Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 effect of the covid-19 outbreak on trends in the level of participation in online gambling; and what recent steps his Department has taken to help reduce gambling related harm.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Since March, the Gambling Commission has collected and published monthly data from operators alongside regular consumer survey data to understand the impact of covid restrictions on gambling behaviours. Data from online operators representing about 80% of the market showed a significant fall in overall online gambling participation during the early months of the pandemic, with 25% fewer active players across all types of online gambling combined in May 2020 than there had been in March 2020. Participation increased again as restrictions were eased. In October 2020 there were 3% fewer active players across all types of online gambling combined than March 2020 (note that players may be active in more than one type of gambling).
Consumer survey data has also shown that the majority of people spent less or the same on gambling during Covid-19 as they did previously, and people were more likely to report that they had stopped gambling than started for the first time. The latest figures from the Gambling Commission are available at: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/News/data-shows-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-gambling-behaviour-in-october-2020
The government has worked closely with the Gambling Commision to take steps to reduce gambling related harm. In April, we banned gambling on credit cards and mandated integration with GAMSTOP (the national online self exclusion scheme). The Commission also directed £8.8 million to GambleAware to ensure its treatment services could continue uninterrupted. In May, tough new rules were introduced for online operators, in response to the potential for pandemic restrictions to increase the risk of gambling harm. New rules on VIP schemes came into force in October, and the Commission will respond to a consultation on new rules for online slots game design early next year.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the average amount paid annually by households in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England for broadband connectivity for each year since 2010.
Answered by Matt Warman
Ofcom’s 2020 Communications Market Report sets out UK average monthly spend on fixed voice and data services. These costs include VAT and are adjusted for inflation at 2019 prices.
Year | Average fixed voice and data cost (£) |
2010 | 38.38 |
2011 | 37.19 |
2012 | 37.36 |
2013 | 37.38 |
2014 | 38.23 |
2015 | 39.84 |
2016 | 42.01 |
2017 | 42.59 |
2018 | 39.59 |
2019 | 37.25 |
Ofcom data does not provide regional breakdowns.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 tackle digital exclusion in Coventry North East constituency.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In order to address regional digital skills gaps, my department is supporting a Local Digital Skills Partnerships in the West Midlands Combined Authority areas, which brings together cross-sector regional and national partners to work collaboratively to upskill the current workforce, advance digital inclusion, and build thriving regional economies.
Public libraries are also a vital component in tackling digital exclusion. A priority of Coventry Libraries is to create improved access to digital services and increase the digital literacy skills of local residents. During 2019 to 2020 Coventry Libraries in the North East of the City have provided over 70,000 hours and over 100,000 sessions of access to public computers and Wi-Fi services. While reduced service has been provided during 2020, due to COVID 19, they are continuing with plans to increase access to public PCs, install new computers at both Bell Green and Foleshill Libraries and reintroduce computer help sessions, job clubs and benefits, debt and housing advice sessions.
The Government has also introduced new essential digital skills qualifications (EDSQs) based on new national standards for essential digital skills. Adults with no or low digital skills can study essential digital skills qualifications for free.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on future funding to support the arts in (a) Coventry and (b) the UK.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises the huge contribution the arts and culture sector makes, not only to the economy and international reputation of the United Kingdom, but also to the wellbeing and enrichment of its people. It is for this reason that we have invested an unprecedented £1.57 billion, the biggest ever one-off cash injection, into UK culture to tackle the crisis facing our most loved arts organisations and heritage sites across the country including Coventry, which is to be our next City of Culture.
The Arts Council has allocated over £500k from its Emergency Response Fund to Coventry including £68k to individuals. The Culture Recovery Fund has awarded over £6 million in funding (as of 17 December) to arts and heritage organisations in Coventry to help support them through the current Covid-19 outbreak.
In addition ACE allocated £3.4m, to Coventry City of Culture Trust (delivery body) to ensure Coventry’s success as City of Culture. The arts and cultural sector is instrumental to Coventry’s success and the Trust have; employed local art/cultural freelancers, invested in cultural infrastructure and during the first lockdown initiated a resilience fund for the local arts community. Coventry will be one of the first to host major events post Covid and, whilst challenges have been posed by the pandemic, their activity and programming has provided a much needed injection of cash into the sector and supported artists in the region, nationally and internationally.
Throughout this crisis, the government’s priority has been to protect people's jobs and livelihoods. At this year's Spending Review, we confirmed that the government has now spent over £280 billion this year.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how the Sports Winter Survival Package allocated to Championship Rugby clubs will operate; and what (a) process clubs will need to follow to apply for funding, (b) criteria such applications will be judged against and (c) funding will be allocated in the form of (i) grants or (ii) loans.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sport England will publish details of the process for applications to the Sports Winter Survival Package in the coming days, along with further information about the criteria and how funding will be allocated.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 trends in the level of tourism in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on levels of (i) national and (ii) regional tourism.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
My Department regularly assesses economic trends in the tourism sector, including those relating to Government support for tourism in regions across England.
