Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department issues guidance to sports colleges and teaching coaches on recognising the dangers of concussion; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We are acutely aware of the potential effects of concussion and serious head injuries in sport. Baroness Tanni Grey- Thompson produced a report into Duty of Care in Sport and the report dedicated an entire chapter to safety, injury and medical issues. DCMS have been regular attendees at and contributors to the Forum on Concussion in Sport and Physical Education chaired by the Sport and Recreation Alliance (SRA). This Forum has produced guidelines for the education sector, which was praised by the Duty of Care report.
Expert advice is available for schools and colleges to help them assess activities and ensure they are safe for pupils. The Association for Physical Education and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents provide advice to schools on how to manage activities safely and reduce the risk of injuries and accidents, including concussion.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what his policy is on the provision of electronic books by libraries.
Answered by Michael Ellis
We are committed to encouraging the availability of e-books for lending from public library services. When commenced, section 31 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 will extend the Public Lending Right to include the remote lending of e-books and audiobooks, where such lending takes place away from library premises.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding was allocated from the public purse to museums in 2017-18.
Answered by Michael Ellis
In terms of allocation, the fifteen museums and galleries directly funded by DCMS were allocated £327 million for Financial Year 2017-18 under the current Spending Review term.
Other major public funders of museums include Local Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Arts Council England. In addition, the Mendoza Review published last year identified twelve other sources of government investment in the museums sector, from universities and higher education, to grants and tax breaks. Together, these sixteen sources of public funding have on average invested £844 million a year into museums over the past decade.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much National Lottery funding has been allocated to projects in Northern Ireland in 2017.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
National Lottery good cause money is allocated by expert bodies at arm’s length from Government, taking account of their own priorities and the need for equitable distribution. The devolved Lottery Distribution Bodies have their policy directions set by the devolved administrations.
National Lottery good cause monies are distributed in Northern Ireland by Sport Northern Ireland and Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Sport Northern Ireland receives 0.52% of the total National Lottery
Distribution Fund; Arts Council of Northern Ireland receives 0.56%. This amounts to an estimated £17.7m in 2017/18 (subject to audit).
In addition to this, the UK-wide Lottery Distributors (UK Sport, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and British Film Institute) also distribute parts of their allocation to projects in Northern Ireland. Proportions will vary by distributor.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
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 take steps to (a) introduce and (b) support courses to improve computer literacy.
Answered by Margot James
We are introducing, from 2020, fully-funded basic digital skills training for adults. Adults will have the opportunity to take improved basic digital courses based on new national standards setting out the basic digital skills needed to participate effectively in the labour market and day–to-day life. The Government will consult on these new standards in the autumn.
We also fund the Future Digital Inclusion programme managed by the Good Things Foundation and delivered through the 5,000 strong Online Centres network. To date this programme has supported over 800,000 adult learners to develop their basic digital skills, many of whom are socially excluded. In the 2017 Autumn Budget the Government announced a National Retraining Scheme which will have an early focus on digital.
As part of the Digital Strategy over half of the 4 million digital skills training opportunities pledged by industry have now been delivered. Creation of the Digital Skills Partnership, also highlighted the Digital Strategy and support for Local Digital Skills Partnerships to ensure that partners across public, private and third sectors work collaboratively to design, develop and deliver innovative digital skills programmes will also help improve digital inclusion.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what his policy is on companies that sell personal data to third parties.
Answered by Margot James
The Government takes both the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. We expect all organisations to abide by the law when processing (including sharing or selling) personal data.
The Data Protection Act 1998 has served us well and placed the UK at the front of global data protection standards. With the new Data Protection Bill, Government are modernising the data protection laws in the UK to make them fit for purpose for our increasingly digital economy and society. It will set new standards for protecting general data, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), giving people more control over use of their data, and provide new rights to move or delete personal data. This new data protection regime will come into force on 25 May 2018.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has a policy to attract the television and film industry to work in the UK.
Answered by Margot James
The strength of the UK’s production sector is rooted in international confidence in the film-friendly policies of this government, including funding for the British Film Institute and British Film Commission, as well as the attractive fiscal environment created by the government’s creative sector tax reliefs. Such support, along with the world-class excellence of UK talent, crews and locations, continues to cement the UK’s reputation as a leading global destination for film and TV production. 2017 saw a new record for expenditure on inward investment film and television production with £1.69 billion for film, a 23% increase on the previous year, and £684 million for high-end television production, a 27% increase on 2016.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department plans to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The final year of the Government's four year programme to commemorate the centenary of the First World War will see a series of events to commemorate the end of the War, and the path to peace.
On Monday 26 March an event was held to commemorate the centenary of the appointment of Marshal Foch as Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front, at the statue of the Marshal in Lower Grosvenor Gardens. It was attended by the French Ambassador, and the French Minister of State for Veterans and Remembrance.
On 8 August we will commemorate the centenary of the the Battle of Amiens and the subsequent 'Hundred Days' Offensive with an event in Amiens Cathedral in Northern France. It is being delivered in partnership with the governments of Australia, Canada, France and the United States of America. The public ballot for tickets to attend the event opened on 9 March, and will close on 9 April. Members of the public who wish to attend can apply via the web-page or in writing to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The government’s programme of centenary events will culminate on 11 November 2018 with a series of events across the UK to mark the centenary of the Armistice. The National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph will follow traditional lines, to respect its wider purpose in remembering the fallen of all conflicts. The traditional veterans’ parade will then be followed by a civilian procession made up of 10,000 members of the public who wish to show their thanks to a generation who gave so much for the freedoms we enjoy today. An announcement regarding the public ballot for tickets to participate in this procession will be made in May. During the day, church and other bells will ring out as they did in 1918 to mark the end of the war. The government is supporting the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers to recruit 1,400 bell ringers (the number that were lost during the war) to create a national peal that will echo the impromptu outpouring of relief and joy that took place 100 years ago.
The commemorations will conclude in the evening with a national service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London. Similar services will also take place in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast.
In addition to the national events, the other elements of government programme, such as the Schools' Battlefields Tours, the schools 'Great War Debates', the Victoria Cross Paving Stones, and funding for the repair and restoration of War Memorials will continue to ensure that the final year of the War and the Armistice are commemorated appropriately.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will consider replacing the BBC licence fee with an alternative funding model.
Answered by Margot James
We have committed to maintain the licence fee funding model for the BBC for the duration of this 11 year Charter period.