Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 increase youth participation in sport.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and this government is committed to ensuring every child, no matter their background or ability, should be able to play sport and be active.
That is why in ‘Get Active: A strategy for the future of sport and physical activity’ we introduce an ambition that all children should meet the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines on physical activity, with a target of getting 1 million more active children by 2030.
Schools play a key role in allowing all children to have high quality opportunities to take part in PE and sport, setting them up for a lifetime of physical activity. In July we published an update to the School Sport and Activity Action Plan. This builds on the announcement we made in March that set out new ambitions for equal access to PE and sport, with guidance on how to deliver 2 hours of quality PE a week, alongside over £600 million funding for the Primary PE and Sport Premium and School Games Organiser network.
Outside of the school day, the £57 million Opening School Facilities programme will support the most inactive young people to access facilities that will enable them to play sport and take physical exercise. By opening school sport facilities, including swimming pools, disparities in access to opportunities seen between socio-economic groups will begin to be tackled through the programme. We are also investing over £300 million in grassroots football and multi-sport facilities across the UK by 2025 which will further support youth participation in sport.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason Peers attending His Majesty’s Coronation are not being mandated to wear their Coronation Robes and Coronets.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The dress code for the Coronation comes under the advice and instruction of the Earl Marshal.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 help (a) Southport and (b) other seaside towns preserve their cultural heritage..
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
HM Government works to preserve the rich cultural heritage of our seaside towns in many ways, including through the statutory heritage protection system, which recognises heritage assets of national significance and helps to protect them for the nation. There are currently 293 designated heritage assets in Southport, including 281 Listed Buildings.
Historic England, the Government's statutory adviser on heritage matters, regularly undertakes research and thematic designation projects which focus on recognising and protecting the cultural heritage assets of seaside towns – buildings, venues and other amenities which are often central to the local visitor economy. Historic England is currently working with local partners, such as Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, on initiatives which will assist in revitalising Southport’s economy and the appreciation and protection of its historic environment.
Through the High Street Heritage Action Zones programme, HM Government has invested over £23 million in coastal communities, breathing new life into high streets, benefiting local people and businesses, and providing assistance to much-loved historic buildings.
The recent announcement of the second round of the Levelling Up Fund included a range of projects focused on protecting and celebrating the cultural heritage of seaside towns. These include £50 million for the new major visitor attraction Eden Project North in Morecambe, transforming a derelict site on Morecambe’s seafront to create a world-class cultural and visitor destination. It also includes a £40 million for Blackpool to deliver a new Multiversity, a carbon-neutral, education campus in the Talbot Gateway Central Business District, £19 million to improve access to Bexhill's art deco De La Warr pavilion, and £20 million to renovate Great Yarmouth's North Quay. The announcement also confirmed that there will be a further round of the Levelling Up Fund, providing more opportunity to level up seaside communities and other places across the UK.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the (a) fees and (b) penalties relating to the funding of public broadcasting are (i) proportionate, (ii) balanced and (iii) provide good value for money in the context of changing trends in media consumption.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK has six public service broadcasters (PSBs). Only two of these – the BBC and S4C (the Welsh language broadcaster) – receive direct public funding.
The licence fee is the source of the overwhelming majority of this public funding. In January 2022, the government announced the licence fee settlement to the end of the current Charter period on 31 December 2027. The price of a TV licence will stay at £159 for two years, before rising in line with inflation from April 2024. The Government believes this settlement will give the BBC the money it needs to fulfil its mission and public purposes effectively, whilst making sure we support UK households through a difficult time and spend public money in a proportionate and balanced way. S4C also received a 9% increase in its funding to support the vital role it plays in supporting the Welsh economy, culture and society.
As set out in the recent broadcasting white paper, ‘Up Next’, the government wants to find a funding model which will allow the BBC and S4C to continue to succeed while also being fair to those who pay for it. This is why we need to consider the most fair and appropriate funding mechanism to be introduced at the end of the current Charter period.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the role of technology companies in preventing the harmful use of deepfake technology.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the challenges digitally manipulated content such as deepfakes pose.
The Online Safety Bill requires service providers to tackle serious and illegal forms of manipulated media. All services in scope of the Bill will need to proactively remove and prevent users from being exposed to priority illegal content. This could include deepfake material where it is linked to existing priority offences, such as extreme or revenge pornography. Service providers will also need to prevent children from accessing content, including deepfakes, which is harmful or inappropriate. Major platforms will also need to set out clearly their terms of service in relation to priority content that is legal but harmful to adults, which may include deepfake content. They will need to enforce these terms of service consistently.
