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Written Question
Platinum Jubilee 2022: Medals
Tuesday 5th September 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal is available to people who had served a combined total of five years in the Armed Forces and frontline NHS services on 6 February 2022.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

To qualify for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal recipients must be in an eligible role in the public sector on 6 February 2022 and have completed five years’ service.

There are some circumstances where prior service in a previous eligible role might be taken into account and aggregated with current service by a Department in deciding on medal eligibility.

Individual Departments, the Devolved Administrations and Crown Dependencies are responsible for applying the eligibility criteria and making eligibility decisions regarding the award of the Medal to their staff and other organisations that fall under their sponsorship.


Written Question
Music Venues: Finance
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring large music venues to charge a ticket levy to fund investment in (a) musicians and (b) grassroot music venues.

Answered by John Whittingdale

His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.

That is why we are supporting them to develop the next generation of British talent, by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.

This is in addition to other government support provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.

Contemporary, operatic, and classical music subsectors receive funding through a wide variety of sources, including Arts Council England. Decisions made by the Arts Council about the allocation of funding are taken at arm's length from Government. Decisions are made in line with the Council’s ten-year strategy, which sets the direction for all of the artforms and sub-sectors it supports, including opera, contemporary, and classical music.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with interested parties and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive. Whilst industry-led discussions on the proposal of a ticket levy are ongoing, we have no plans to enforce large venues to impose a ticket levy.


Written Question
Music Venues: Finance
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing the same level of funding to grassroots music venues that host contemporary music as provided for opera and classical music.

Answered by John Whittingdale

His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.

That is why we are supporting them to develop the next generation of British talent, by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.

This is in addition to other government support provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.

Contemporary, operatic, and classical music subsectors receive funding through a wide variety of sources, including Arts Council England. Decisions made by the Arts Council about the allocation of funding are taken at arm's length from Government. Decisions are made in line with the Council’s ten-year strategy, which sets the direction for all of the artforms and sub-sectors it supports, including opera, contemporary, and classical music.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with interested parties and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive. Whilst industry-led discussions on the proposal of a ticket levy are ongoing, we have no plans to enforce large venues to impose a ticket levy.


Written Question
Music Venues
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to provide further support to (a) Polar Bear in Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle constituency and (b) other grassroots music venues.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The department works closely with stakeholders and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive.

The Government has provided significant support to the live music sector. This includes more than £1 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through the Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund in Arts Council England (ACE). In July 2021, The Polar Bear in Hull was awarded a £31,200 Project Grants through ACE’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund. This scheme has been extended until September 2023, and we will continue to engage with the sector on its future.


Written Question
Music Venues: Subsidies
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make a comparative assessment of the impact of levels of public subsidy for (a) contemporary, (b) opera and (c) classical music on music venues.

Answered by John Whittingdale

Contemporary, operatic, and classical music venues receive funding through a wide variety of sources, including Arts Council England.

Decisions made by the Arts Council about the allocation of funding are taken at arm's length from government. It takes these decisions in line with its ten-year strategy, which sets the direction for all of the art forms and sub-sectors it supports, including opera, contemporary, and classical music. The Arts Council has also commissioned further independent analysis on how to best support opera.

Arts Council England produces a robust analysis of its investment, including a breakdown by discipline and geography.


Written Question
Caravans: Wheelchairs
Monday 17th April 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what data her Department holds on (a) the number and proportion of caravan parks that provide wheelchair accessible static caravans for hire and (b) the number of wheelchair accessible static caravans (i) available for hire and (ii) manufactured in the UK in each of the last five years.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not hold data on wheelchair accessibility for static caravans or caravan manufacturing.


Written Question
Football: Reform
Wednesday 8th February 2023

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she expects the White Paper on football reform to be published; and whether it is her policy to support the introduction of an independent regulator for English football.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

We will publish a White Paper that sets out a detailed plan on how football will be reformed through regulation in the coming weeks.


Written Question
Dormant Assets Scheme: Public Consultation
Monday 28th February 2022

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department's time frame is for the dormant assets consultation period following Royal Assent of the Dormant Assets Bill.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The consultation to determine the social and environmental focus of the English expenditure of future dormant assets funding will be launched as soon as Summer 2022. The consultation will be open for at least 12 weeks, with the government response to the consultation being published within 12 weeks of the consultation closure.


Written Question
Internet: Children
Monday 25th October 2021

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

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 help ensure the safety of children online.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Protecting children online is at the heart of the Online Safety Bill, which the government published in draft in May 2021 for pre-legislative scrutiny. Sites in scope of the Bill which are likely to be accessed by children will need to deliver appropriate safety measures to protect children from inappropriate or harmful content online. If sites fail in their duties under the Bill, they will be subject to tough enforcement action including fines of up to 10% of global qualifying annual turnover.

The government is clear that tech companies should use their ingenuity now to improve child online safety. We have taken a number of steps to help companies and users improve online safety, including the publication of a One Stop Shop for child online safety, the Online Media Literacy Strategy, and Safety by Design guidance.


Written Question
Buses: Coronavirus
Thursday 24th June 2021

Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the clarity of the advice in The visitor economy - Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) on coach party travel after June 21 2021; and whether he has plans to issue revised guidance.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government's ‘Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19)’ guidance pages, including the visitor economy guidance, outline what is currently permitted at Step 3 of the Roadmap and how businesses can operate safely under current restrictions.

The Prime Minister’s reopening Roadmap sets out the forward look for Step 4. The roadmap also sets out how ongoing reviews (for example, the Social Distancing Review) will inform how businesses will operate in Step 4. It is expected that England will move to Step 4 on 19 July, though the data will be reviewed after 2 weeks in case the risks have reduced. The Government will continue to monitor the data and the move to Step 4 will be confirmed one week in advance, at which point, the ‘Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19)’ guidance for businesses across the economy - including the visitor economy guidance - will be updated.