Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons group fitness classes are not permitted in areas under tier 3 covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As the Prime Minister said on 23 November national restrictions ended on Wednesday 2 December, and gyms and sport facilities will reopen across all tiers. As set out in the COVID Winter Plan the decision to allocate tiers is based on a range of factors and will be reviewed every 14 days. In Tier 3 areas we have taken further measures to limit social interactions and therefore opportunities for the virus to spread.
Outdoor organised sport can resume, but the Government will advise against contact sports with a higher risk of transmission, although these can still go ahead for under 18s and disabled groups. Group activity and exercise classes indoors are also advised against.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to protect vulnerable people from fraudulent cold calling.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Fraudulent calls can have significant and devastating impacts on people’s lives, particularly the most vulnerable in society. As well as being a nuisance, cold calling is the most common method used to initiate fraud, especially relating to pensions. That’s why the government has taken action to ban pension cold calling.
HM Treasury has introduced a ban on pension cold calling in order to reduce the chance of individual’s being enticed into fraudulent schemes.
Further to this, Home Office has collaborated with UK Finance to run the Take Five fraud awareness campaign. The campaign is designed to equip the public to challenge fraudulent approaches with confidence – be they face-to-face, on the telephone or online.
The Government continues to work on practical solutions to address nuisance and scam calls. DCMS have provided over £1 million in the last 3 years to the National Trading Standards for distribution of call blocking devices to vulnerable people. This funding helped to protect some of the most vulnerable in society from nuisance calls and scams, including those originating from overseas.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
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 assessment of the effectiveness of covid-19 restrictions on sports which prevent adults from travelling between local authorities but enable coaches, umpires and under-18s to do so.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so.
You can travel in order to exercise across all tiers, however there is additional guidance for Tier 2 and Tier 3 areas which affects those living in the areas as well as those who wish to travel into the areas to take part in sporting activities. In tier 2: you should aim to reduce the number of journeys you make, where possible.
You are advised not to travel into or out of Tier 3 areas, including for sport, unless this is necessary to enable individual exercise (or exercise for people from the same household or support bubble). Where this is necessary (for example to access a green space for a run or cycle), you should only travel a short distance and stay as local as possible. Travel is also permitted where it is necessary to enable sport for disabled people, sport for educational purposes, or supervised sport and physical activity for under-18s, to take place, but should still be minimised and kept to short distances only. People can additionally travel for necessary work or voluntary purposes.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to issue guidance on the holding of public firework display events in England during the covid-19 outbreak; and whether the Government plans to make material revisions in relation to those events to its most recent general guidance on outdoor gatherings during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Outdoor events - including firework display events - organised by businesses, charitable organisations, and public bodies are currently permitted provided event organisers follow all relevant Covid-19 Secure guidance, organisers and attendees adhere to all legal requirements including only allowing people to attend in groups of up to 6 people, and the event does not pose a risk to public health.
Industry guidance developed by the Events Industry Forum in collaboration with DCMS outlines the Covid-secure measures that events organisers must put in place in order to host an outdoor event, including a firework display.
Local Authorities are responsible for permitting or prohibiting large organised outdoor events from taking place in their local area. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, and Local Authorities should provide advice to businesses on how to manage events of this type if required.
We will keep the Outdoor Events guidance under review to determine whether further guidance should be provided as government measures to stop the spread of the virus change. The Events Industry Forum’s guidance for outdoor events can be found here: https://www.eventsindustryforum.co.uk/index.php/11-features/14-keeping-workers-and-audiences-safe-during-covid-19.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres' proposal for an Emergency Resilience Fund for science centres during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Science and discovery centres around the country have an important role in educating and entertaining visitors of all ages on what science is and the important discoveries over the centuries that have changed all our lives.
The proposal for an Emergency Resilience Fund sets out the difficulties that science centres are facing while they are closed and unable to earn income from visitors.
Science centres in England have access to the unprecedented support the Government has announced for business and workers, to protect them against the current economic emergency. This includes the Job Retention Scheme, which I am pleased science centres have benefited from, VAT payment deferrals, and £330bn worth of government backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses. The Chancellor has also announced a Bounce Back loan scheme to help small businesses access loans of up to £50,000, with a 100% government-backed guarantee for lenders.
Many science and discovery centres are also part of museum groups or are heritage sites, such as members Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, the Discovery Museum in Newcastle, part of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, and Thinktank, the Birmingham Science Museum. Museums and heritage organisations can access over £200 million of coronavirus support schemes from Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Science centres outside England may be eligible for further support from the devolved governments.
Our immediate national priority is containing the spread of the virus. As soon as it is safe to do so, we will be encouraging people to visit leisure attractions once again. On 11th May 2020 the Government published a roadmap setting out how we expect organisations such as science and discovery centres to open back up and welcome visitors again.