Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme that was available during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The UK Film and TV Production Restart Scheme was introduced as part of Her Majesty’s Government’s commitment to provide support during the Covid-19 pandemic and enable productions to proceed in the absence of insurance for Covid-19 related risks.
The Scheme has supported a production boom during the pandemic, protecting over 100,000 jobs and £3bn of production spend, ensuring the continued production of content for our screens. Thanks to the Government’s Living with Covid plan, the success of the vaccination programme and effective risk management by productions during the pandemic, the risk to productions posed by coronavirus has diminished, with no civil authority restrictions in place that require production shutdowns. As a result, the Government is confident it no longer needs to intervene in the market and has closed the scheme to new applications.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) help improve recruitment to and (b) tackle a skills shortage in cybersecurity.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government has funded the creation of the new professional body for cyber, the UK Cyber Security Council, to establish coherent standards and pathways that will inform employer recruitment and an individual's career development. We are ensuring that every stage of the cyber skills supply chain is developed to meet the demands evidenced in the annual DCMS labour market survey. DCMS has delivered a range of youth programmes to develop future talent, including Cyber Discovery, reaching 115,000 interested young people from across the UK. For people already in the workforce, cyber skills bootcamps are offered through the National Skills Fund, and DCMS has also sought to highlight cyber career opportunities through the Cyber Launchpad programme.
The Government will publish planned activities to further tackle the skills shortage through the National Cyber Strategy shortly.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to provide Enfield North the adequate funding necessary to tackle the deteriorating sport-related activity levels referred to in Sport England’s Active Lives Survey November 2019/20 Report published in April 2021.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sport and physical activity play a fundamental role in improving and maintaining public health, and a transformative role in creating a healthy, happy nation. For these reasons sport and activity are at the centre of the national response to improving people’s health, including tackling obesity. Sport England’s Active Lives Survey is a very important tool to understand the levels of activity across the nation and underline the importance of sport and physical activity to the people of this country.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities published ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ in July 2020. The strategy reflects the significant work that we are undertaking across England to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and to help people achieve and maintain a healthier weight.
The government has provided over £1 billion worth of support into the sport and physical activity sector through the pandemic to help to maintain and support the sector. As part of this, Sport England has provided £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund.
Sport England has invested £957,419 in the Enfield North constituency since April 2017. Of this, more than £22,000 was via Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund to support grassroots sport clubs and community organisations to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
Alongside this through Sport England’s new strategy, Uniting the Movement, they set out the importance of working in places to provide the ongoing support needed in communities. Sport England have tested and championed place-based solutions to tackle inactivity through their Local Delivery Pilots since 2017, including testing the role that tackling inactivity can play in reducing obesity and helping those living with obesity.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of Sport England’s Active Lives Survey November 2019-20 Report published in April 2021; and what steps she has taken to tackle the causes of obesity in (a) Enfield North, (b) Greater London, and (c) England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sport and physical activity play a fundamental role in improving and maintaining public health, and a transformative role in creating a healthy, happy nation. For these reasons sport and activity are at the centre of the national response to improving people’s health, including tackling obesity. Sport England’s Active Lives Survey is a very important tool to understand the levels of activity across the nation and underline the importance of sport and physical activity to the people of this country.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities published ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ in July 2020. The strategy reflects the significant work that we are undertaking across England to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and to help people achieve and maintain a healthier weight.
The government has provided over £1 billion worth of support into the sport and physical activity sector through the pandemic to help to maintain and support the sector. As part of this, Sport England has provided £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund.
Sport England has invested £957,419 in the Enfield North constituency since April 2017. Of this, more than £22,000 was via Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund to support grassroots sport clubs and community organisations to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
Alongside this through Sport England’s new strategy, Uniting the Movement, they set out the importance of working in places to provide the ongoing support needed in communities. Sport England have tested and championed place-based solutions to tackle inactivity through their Local Delivery Pilots since 2017, including testing the role that tackling inactivity can play in reducing obesity and helping those living with obesity.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Academic Year 2019/20 Report published in January 2021; and what steps she has taken to improve sport and activity levels of Black children and young people.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have the best opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity. Our Sporting Future strategy has diversity and inclusion at its heart, and sets out how important it is for all children to have a good experience of sport and physical activity.
Throughout the pandemic we provided an unprecedented £1 billion of financial support to ensure the survival of the sport and leisure sector. To tackle inequalities and support those most impacted by the restrictions, Sport England have launched a new £20m Together Fund that builds on the work of their £20m Tackling Inequalities Fund to help people stay active and provide guidance on how to find accessible activities. Initiatives such as the Studio You video platform, funded by Sport England and powered by This Girl Can, are also encouraging more teenage girls to be active. Sport England’s recently launched Uniting the Movement strategy reinforces their commitment to tackling inequalities faced in sport by underrepresented groups.
A key driver of the government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan is to ensure that all children and young people have access to at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. This is supported by £320 million per year through the PE and sport premium.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to tackle the gender gap in activity levels amongst Asian and Black children and young people set out in Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Academic Year 2019/20 Report, published in January 2021.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have the best opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity. Our Sporting Future strategy has diversity and inclusion at its heart, and sets out how important it is for all children to have a good experience of sport and physical activity.
Throughout the pandemic we provided an unprecedented £1 billion of financial support to ensure the survival of the sport and leisure sector. To tackle inequalities and support those most impacted by the restrictions, Sport England have launched a new £20m Together Fund that builds on the work of their £20m Tackling Inequalities Fund to help people stay active and provide guidance on how to find accessible activities. Initiatives such as the Studio You video platform, funded by Sport England and powered by This Girl Can, are also encouraging more teenage girls to be active. Sport England’s recently launched Uniting the Movement strategy reinforces their commitment to tackling inequalities faced in sport by underrepresented groups.
A key driver of the government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan is to ensure that all children and young people have access to at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. This is supported by £320 million per year through the PE and sport premium.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that all recorded shows have adequate subtitles.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government recognises that as part of a digitally inclusive society, television content should be accessible for all UK audiences. Under the Communications Act 2003, the Secretary of State has the power to impose requirements on service providers for the purpose of ensuring that on demand services are accessible to people with disabilities. This includes requirements in relation to subtitling, audio description and sign language.
As part of the process to implement these new requirements, the Government asked Ofcom to provide recommendations on how legislation could make on-demand services more accessible. Ofcom published an initial report in December 2018, and then, following a request from DCMS, carried out an additional targeted consultation to inform further recommendations on how the new requirements would work in practice to ensure that as far as possible all audiences should be able to access on-demand services. These latest proposals were published on 9 July 2021. We are giving them careful consideration and will set out next steps in due course.