We are working with regional partners to maximise the tourism benefits of hosting the UK City of Culture in Coventry and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Government has invested over £15 million to support Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture, and my Department is working closely with Coventry City of Culture Trust and partners to continue to ensure Coventry’s success as host city.
Between April and July, VisitEngland’s £1.3 million Destination Management Organisation Resilience Fund supported local tourism organisations in the West Midlands. The West Midlands Growth Company received £29,866 from the DMO Resilience Fund.
Launched in 2016, the £45m Discover England Fund has supported the development of internationally focused tourism products across England, including the ‘England’s Waterways’ project in the West Midlands.
We are regularly assessing the impact of Government measures to control the spread of Covid-19’s on the tourism sector at both a national and regional level. VisitEngland and my officials remain in close contact with regional tourism stakeholders to monitor the situation.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 the number of accessible sports facilities in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sports clubs have benefited from. Sport England has also made available over £220 million to support the sport and physical activity sector. This includes £35m for a Community Emergency Fund (CEF) directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic.
Sport England is investing £16.5 million of National Lottery funding to support community sports organisations return to play using small grants, facilities funding and crowdfund matching that will help to support groups and organisations who help people needing the most help to stay active.
In the last 5 years, Sport England has invested over £111m in National Lottery and Exchequer funding to improve or build sports facilities through its Community Asset and Strategic Facilities Funds in England including £17.58 million in the West Midlands.
£6 million of funding from Sport England has been invested to support community sports clubs and programmes in Coventry since 2015.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 adequacy of the level of public funding for museums in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Coventry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Culture and heritage are at the heart of communities across the country, enriching the lives of millions. The government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) was designed to support cultural assets of international, national and regional importance through the pandemic, including supporting the levelling up agenda by preventing the loss of valuable cultural fabric from our towns and regions. The CRF builds on a wide variety of funding already available, including the Job Retention Scheme; business rates holiday for leisure businesses; a reduction in VAT from 20% to 5% for tourism and hospitality firms and the Bounce Back Loans scheme, and follows £200 million of emergency funding from DCMS arms’ length bodies for culture and heritage earlier in the year.
Through the CRF the West Midlands has so far been awarded £11,985,651 in revenue grants for museums, 24% of the total allocated to museums in England. 91% of applications in the West Midlands were awarded funding (20 out of 22). One museum in Coventry applied and is included in this total: this museum was awarded £15,800. The initial rounds of the CRF were designed to support organisations at risk of failure by March 2021, and we are working closely with the Arm's Length Bodies delivering the CRF to ensure we understand the sector's ongoing needs beyond this date. We will continue to make decisions about how best to deploy the remaining CRF in any future rounds.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 adequacy of the broadband speeds in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.
Answered by Matt Warman
According to Thinkbroadand (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14000649), currently 99.3% of premises in North East Coventry has access to Superfast broadband. More impressively, 94.9% have access to gigabit capable speeds, up from 2.8% in 2018. This is partially due to the large presence of Virgin Media in the constituency who have 88% coverage with their gigabit capable cable network infrastructure. For context, 34% of the UK has access to Gigabit speeds so this is well above the National average.
In regards to Coventry (https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E08000026), 98.1% of premises have access to superfast speeds and 90.6% of premises also have access to Gigabit capable broadband.
Around 0.31% of premises are getting less than 10Mbps and so may qualify for the Government's Universal Service Obligation as administered by Ofcom (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/uso).
Note that as well as VirginMedia, both BT Openreach and CityFibre have announced significant gigabit capable fibre rollout plans for Coventry. Here is a recent announcement from CityFibre about their ongoing £60m investment in Coventry https://www.cityfibre.com/news/coventrys-full-fibre-roll-expands-west-city/ and here is a recent update from Openreach https://www.openreach.com/news/coventry-broadband-locations-announced-as-openreach-fibre-build-gathers-pace/
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 sports facilities in Coventry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sports clubs have benefited from. Sport England has also provided over £220 million to support the sport and physical activity sector. This includes £35m for a Community Emergency Fund (CEF) directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic.
Sport England has made awards totalling £10,348,040 since 2009 in Coventry consisting of both lottery and exchequer funding to support the provision of sport and physical activity. A further £130,831 has been awarded across Coventry local authority, via Sport England’s CEF, since April this year. This has mainly been for local sports clubs and community sport activity organisations.