Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2024 to Question 18418 on Sports: Concussion, who the members of the Sports Concussions Research Forum are; and what terms of reference were set for that forum's formulation of a report to identify priority research questions.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Sports Concussion Research Forum’s terms of reference are to develop a prioritised list of translatable research aims relating to concussion in sport, to be drawn from both the sports and academic communities, including consideration of such research that may extend beyond sport-specific areas, where appropriate.
The further aim of the Forum is to encourage academic institutions, foundations and other organisations to make concussion in sport one of their priorities and to focus their work in this area around the Forum’s prioritised list of research aims, which is expected to be published in 2024.
The members of the Sports Concussion Research Forum are:
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many people have participated in a National Citizen Service programme since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Over 800,000 young people participated in an NCS programme between 2010/11 and 2022/23. The NCS programme is due to deliver 261,000 experiences between 2023/24 and 2024/25, as per the 2023/24 Annual Business Plan. The number of experiences delivered in the year 2023/24 will be published in the Annual Report later this year.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) number and (b) value of grants made through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme is since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme is investing over £325 million between 2021 and 2025 to level up facilities across the whole of the UK. The programme provides funding to make essential facility improvements, so that communities have a high-quality pitch to play on, and is a clear demonstration of the government’s commitment to levelling up all corners of the United Kingdom.
Since 2021, over £200 million has been invested in over 2,400 sites across the UK, improving the natural and artificial grass pitches on offer to communities and upgrading floodlights, goalposts, changing rooms and toilet facilities. All funded projects are listed on gov.uk at this link:
Grants that were awarded in England prior to 2021 were delivered by the Football Foundation, funded through Sport England. Sport England’s funding to the Football Foundation is available on their website, along with all awards made by Sport England to football clubs since 2009: https://www.sportengland.org/
Sport is devolved - grants made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland prior to the Multi-Sports Grassroots Facilities Programme are a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the value of grants awarded through the Heritage High Street Fund was in (a) the UK and (b) Kent since 2010.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zones programme ran from 2019-2024, operating in England only. It was administered by Historic England. Since 2019, there have been £90,948,829 in grants awarded through the fund.
The programme has funded the transformation and restoration of over 60 high streets, creating economic growth and improving quality of life in these areas.
Two grants were awarded in Kent, in Ramsgate and Chatham. In total, the two schemes were awarded £2,241,797 over the course of the programme.
The High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme came to an end in March 2024.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the Sports Concussion Research Forum has met as of 13 March 2024; what priority areas for research it has (a) identified and (b) taken steps to deliver; and what (i) guidance and (ii) findings it has presented to (A) her Department and (B) other bodies for which she is responsible.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Evidence-based sports research is an important component in ensuring that sport is made as safe as possible for all participants. To that end, DCMS established a Sports Concussion Research Forum in July 2022, chaired by the Medical Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. This brings together key academic experts with experience of traumatic brain injury, neurology and concussion to identify the priority research questions for the sporting sector.
The Research Forum has met five times since its inception and is now formulating a report to identify those priority research questions, with the report expected to be completed in 2024.
The Government remains committed to working with sports stakeholders to build on the positive work that is already taking place to mitigate the causes and effects of concussion in sport.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been provided by (a) Sport England and (b) the Arts Council for projects in the Folkestone and Hythe district in each year since 2010; and which projects in the district have received such funding.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The table below provides a summary of the investments made by Sport England and Arts Council England (“ACE”) in the Folkestone and Hythe Constituency since 2010.
YEAR | SPORT ENGLAND | ACE |
2010 | £19,980 | £642,678 |
2011 | £174,060 | £98,621 |
2012 | £185,448 | £111,071 |
2013 | £70,513 | £912,581 |
2014 | £37,949 | £229,440 |
2015 | £154,039 | £880,023 |
2016 | £36,187 | £1,365,762 |
2017 | £108,966 | £1,934,965 |
2018 | £140,065 | £851,837 |
2019 | £382,364 | £459,254 |
2020 | £239,443 | £1,252,013 |
2021 | £53,428 | £1,616,286 |
2022 | £106,155 | £987,956 |
2023 | £48,601 | £819,229 |
TOTAL 2010-23: | £1,757,198 | £12,161,716 |
For a breakdown of the projects funded across this period, Sport England publishes an updated register of grant awards on a quarterly basis, with awards dating back to 2009 listed in full.
Due to a change in Arts Council England's (ACE) grant management system in 2016, data from before that date is not as high quality and not reliably comparable with more recent data. Noting this caveat we have provided the figures nonetheless for completeness.
Grants awarded from ACE's main funding streams within the last 5 financial years (2023/2024 inclusive) are published online and provide details of all organisations that receive funding.They are available in the following locations:
National Lottery Project Grants
Developing Your Creative Practice
Investment Programme (2018-2022 NPO)
Investment Programme (2023-2026 NPO)
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish the Government’s response to the consultation on a new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The consultation closed in October. We are carefully considering the responses we received and will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with Ofcom on (a) Ofcom’s policy to incentivise Openreach to build full fibre infrastructure in areas deemed commercially uncompetitive and (b) the criteria Ofcom uses to define those areas as uncompetitive.
Answered by Matt Warman
The department has regular conversations with Ofcom at both ministerial and official level about its work to regulate the telecoms market, including the Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review. Ofcom has set out its findings and proposed regulatory approach from the review in its published consultation documents, which are available on its website.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
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 lay before Parliament the Age Appropriate Design Code for online services.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Age Appropriate Design Code will play an important role in protecting children’s personal data online. The Data Protection Act requires that the Code is laid in Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable. Ministers are taking the necessary steps to lay the Code as soon as possible.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the Counter Disinformation Unit on covid-19 became operational; how many full-time equivalent staff work in that unit; from which Departments those staff were recruited; and whether any new staff have been hired to work in that unit.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Whilst this cross-government counter-disinformation capability was recently stood up to support COVID-19 response efforts, existing structures have been monitoring for disinformation related to the disease as part of their ongoing work.
The capability is resourced full time through existing cross-government teams and there are no additional costs associated with it.
There are a number of organisations that have relevant capabilities and responsibilities which are brought together through this work. This includes existing teams in DCMS, the Home Office, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Cabinet Office and No10.