Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what cross party work is taking place on the development of Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I regularly engage with Parliamentary colleagues to drive the youth agenda, including Young Futures Hubs.
Young Futures Hubs will leverage local understanding of services in each area to improve support for young people at community level, increasing opportunities, improving mental health and wellbeing, and reducing crime. 50 Young Futures Hub across the country will be supported by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when she expects the national rollout of Young Futures Hubs to begin.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The design and implementation of the rollout to a total of 50 Young Futures Hubs will be informed by our work with early adopters this financial year. We will set out more details in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when her Department will confirm the areas who will be an early adopter for Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The eight Young Futures Hubs early adopter Local Authority areas will be announced shortly.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 engage with the charity sector on the potential effect of bank branch closures on their operations.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We regularly engage with sector representatives to understand challenges and opportunities facing the sector, as does the regulator of charities, the Charity Commission of England and Wales, and the Fundraising Regulator. To date, DCMS has not received representations about the immediate risk to the sector of branch closures. However, we are aware of the longer term pressures that a move towards a cashless society will create for some in the sector. The Government is keen to engage with the sector on this issue, and work on it with the regulators.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with the charity sector on the effect of bank branch closures on charities’ ability to bank cash collections.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We regularly engage with sector representatives to understand challenges and opportunities facing the sector, as does the regulator of charities, the Charity Commission of England and Wales, and the Fundraising Regulator. To date, DCMS has not received representations about the immediate risk to the sector of branch closures. However, we are aware of the longer term pressures that a move towards a cashless society will create for some in the sector. The Government is keen to engage with the sector on this issue, and work on it with the regulators.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the UK attracts talented workers in the creative industries at all stages of their career in response to the lack of eligible prize holders that have applied to her Department's fast-track Global Talent visa.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Global Talent Visa enables the UK to attract the best and brightest in a number of creative and cultural sectors, including through its fast-tracked route for award-winning leaders in these fields.
The Government works closely with the endorsing bodies for the route, including Arts Council England, to develop the route to ensure it continues to meet sectors’ needs. We ensure that the route makes it as easy as possible for those top creatives coming to the UK, which is why we introduced the Prestigious Prizes pathway for those at the pinnacle of their career. Where individuals do not hold one of these prizes they continue to be able to use the wider Global Talent Visa route. The number of visas granted on this route has continued to grow from 422 between its launch in February 2020 to September 2020, to 1,709 applicants for the year ending September 2021.
DCMS continues to work with the Home Office, across government and with the creative sectors to look at what more can be done to further attract talented creative professionals to live and work in the UK.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will issue guidance on the safe reopening of Parkrun events under covid-19 regulations.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I refer my honourable colleague to the answer I gave to written parliamentary question 3831.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 effect of the (a) level of change in executive pay, (b) level of change in public benefit payments and (c) increase in domain name prices by Nominet on the UK’s digital infrastructure.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has regular discussions with Nominet to discuss a range of issues connected with the .uk top level domain name registry, their work to protect essential public services, cyber security, crime prevention and other functions. As the operator of the .uk registry, Nominet is providing an essential service that must satisfy security requirements under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018. Other functions are managed as a private company with a public purpose objective and any changes to the way in which the registry is managed is done so through a multi-stakeholder approach, which have not been subject to a departmental assessment.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 effectiveness of the management of Nominet since 2015; and what discussions his Department has had with (a) Nominet and (b) representatives of its members as a provider of critical digital infrastructure.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has regular discussions with Nominet to discuss a range of issues connected with the .uk top level domain name registry, their work to protect essential public services, cyber security, crime prevention and other functions. As the operator of the .uk registry, Nominet is providing an essential service that must satisfy security requirements under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018. Other functions are managed as a private company with a public purpose objective and any changes to the way in which the registry is managed is done so through a multi-stakeholder approach, which have not been subject to a departmental assessment.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps is he taking to ensure that (a) performance venues, (b) performers and (c) technicians are supported through the third covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s unprecedented £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund has now surpassed the £1 billion milestone.
Over £500 million in recovery grants have been made to over 3000 arts, culture and heritage organisations in England helping to support 75,000 jobs. This is in addition to over £160m in repayable finance; almost £100m in capital grants; £188m in support for the Devolved Administrations and £100m in direct support to the national cultural institutions. This funding is supporting the arts and culture sector to survive the pandemic and continue operating.
£400 million was held back as a contingency, and is being used for a second round of grants and repayable finance funding, to support cultural organisations facing financial distress as a result of closure, as well as helping them transition back to fuller opening during 2021. It will support organisations to transition from the challenging months of lockdowns and social distancing to welcoming audiences and visitors back to the country’s theatres, museums, cinemas, music venues and heritage sites.
This investment is part of a wider package of help from the UK Government. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has provided unprecedented financial assistance which many cultural organisations have taken advantage of.
On 5 November, the Chancellor announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will be extended until April 2021. Businesses can continue to apply for government-backed loans, and self-employed individuals can access the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), which has also been extended until April 2021.The CJRS and SEISS support has been made more generous, with individuals able to receive 80% of their current salary for hours not worked/average trading profits respectively.
Within the current national restrictions, performing arts venues can continue to operate under Stages 1 and 2 of the performing arts roadmap. This means that performing arts professionals including technicians may continue to rehearse and train, and perform for broadcast and recording purposes.