Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with (a) the Scottish Rugby Union, (b) the Irish Rugby Football Union, (c) the Welsh Rugby Union and (d) the Rugby Football Union on the broadcasting of rugby union on free-to-air television.
Answered by John Whittingdale
I have had no such discussions with the Scottish Rugby Union, the Irish Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union or the Rugby Football Union. The Government is clear that the existing list works well, and strikes the right balance between retaining free-to-air sports events for the public, and allowing rights holders to negotiate agreements in the best interests of their sport. The Government has no current plans of undertaking a review of the list, or of moving the Six Nations from the category B list to the category A list. As a Group B event, live coverage of the Six Nations Rugby tournament may be broadcast by a subscription television service provided that secondary coverage is offered to the eligible free-to-air broadcasters.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will support Ofcom’s decision to include coverage obligations in future spectrum auctions for Scotland.
Answered by Margot James
We welcome the proposed licence obligations set out in Ofcom's recent consultation on the 700MHz spectrum, including the proposed national requirements to deliver the greatest coverage uplift in the nations that have the lowest coverage. However, it is for Ofcom, as the independent spectrum regulator for the UK, to decide the final proposals and design of the auction.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase the number of women taking part in sport.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Sport England’s latest Active People Survey results show that the number of women playing sport and being active in England is increasing faster than the number of men, with 7.12 million females aged 16 years or over playing sport once a week.
However, we recognise that there are various obstacles which still exist that put women off sport and initiatives such as This Girl Can, a Sport England behaviour change campaign, have helped encourage women and girls to get active. We are keen to remove any barrier that prevents women from taking part in sport and over the last year the government’s strategy for sport and physical activity ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for An Active Nation’ has been published as well as Sport England’s strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’. The aim of both strategies is to create a more physically active nation, where people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the benefits that sport and physical activity can provide, at every stage in their lives.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase the number of people from BME backgrounds taking part in sport.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We know from Sport England’s Active People survey results that the number of people from BME backgrounds taking part in sport in England has fallen recently. However, Sport England are investing £2 million in Sporting Equals, which exists to promote ethnic diversity in sport and physical activity, between 2013 and 2017 to help get more people from BME communities involved in sport and physical activity.
Over the last year the government’s strategy for sport and physical activity ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for An Active Nation’ has been published as well as Sport England’s strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’. The aim of both strategies is to create a more physically active nation, where people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the benefits that sport and physical activity can provide, at every stage in their lives.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve access to sport for people with disabilities.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
There is already fantastic work going on to improve access to sport for people with disabilities in England such as the English Federation of Disability Sport’s Talk to Me principles which outline ten clear steps that providers can follow to make their activities more appealing to disabled people, and Disability Rights UK’s Get Yourself Active 8 project, which is led by and for disabled people and which seeks to explore how Disabled People’s User Led Organisations (DPULOs) can lead the development of better physical activity and sport opportunities for disabled people locally.
It is important that sport is accessible to all and that we continue to break down those barriers that prevent all under-represented groups from engaging in sport and wider physical activity. Over the last year the government’s strategy for sport and physical activity ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for An Active Nation’ has been published as well as Sport England’s strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’. The aim of both strategies is to create a more physically active nation, where people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the benefits that sport and physical activity can provide, at every stage in their lives. In line with the strategies Sport England will triple its current investment in tackling inactivity to over £250 million.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans she has to use the recent success of Andy Murray and other British tennis players to increase levels of participation in tennis.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Andy Murray's recent success at Wimbledon, and the British Tennis team's David Cup win, are fantastic achievements and real boosts to tennis in the UK.
The Government is committed to getting more people from every background involved in sport and physical activity, including tennis. This is set out in government's strategy, Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation which outlines clear support for initiatives that enable more people to play, watch and volunteer in sport.
Sport England's new strategy, Towards an Active Nation, published in May 2016, builds on the government's strategy and sets out how Sport England will be investing in grassroots sport to support participation.
Between 2013 and 2017 Sport England is already investing £17.4 million in the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to get more people playing tennis and will continue to support work across the country to ensure that everyone who wants to get involved with tennis is able to do so.
Responsibility for grassroots sport is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and it is for the relevant Sports Councils to consider how best to increase participation in tennis and sport more widely in those countries.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on Scottish sport of changes to the funding of BBC Alba.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
It is a matter for MG Alba how it distributes funding across it services. The previous government provided two one-off grants to MG ALBA, which we understand was put into developing the drama series Bannan.