Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to encourage people to visit theatres after covid-19 restrictions have been eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has been here for culture throughout the pandemic, and, as we emerge from it, we know that the public will want to be there, too. As our cultural institutions reopen, we will encourage people to get out there and support them and we will continue to provide guidance to ensure venues are safe for the public.
The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.
DCMS has been working closely with the tourism, arts and cultural sectors to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.
The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.
The Government recognises that this continues to be an incredibly challenging time and that there are many cultural organisations and professionals who are currently facing difficult and uncertain circumstances. We are continuing to engage extensively with stakeholders from across DCMS’s sectors to understand the impacts of the pandemic and to determine how sectors can reopen when it is safe to do so.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to encourage British tourism following the easing of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has been here for culture throughout the pandemic, and, as we emerge from it, we know that the public will want to be there, too. As our cultural institutions reopen, we will encourage people to get out there and support them and we will continue to provide guidance to ensure venues are safe for the public.
The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.
DCMS has been working closely with the tourism, arts and cultural sectors to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.
The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.
The Government recognises that this continues to be an incredibly challenging time and that there are many cultural organisations and professionals who are currently facing difficult and uncertain circumstances. We are continuing to engage extensively with stakeholders from across DCMS’s sectors to understand the impacts of the pandemic and to determine how sectors can reopen when it is safe to do so.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding from the National Leisure Recovery Fund has been allocated to (a) Wakefield Council and (b) councils in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. The National Leisure Recovery Fund sought to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million was available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which was allocated in a single funding round. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function. This is in addition to the wider financial support provided to councils throughout the pandemic.
Leisure services for Wakefield Council are delivered in-house under the brand Aspire Health. Therefore, they were not eligible to apply for the National Leisure Recovery Fund and would have been able to access support through the Local Government Income Compensation Scheme.
Of the five local authorities in West Yorkshire, only Kirklees submitted an application to the National Leisure Recovery Fund. They were awarded a total of £1,175,523.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support his Department has recently provided to media outlets based in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government is committed to supporting local and regional media outlets as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. Local newspapers have benefited from a number of recent interventions, including the extension of business rates relief for local newspaper office space in England for an additional five years; the investment of £2 million in the Future News Fund; and the zero-rating of VAT on e-newspapers.
During the pandemic, many newspapers have also benefited from a unique and unprecedented government advertising partnership, designed to deliver important messages to UK citizens. Newspapers received up to £35 million additional government advertising revenue as part of the first phase of our coronavirus communications campaign. The campaign has subsequently been extended with at least 60% funding going to smaller regional and local titles. The Wakefield Express and Dewsbury Reporter are both included in the Partnership.
Looking ahead, the government announced in November 2020 that it will establish a new pro-competition regime for digital markets. At the heart of this will be a mandatory code of conduct to govern the relationships between dominant firms and those that rely on their services, including news publishers. The code will be a significant intervention in the government’s effort to support the sustainability of the news publishing industry, helping to rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely.
We will continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining high-quality news journalism at a local level.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plan to take to encourage visits to museums as covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.
DCMS has been working closely with the museums sector to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously. Under the roadmap, we seek to reopen outdoor elements of museums and galleries in Step 2 (no earlier than 12 April), with indoor elements at these attractions opening at Step 3 (no earlier than 17 May).
The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department (a) has spent to date and (b) plans to spend in total on tackling covid-19 disinformation online.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Addressing the challenges of COVID-19 disinformation is a whole of Government effort. That is why we stood up the Counter Disinformation Unit in March 2020, drawing on resources from a number of existing cross-government teams, giving it the flexibility to respond to a range of different issues as needed.
We have reallocated staff from within the Department to boost the size of the team at DCMS. We continually review the requirement and work flexibly across government to ensure the unit is sufficiently resourced, allowing us to surge capacity where it's needed.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to encourage people to participate in indoor group sports after covid-19 restrictions have been eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we have made sure that people can exercise throughout the national and local tiered restrictions. We will continue to promote sport and physical activity and encourage the usage of indoor sports facilities such as gyms as part of Step 2 of the Roadmap.
Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. On top of wider economic support, the Government has announced a £100m support fund for local authority leisure centres to ensure these important facilities remain available once public health restrictions are lifted. This is on top of the £270m which Sport England have committed to providing to the Grassroots sports sector.
We know how important sport is for young people’s physical and mental wellbeing. That is why the Culture Secretary and Education Secretary are working closely with our national sports and Sport England on an extensive offer of activities in schools over the summer.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Wakefield benefits from the rollout of (a) superfast broadband and (b) 5G.
Answered by Matt Warman
Since its inception in 2012, the Superfast Broadband programme has delivered superfast broadband coverage to 5.3 million premises, which constitutes 17% of all households in the UK. As part of this programme, to date, superfast coverage has been provided to c12,000 premises within the Wakefield District.
According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14001009), superfast broadband speeds in the Wakefield constituency are above the national average with superfast connectivity (>=30Mbps) of 98%. The UK average is 96.7%, and the average in England is 97.2%.
We are, however, not resting on our laurels and have a project running in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to utilise the latest Fixed Wireless technology to further deliver superfast broadband connectivity across the West Yorkshire region, including an additional 1,000 premises in the Wakefield district.
The government is committed to providing world-class digital infrastructure, and our ambition is for the majority of the population to have access to 5G by 2027. Approximately 3,000 mobile base stations now provide 5G services across the UK, and it is available in 200 towns and cities including Wakefield.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to help increase the uptake of sport by the general public as covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. From 8 March, sport can take place in school for all children, or as part of wraparound activities if children are attending in order to enable their parents to work, seek work, attend education, seek medical care, or attend a support group. Any organised outdoor sport can restart on 29 March.
The Government has provided unprecedented support to the sport sector to ensure these facilities are able to open. Beyond elite level sport, on the 22nd October 2020, the government announced a £100 million support fund for local authority leisure centres. Sport England are also providing £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. Sport England’s new strategy, ‘Uniting the Movement’, dedicated an additional £50 million to support grassroots sports clubs and organisations.