Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the entertainment sector on long-term support for freelancers who have been affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government appreciates that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many of DCMS’ sectors including the Creative Industries, which is why we announced unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency.
To ensure we are assisting the sectors as effectively as possible, regular ministerially-chaired roundtables are held with business representative organisations as well as trade associations from across the Creative Industries. In addition, officials are in regular contact with stakeholders from these sectors, and we continue to speak with HM Treasury colleagues to ensure that the full spectrum of government support reaches the UK's world-leading media and Creative Industries.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to work with the devolved administrations to support and protect sports teams which are in financial difficulty as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sport is a devolved matter, but we remain in close contact with the Devolved Administrations on a range of ways to support sport at this time, We are seeing fantastic levels of cooperation between all political parties and governments as we work together to tackle this crisis.
The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support to protect businesses across the UK, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (covering 80% of furloughed employees wages up to a cap of £2,500 per month), and Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (up to £2,500 per month in grants for eligible self-employed workers). These support measures are open to businesses across the UK and in every sector, including Sport.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to encourage BT to improve (a) the information it provides online about broadband roll-out, (b) the accuracy of its communications to residents about when cabinets will come on stream and (c) information about support residents can access in the event of delays in roll-out.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
On 25 February Ofcom published their initial conclusions for the Strategic Review of Digital Communications including a range of measures to improve the quality of service delivered by the whole of the telecoms industry, including Openreach, BT’s access network division.
Ofcom will work with industry to improve providers’ coordination and communication to benefit consumers, including detailed information about engineer visits for installation and fault repairs. Ofcom also plans to introduce tougher minimum standards of customer service for Openreach with rigorous enforcement and fines for underperformance. In addition, the regulator plans to publish annual performance data on all operators and will look to introduce automatic compensation for consumers and small businesses when service levels fall below minimum standards.
BT recently launched a new website providing more detailed and accurate information to the public on broadband service in any given area - http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/