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 provide funding for small sports clubs to renovate their stadiums.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government's Sporting Future strategy makes clear that investing in the right facilities in the right places is key to encouraging more people to take part in sport and physical activity and to improving the experience for those who already do.
Sport England's Strategic Facilities Fund was opened in 2014/15. The aim of the fund is to provide capital investment into a number of key community projects. So far, £42 million has been invested in 33 new state of the art leisure facilities.
Sport England also run the Community Asset Fund which will provide up to £15 million per year to enhance the spaces in local communities that help people to be active.
Responsibility for grassroots sport is devolved and each country has a Home Nation Sports Council, sportscotland, Sport Wales and Sport NI in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively
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 steps his Department is taking to support programmes tackling the misuse of drugs in professional sport.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The UK has always taken a strong stance on doping in sport, but we are not complacent. DCMS recently published a Tailored Review of UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), which committed an additional £6.1m of funding. This will support further the important work carried out by UKAD, as well as the implementation of the recommendations set out within that Review.
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 Department's policy is on expanding broadband provision in rural areas.
Answered by Margot James
The Government’s policy is to ensure world-class broadband connectivity across the UK, including in rural areas.
To date, we have invested £1.7 billion of public money to deliver 95% superfast broadband coverage of the UK by the end of 2017, and are continuing to support delivery with at least a further 2% coverage likely to be achieved. In Northern Ireland, this will have provided superfast coverage to 41,000 premises.
In addition to this, the UK Government allocated a further £150 million for ultrafast broadband in Northern Ireland as part of the June 2017 funding agreement.
The Local Full Fibre Networks programme includes a £190 million Challenge Fund designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the UK, including Northern Ireland.
Defra has also allocated £30 million of grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England, targeted at helping to connect businesses with broadband in hard to reach rural areas.
To ensure no-one is left behind, the Better Broadband Scheme ensures all UK premises have access to an affordable broadband service delivering at least 2Mbps. From 2020 we are also introducing a broadband Universal Service Obligation so everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to request high-speed broadband.
Beyond these actions, the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review will assess the policy conditions that will best encourage the long-term investment needed to deliver the next generation of digital infrastructure in different areas of the UK, including hard-to-reach rural areas.
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 plans she has to help small and medium-sized enterprises to improve cyber security training and competency.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We are committed to making the UK the safest place in the world to live and do business online. This includes ensuring all UK organisations - including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - are resilient to cyber threats. A number of Government online cyber security training packages are available free of charge, including one specifically for SMEs. In addition, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched a new Cyber Security Small Business Guide in October 2017, which provides quick, easy and low-cost cyber security advice to small businesses. A series of short videos, based on the guide, will be released shortly and further campaigns will follow next year. Cyber Essentials, the Government-backed certification scheme, has also refreshed its website to make it more accessible to SMEs.
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 plans she has to extend Youth Development Fund grants to deprived areas beyond England.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government is investing £40 million through the Youth Investment and #iwill Funds to increase opportunities for young people to develop skills and undertake social action. This money is being matched by the Big Lottery Fund to create an £80million investment in young people. As this is a devolved policy area the UK Government only has the legal authority to fund projects that benefit England.
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 Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has any plans to introduce grants to support low-income families to access broadband.
Answered by Matt Hancock
BT provides a subsidised landline and broadband tariff (BT Basic + Broadband) for people in receipt of certain Government benefits. Other providers also offer services to support those on low incomes.
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 Culture, Media and Sport, what research her Department has undertaken or assessment on links between the use of technology and (a) human behaviour and (b) productivity.
Answered by Matt Hancock
DCMS commissioned the UK Broadband Impact Study from SQW consultants, formerly known as Segal Quince Wicksteed, in 2013, which examined the impact of broadband rollout on the UK economy. The Link can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/257006/UK_Broadband_Impact_Study_-_Impact_Report_-_Nov_2013_-_Final.pdf
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 Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government plans to achieve its goal of a minimum broadband speed of 10Mbps nationwide.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government has committed to putting in place a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) by the end of this Parliament. We have made clear our ambition that access to fast broadband should be on a similar footing as other basic services, giving everyone a legal right to request a connection of 10Mbps.
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 Culture, Media and Sport, what amount has been invested in grassroots sport in each region and constituent part of the UK in each year since the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Answered by David Evennett
Sport England National Lottery and Exchequer grant investment in grassroots sport, broken down by constituency, is publicly available on Sport England’s website: www.sportengland.org/funding/investments-weve-made.
Policy for grassroots sport is devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each country has a sports council which is responsible for funding of grassroots sport.