Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the extent to which the policies of broadcasters recruiting members of the public for quiz or game shows or similar programmes discriminate against people with disabilities.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Broadcasters are subject to the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 which legally protects disabled people from discrimination in the delivery of services and in wider society. This government is actively encouraging the industry to be proactive in increasing diversity on and off screen - including by increasing the representation of disabled people. Ed Vaizey hosted a conference in January that raised the wider issue of lack of representation of disabled people in the creative industries.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department gives on the number and type of wheelchair spaces which should be available for disabled people in music venues across the UK.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The huge variation in size, type and location of music venues across the UK makes it impractical to require venue operators to make a specific number of spaces available for disabled people. However, we believe that everyone should have equal access to arts and culture. We are working with venues and organisations representing disabled people to identify barriers to access along with examples of best practice and how these can be shared and; to consider what more cultural venues need to do to be accessible to people with disabilities.
We are supportive of the work of Attitude is Everything, which aims to improve disabled people’s access to live events, working in partnership with audiences, artists, and the music industry. My ministerial colleague Ed Vaizey also recently held a roundtable meeting with Justin Tomlinson, Minister for Disabled People to look at access to cultural venues and events for disabled people.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he expects to publish the results of his consultation on the BBC Charter Review.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government's BBC Charter Review Public Consultation closed in October. Over 190,000 people responded to the consultation - the second largest response to any Government consultation. We are in the process of reading and analysing all the responses, and will publish the results once this exercise is completed.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will bring forward proposals to require broadcasters to provide subtitles and audio description for on-demand programmes for the benefit of people with sensory loss; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government remains committed to seeing an improvement in the provision of access services for video-on-demand (VoD) services and will continue to monitor progress. If the 2015 ATVOD’s annual survey of VOD Services indicates that significant progress has not been made, then as stated in the Connectivity, Content and Consumers Paper (July 2013) we will consider legislation in 2016.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of when average download speeds in the whole of Blaydon constituency will reach 14.7 mbps.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
House of Commons Library analysis (http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06643.pdf) of Ofcom postcode data related to June 2014 suggested the average download speed across the Blaydon constituency was then about 18.7 Mbit/s.
The Government's Broadband programme is helping to increase availability of superfast broadband by over 40,000 premises in the Borough of Blaydon to 96%, which could led to further increase in average speeds.Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will (a) make a public response to the proposals submitted to his Department by PCS as an alternative to privatisation at the National Gallery and (b) refer those proposals to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee for scrutiny; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
(a) The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not received a copy of the proposals referred to. The Director of the National Gallery received a document entitled ‘Why Keeping Staff In-House is the Best Option for the National Gallery, The PCS Alternative Plan’ last week; a copy has not been received by the Department at the present time. The National Gallery Director and his colleagues are currently giving the proposals careful consideration and will issue a detailed response to PCS shortly on behalf of the Gallery. The proposals are part of an on-going consultation with PCS over a proposed programme to add to its existing range of outsourcing options. The Gallery’s conversation with PCS is being facilitated through ACAS. The National Gallery operates at Arm’s length from DCMS, and as such has responsibility for its own staffing arrangements; the content of the letter is an issue for the National Gallery to consider.
(b) The document is currently the subject of internal management discussions at the National Gallery and covers a range of internal issues; it is not planned that the document will be subject to scrutiny by the CMS Select Committee.
My Right Hon Friend the Secretary of State will not make a statement on the matter.