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 the long-term sustainability of museums in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has demonstrated the significance it places on culture through the Cultural Recovery Fund. This £1.57bn support package to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions, is the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture. The funding will support our critical cultural and heritage institutions to survive and recover through the coronavirus pandemic.
My department has been working tirelessly with our Arms’ Length bodies to process the awards and I am pleased organisations across the country have benefitted including The Hepworth Wakefield, which was awarded £146,726, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was awarded £804,013 from the Fund.
The National Coal Mining Museum is also supported via Grant in Aid distributed through the DCMS- sponsored Science Museum Group.
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 help preserve historic sites in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Heritage policy ensures that the historic environment across all parts of England are protected and conserved for the benefit of present and future generations. Through statutory functions (for example, making listing and scheduling decisions to protect our most special buildings and ancient monuments) and also through the bodies it funds such as Historic England, DCMS seeks to promote understanding of and access to the historic environment.
Within the Wakefield constituency, Wakefield Upper Westgate is a High Street Heritage Action Zone under the Government funded High Street Heritage Action Zone £92million scheme. A Historic England grant of £1,899,994 with match funding of just under £2.4m will see the repair and conversion of around 20 priority historic buildings along Westgate.
In addition to this, as of the end of the financial year 2019/20 the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a total of 91 projects worth £26m in the Wakefield constituency. This includes two awards totalling £5m to The Hepworth, 10 awards totalling £10.1m to the National Coal Mining Museum, 6 awards totalling £3.8m to Wakefield Cathedral and £2.8m to Pontefract Market Place.
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 recent assessment his Department has made of the viability of jobs in the events industry.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are aware that the events and exhibition industry, as well as other sectors, have been severely impacted by Government measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
My department continues to closely assess the impact on all aspects of the events industry, including employment. We are also in regular contact with Her Majesty’s Treasury to closely assess the effectiveness of COVID-related support measures for the events industry.
Businesses can continue to access the Government’s UK wide support package. This includes the Bounce Back Loans scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
As the Chancellor announced on 24 September, we are also offering affected businesses generous terms for the repayment of deferred taxes and government-backed loans, as well as extending the application window of the government-backed loan schemes.
We continue to engage with stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to monitor the situation facing companies across the UK.
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 recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the steps he is taking to support the events industry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are aware that the events and exhibition industry, as well as other sectors, have been severely impacted by Government measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
My department continues to closely assess the impact on all aspects of the events industry, including employment. We are also in regular contact with Her Majesty’s Treasury to closely assess the effectiveness of COVID-related support measures for the events industry.
Businesses can continue to access the Government’s UK wide support package. This includes the Bounce Back Loans scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
As the Chancellor announced on 24 September, we are also offering affected businesses generous terms for the repayment of deferred taxes and government-backed loans, as well as extending the application window of the government-backed loan schemes.
We continue to engage with stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to monitor the situation facing companies across the UK.
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 is providing to the (a) events and (b) the music industry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We appreciate the important role that the events and music industries play in the UK’s economy, and that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to these sectors.
The Chancellor has announced the Winter Economy Plan to protect jobs and support businesses over the coming months, once the existing Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme come to end. From November, the Jobs Support Scheme will provide further support to returning workers, while the extended Self-Employed Income Support Scheme will aid the self-employed who are currently actively trading but are facing reduced demand.
We are also offering businesses who face a drop in demand for their services and possible cash flow issues generous terms for the repayment of deferred taxes and government-backed loans. We will give all businesses that borrowed under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme the option to repay their loan over a period of up to ten years. This will reduce their average monthly repayments on the loan by almost half. We also intend to allow CBILS lenders to extend the term of a loan up to ten years, providing additional flexibility for UK-based SMEs who may otherwise be unable to repay their loans.
In addition, the Secretary of State announced an unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the cultural sector which will benefit the live music sector by providing support to music venues and many other cultural organisations to stay open and continue operating.
We continue to engage with the sector to discuss the on-going challenges facing the industry.
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 improve the application process for covid-19 related support for businesses in the (a) events and (b) music industry.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund will provide targeted support to critical cultural, arts and heritage organisations to help them survive and recover through the coronavirus pandemic.
Our priority is to ensure that organisations get the funding they need as swiftly as possible. That is why £3.36 million has already been allocated to 136 grassroots music venues across England, in view of the urgent need to protect organisations in that sector from imminent collapse. The delivery bodies are also currently processing more than £800 million of applications for grant funding, and will make announcements about hundreds of allocations in the coming weeks.
We are aware that the events industry and its supply chain has been severely impacted by Covid-19. We continue to engage with stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to monitor the situation.