1 million specifically into outdoor facilities including pitches, multi-use games areas (MUGAs) and skateparks.
Since it launched its Community Asset Fund in 2017, Sport England has invested £950,190 in community sport facilities in the East Midlands
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 increase tourism to (a) nature reserves and (b) sites of ancient woodland.
Answered by Michael Ellis
VisitBritain and VisitEngland are responsible for marketing the UK and England as tourist destinations. As part of their remit, they manage the £40m Discover England Fund which supports the development of bookable tourism products across England, including the Make Great Memories in England’s National Parks and the Telling the Stories of England projects.
There are several promotional campaigns which VisitBritain and VisitEngland manage, including the international I Travel For, and the domestic Join the World campaign. Both of these campaigns use the UK’s woodlands and countryside to promote the country to visitors.
Additionally, National Parks like Sherwood Forest have featured many times in VisitBritain’s media stories, highlighting their natural beauty and many visitor attractions to the public.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to help tackle illegal behaviour on social media platforms.
Answered by Margot James
Following the publication of the Government response to the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper on 20 May, DCMS and Home Office will jointly work on a White Paper with other government departments, to be published later this year. This will set out legislation to be brought forward that tackles a range of both legal and illegal harms, from cyberbullying to online child sexual exploitation. The Government will continue to collaborate closely with industry on this work, to ensure it builds on progress already made.
As the Prime Minister said in her speech at Davos on 25 January, we are looking at the legal liability that social media companies have for the illegal content shared on their sites. Before taking any decisions we will be working closely with the full range of stakeholders who have an interest in this area.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 estimate of the amount of funding his Department has spent on arts and culture provision in former coalfield communities in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Historic England and Heritage Lottery Fund support coalfield communities by conserving and protecting key industrial heritage sites, their associated settlements and community buildings which provide a strong sense of place and community identity, supporting the economic and social regeneration of coalfield communities through heritage regeneration.
Between April 2012 and March 2017, Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £285.3m to 1,302 projects in coalfield community areas within the UK. By regional breakdown this includes East Midlands - £53,132,700; North East -£18,846,633; North West - £6,848,900; South East -£22,186,300; West Midlands -£35,198,600; Yorkshire and The Humber -£58,670,600.
Arts Council England have also provided significant investment into coalfield communities over the last five years: 2012/2013, £38,970,236; 2013/2014, £31,766,586; 2014/2015, £28,307,054; 2015/2016, £34,077,475; and 2016/2017, £41,625,973.
In addition to this, between 2013/14 and 2017/18 the National Coal Mining Museum England has received, on average, £2.45 million a year of funding.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will make an assessment of the effect of the youth full-time social action programme on social mobility.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government recognises the benefits that young people derive from participation in social action. The 2016 National Youth Social Action Survey showed that young people who had participated in social action in the past 12 months had stronger personal networks and higher life satisfaction than those who have never done any social action. Independent evaluations of the National Citizen Service also show that the programme prepares participants for life and work by furnishing them with softer skills such as leadership, teamwork and increased resilience.
The Government response to the Full Time Social Action Review’s report will be published in due course.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 level of participation among businesses in enabling their staff to engage in full-time social action projects and the National Citizen Service.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
DCMS is carefully considering the recommendations made by the independent Review of Full Time Social Action by Young People, including the recommendation referencing Business in the Community. The Government will publish it’s response to the Review in due course.
As the National Citizen Service is aimed at 16-17 year olds, the majority of participants are recruited via their schools or colleges. The NCS Trust aims to develop partnerships with employers so that employees can support NCS. For example, Santander UK provides opportunities for its staff to volunteer on the programme to share their knowledge and skills.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 has taken to improve access to participation in (a) the National Citizen Service and (b) full-time social action projects.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
DCMS has made over £1 billion funding available for the National Citizen Service over this parliament to ensure every young person who wants to take part is able to. The NCS Trust strives to ensure young people from all backgrounds are able to participate - in Summer 2016, 17% of NCS participants were eligible for Free School Meals (compared to 8% in the general population).
DCMS is carefully considering the recommendations made by the recently published independent Review of Full Time Social Action by Young People and will respond in due course.