Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support the Government plans to provide to the events sector during autumn and winter 2020.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS appreciates the important role that the events sector plays in the UK’s economy, and that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many businesses operating in these sectors.
The Secretary of State provided a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors. This support package will benefit cultural sector services by providing support to cultural venues and many other organisations in the Creative Industries that host live events, to stay open and continue operating.
From 15th August, and as part of the Government’s 5 stage roadmap to get performing arts and live entertainment sectors back up and running as soon as possible, organisations can now put on live indoor performances in front of a socially-distanced audience. This is in addition to the earlier announcement that from 11 July we can all enjoy performances outdoors with social distancing.
We are committed to continuing to work with the events sector to understand the difficulties they face and help them access support through these challenging times and through recovery. We recognise that the events industry and its supply chain has been severely impacted by Covid-19.
We are continuing to meet with stakeholders, including through the Events & Entertainment and Visitor Economy working groups and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to discuss the specific issues facing the sector.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what comparative assessment she has made of the regulation of extremist content on the (a) English and (b) Arabic language versions of the Al Jazeera Arabic service in the UK.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Al Jazeera English is regulated by Ofcom and must comply with robust rules in the Ofcom Broadcasting Code on harmful or offensive content. Since its launch in 2006 Ofcom has recorded two breaches of the Broadcasting Code with no statutory sanctions. The Arabic version of Al Jazeera is licensed by the Italian media regulator, Agcom, and broadcasts into the UK under the country of origin principle.