Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to provide further support to individual sports clubs during the covid-19 outbreak.
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 sport clubs have benefited from. Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund has also provided £210 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working with HM Treasury on what can be done to provide further support since the decision was made to prevent fans returning to stadia from 1 October.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to provide further financial support to organisations in the voluntary sector during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The £750 million package offered unprecedented support to allow charities and social enterprises to continue their vital work in our national effort to fight coronavirus. This funding will continue to support this work over the winter.
We are not able to replace every pound of funding charities would have received this year, and many organisations will need to assess what measures they need to take. Information on the wider measures the government has made available and details on how to access the support can be found on gov.uk. The Charity Commission has also published guidance on gov.uk, which sets out how charities can get support for their staff, advice on use of reserves, and other potential issues.
We will continue to work with the charity and social enterprise sectors to assess emerging needs and how we can best support them during the COVID-19 pandemic and through recovery.
Ensuring charities can safely begin fundraising activities will be a crucial part of the sector’s recovery. DCMS has worked closely with its sectors to publish guidance relating to COVID-19. This includes practical guidance and resources from the Fundraising Regulator and Chartered Institute of Fundraising supporting charities to safeguard the public, staff and volunteers as they plan to return to fundraising activities in a safe and responsible way. This can be viewed at;
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to provide further support to organisations in the fundraising sector during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The £750 million package offered unprecedented support to allow charities and social enterprises to continue their vital work in our national effort to fight coronavirus. This funding will continue to support this work over the winter.
We are not able to replace every pound of funding charities would have received this year, and many organisations will need to assess what measures they need to take. Information on the wider measures the government has made available and details on how to access the support can be found on gov.uk. The Charity Commission has also published guidance on gov.uk, which sets out how charities can get support for their staff, advice on use of reserves, and other potential issues.
We will continue to work with the charity and social enterprise sectors to assess emerging needs and how we can best support them during the COVID-19 pandemic and through recovery.
Ensuring charities can safely begin fundraising activities will be a crucial part of the sector’s recovery. DCMS has worked closely with its sectors to publish guidance relating to COVID-19. This includes practical guidance and resources from the Fundraising Regulator and Chartered Institute of Fundraising supporting charities to safeguard the public, staff and volunteers as they plan to return to fundraising activities in a safe and responsible way. This can be viewed at;
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government is planning to provide additional support for the exhibition industry in response to the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on that sector.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise that the events industry and its supply chain has been severely impacted by Covid-19. We continue to meet with the stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to discuss the specific issues facing the industry.
Events businesses can continue to make use of the broader support package available to them. This includes the Bounce Back Loans scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
We have worked closely with events stakeholders, through both the Visitor Economy and Events & Entertainment Working Groups, to develop Covid-19 Secure reopening guidance for the business events industry.
We are holding three business event pilots in September as part of our preparations to help the sector safely reopen and begin its recovery. If prevalence remains around or below current levels into the autumn, we will bring back audiences in stadia, and allow conferences and other business events to recommence in a COVID-19 Secure way, from 1 October. This step will only take place once we have a reliable scientific understanding of the impact of reopening schools on the epidemic.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans the Government has to provide additional support to the live events industry in response to the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on that sector.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS appreciates the important role that the events sector plays in the UK’s cultural economy, and that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many businesses operating in these sectors.
The Secretary of State provided a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors. This support package will benefit cultural sector services by providing support to cultural venues and many other organisations in the Creative Industries that host live events, to stay open and continue operating.
From 15th August venues and organisations have been able to put on live indoor performances in front of a socially-distanced audience. This is in addition to the earlier announcement that from 11 July we can all enjoy performances outdoors with social distancing. This follows the government’s five-stage roadmap outlining how DCMS will get audiences back into performing arts venues. We are now at Stage Four of the roadmap.
We are committed to continuing to work with the live events sector to understand the difficulties they face and help them access support through these challenging times and through recovery.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
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 enable (a) indoor gyms and (b) swimming pools be reopen.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. As announced on 9 July, from 11 July, outdoor swimming pools will be able to open and from 25 July indoor gyms, leisure centres (including sports halls) and swimming pools in England should be able to reopen. These facilities will be able to offer on-site services to customers, provided they are COVID-secure and follow Government guidance.
The updated guidance can be found at the GOV.UK website and includes advice for providers of pool, gym and leisure facilities on cleaning, social distancing, and protection for staff to help venues get back up and running safely.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government holds 3D laser maps of historic buildings to provide an accurate record of their construction in the event of damage.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Government does not have a central repository of 3D laser maps that record historic buildings. However, Historic England (HE) have taken steps to record the most notable historic buildings. The HE Geospatial Survey team have created and hold data for 101 historic sites, of which 55 are English Heritage properties. Notable sites that have complete laser scans include Stonehenge, Ironbridge and Harmondsworth Barn. There are a number of buildings in Shrewsbury that have been scanned and mapped. These include Shrewsbury Old Market Hall, the Charles Darwin statue and the Catholic Cathedral and sections of the town wall, by Arrol and Snell. Ironbridge, already noted, is just outside the constituency and is one of the notable sites which has had complete laser scan coverage.
There are more than 400,000 buildings and monuments on the National Heritage List for England, the vast majority in private ownership. It is likely that only a small fraction of these have been subject to comprehensive laser or photogrammetric survey of any kind. Such surveys that do exist are likely to be held by the owners and organisations carrying out the work.