The Government has also asked the Law Commission to review the criminal law related to intimate images. This review is sponsored by the Ministry of Justice and includes ‘deepfake’ pornography. The Law Commission will publish its final report and recommendations later this year.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 will take to ensure that national records of war memorials are accurately maintained.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
War memorials are an important part of our cultural heritage, and hold a deep emotional resonance with the people of this country. Maintaining an accurate register is integral to making war memorials accessible to all, and ensuring that they benefit future generations as well as our own.
The Imperial War Museum (a DCMS-Sponsored Museum and Arm's Length Body of government) manages the War Memorials Register, a comprehensive national register of over 90,000 UK war memorials and the names of the individuals they commemorate. With the help of volunteers and the general public, this register is continually updated and provides an invaluable resource to anyone wishing to learn more about, and commemorate, lives lost to and affected by conflict.
Alongside the work of organisations such as The War Memorials Trust this work ensures the wider preservation of the UK’s war memorials.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 funding for grassroots football clubs to purchase defibrillators.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Events at UEFA EURO 2020 last year have demonstrated the immense value of access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and first aid training for anyone involved in sport.
At the grassroots sport level, all capital funding awards for sports venues made by Sport England, the government’s arm’s length body for community sport, must include AED provision if it is not already available.
For football facilities, The Football Association (The FA) and the British Heart Foundation have provided support over recent years to help ensure AEDs are available. I welcome the Premier League’s Defibrillator Fund, which will fund AEDs at thousands of football clubs and facilities across the country. Each grant recipient will be required to have at least one person successfully complete The FA Education Sudden Cardiac Arrest free online course. Sport England is working with the Football Foundation in support of the Premier League initiative to put £3 million into providing AED equipment for grassroots football clubs.
The Defibrillator Fund will see AEDs provided to Football Foundation funded facilities which currently are without a device onsite. The second phase of the project now allows grassroots clubs that own their facilities to apply for funding for a defibrillator, with 1,538 applications to the fund received to date.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 support the UK's coastal tourism industry.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Our national tourism agency, VisitBritain, is launching a new international and domestic campaign this month, which will focus on driving visitor recovery in the UK. This is additional to the Tourism Recovery Plan, which was published by DCMS in June 2021.
VisitBritain and The National Lottery’s current ‘Days Out’ campaign supports the domestic tourism industry by stimulating demand for off-season domestic day trips to visitor attractions and experiences for young families. Attraction examples include Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours, Clacton Pier, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and various locations of SEA LIFE.
Coastal tourism is an important part of the British tourism sector. 10% of all visits to the UK include going to the coast or beaches and 11% of all visits include walking along the coast.
The business advice hub, our business webinars, We’re Good to Go and DMO support all available to the sector, including those in coastal locations.
Coastal destinations were supported via the Discover England Fund as part of the England’s Coast project up to 2021. VisitBritain continues to support their initiatives, through marketing, PR and business support.
Press trips have taken place on coastal destinations and continue to be part of VisitBritain’s ongoing campaigns and activities where the pandemic has allowed international and domestic travel.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 enable non-professional singing choirs to resume rehearsals and performances indoors.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
I know that the restrictions on singing are frustrating to large numbers of amateur choirs and performance groups across the country and that many people have made sacrifices in order to drive down infections and protect the NHS over the last year. I want to assure you that everyone across the government wants to ease these restrictions as soon as possible.
However, it is important that we take a cautious approach in easing restrictions.
We will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. Further detail on step 4 will be set out as soon as possible.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 broadband speeds in Southport.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government is committed to delivering lightning-fast, reliable broadband to everyone in the UK. ‘Project Gigabit’ is ambitious, challenging and central to how we build back better. Our plan - to stimulate investment, bust barriers and drive competition - is working. We are on track for one of the fastest rollouts in Europe and for 60% of all households to have access to gigabit speeds by the end of the year. It is a huge leap forward from 2019, when it was 9%.
We are backing Project Gigabit with £5 billion so hard to reach communities are not left out - starting to level up now, not waiting for the end of the commercial rollout, and building on the half a million rural homes and businesses already given coverage through our support.
As part of Project Gigabit we are funding up to £210 million worth of vouchers over the next three years to help with the costs of installing gigabit to people’s doorsteps and up to £110 million to connect up to 7,000 rural public buildings such as GP surgeries, libraries and schools. All premises not covered through these measures or through commercial coverage will be in scope for new Project Gigabit contracts.
According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14000958) 99.61% of premises in Southport currently has access to superfast broadband - up from 23% in 2011. On top of this, 19% also have access to Gigabit speeds. So far, 9 gigabit connection vouchers have been issued in the Southport area with a value of £19,600. Eligibility of other premises for vouchers can be checked at https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/