Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the value for money of her Department's spending on Unboxed festival.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is an ambitious programme of ten major multi-site and digital creative projects designed to bring people together, inspire people of all ages, and invest in the creative talent of the future. With free large-scale events, installations and online experiences available to audiences across the UK, UNBOXED demonstrates our commitment to increase access to culture and major events for communities across the UK.
The first UNBOXED project, About Us, visited Caernarfon earlier this month, where it was seen by around 16,000 people, and included local people singing in the accompanying choir.
UNBOXED will be assessed through an independent evaluation setting out social, cultural, and economic impacts of the programme. A final report is due in early 2023.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a break down of expenditure by Creative Wales on each commissioned event taking place in Wales including (a) GALWAD, (b) About Us, (c) Green Space, Dark Skies, (d) StoryTrails and (e) Dreamachine, as part of the Unboxed festival.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is delivered at arm’s length from the government by a subsidiary of the Organising Committee of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, alongside a strategic delivery body appointed by each of the devolved administrations. Creative Wales, the delivery body acting on behalf of the Welsh Government, is responsible for commissioning GALWAD, Wales’s lead UNBOXED project.
As well as GALWAD, four more UNBOXED projects will present work in Wales: About Us, Green Space Dark Skies, StoryTrails and Dreamachine. These have been funded by the UK Government. Creative Wales is providing general advice and support to those projects in Wales. The individual commission values for the projects funded by HM Government have not been published at this time, but will be released in due course. The first UNBOXED project, About Us, visited Caernarfon earlier this month, where it was seen by around 16,000 people.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of re-establishing the Leveson Part Two inquiry.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government has made clear that it does not intend to proceed with Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry. This decision was reached following a public consultation and having taken into account all of the views and evidence submitted. Reopening the inquiry is no longer appropriate, proportionate, or in the public interest. This position was reiterated in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of facilitating the mutual recognition of qualifications for temporary seasonal tourism workers between the UK and EU member states.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government continues to engage with stakeholders in the tourism sector to hear their priorities for the UK’s future relationship with the EU.
The Withdrawal Agreement protects UK nationals who live or are a frontier worker in an EU Member State at the end of the Transition Period. Those who have had a professional qualification recognised under the EU legislation listed in the Withdrawal Agreement will keep the right to practise the profession in the Member State in which they live or work. This includes many professions in scope of the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive such as engineering and accounting.
As of 1 January 2021, UK-qualified professionals who wish to supply services in the EU should seek recognition for their qualifications using the national rules in EU Member States. Professionals should check the European Commission’s Regulated Professions Database to find out if their profession is regulated in the state in which they are seeking to work. They should then contact the single point of contact for that country to find out how to get their professional qualification recognised. Alternatively, they can seek advice from the UK Centre for Professional Qualifications (UK NARIC) to find out which regulatory or professional body they should contact.
The UK-EU TCA provides a framework under which the UK and the EU may agree Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) on the recognition of professional qualification covering the UK and all 27 EU Member States. Once an arrangement is adopted under the TCA, UK professionals will be able to use the terms outlined in the arrangement to secure recognition for their professional qualifications within EU Member States.
Arrangements are implemented on a profession-by-profession basis and depend upon reciprocal cooperation from both the UK and EU Member States. The framework enables UK and EU professional bodies or authorities to make recommendations on MRAs to the Partnership Council. Once an arrangement has been adopted, a professional qualified in the UK (e.g. an engineer) will be able to use the terms outlined in the arrangement to secure recognition of their qualifications within an EU Member State.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to his press notice entitled £1.57 billion investment to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions, published on 5 July 2020, how much of the £1.57 billion after the deduction of Barnett funding consequentials will be spent on cultural, arts and heritage institutions in Wales.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The £1.57 billion culture recovery package - the biggest ever one-off cash-injection in UK culture - is new money and under the Barnett formula the Welsh Government received £59 million.
It is up to the Welsh Government to decide how this funding is spent but we hope they will use it to support arts, heritage and culture in Wales, as we are doing in England.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of permitting recreational fishing as a form of permissible physical exercise while covid-19 social distancing measures are in place.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
It is vital that people continue to be active during the Covid-19 outbreak to support their physical and mental health
Government advice on how people can remain active is clear. People are able to leave home for basic exercise once a day, for example for a walk, a cycle or a run, provided it is done in a way that meets the latest guidance on social distancing and advice on unnecessary social contact. This means it can be done by people on their own or with their households, not in groups. It is important that people do not go outside unless they have to, and that when they do, they are spending as little time outside as possible, and avoiding unnecessary travel.
Government is carefully reviewing the lockdown guidance over the coming days and weeks.