Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with English Heritage on the potential merits of expanding the blue plaque scheme outside of London.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I have held no recent discussions with English Heritage Trust on the merits of expanding the Blue Plaque scheme outside of London. The charity freely offers advice and guidance to anyone across the country seeking to put up a commemorative plaque.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to raise awareness of social tariffs on broadband packages for consumers in receipt of benefits.
Answered by Matt Warman
Raising awareness of social tariffs amongst eligible households is a key priority for DCMS.
We are working closely with other departments including the Department for Education, and the Department for Work and Pensions, to share information on the availability of social tariffs with libraries, local authorities, schools and regional job centres. We have also engaged a number of charities to circulate social tariff messaging to help reach those who may qualify for support.
On 27 June, the Secretary of State secured a set of public commitments from the UK’s major mobile and broadband providers to support families through the rise in the cost of living, which includes increasing efforts to promote their social tariff offers. To support the sector, the government is developing eligibility checking software which will allow a more efficient application process. We expect this work to conclude over the summer.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of levels of (a) lottery duty and (b) returns to good causes (i) in 2022-23 and (ii) in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Damian Collins
National Lottery ticket sales return 12% to the Exchequer as lottery duty. The Gambling Commission provides DCMS and the Lottery Distributing Bodies with good cause forecasts on a six-monthly basis to assist them with their grant planning. The forecast is presented as a range, with low, high and central scenarios. The modelling approach is regularly refined to ensure the forecasts remain as accurate as possible. The most recent forecast extends to 2023-24. We do not publish this information given commercial sensitivities.
Actual good cause returns are broadly consistent with these forecasts and are published in the National Lottery Distribution Fund Annual Report and Accounts and can be found on the GOV.UK.
The fourth National Lottery Licence is due to commence on 1 February 2024. 12% in Lottery Duty will continue to be paid on each National Lottery ticket. However, the method for calculating good cause returns will change. The design of the new Licence is such that as National Lottery sales grow, so do the benefits to good causes.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which projects have received funds from Project Gigabit.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
To date, Project Gigabit funding has been contracted for the following projects:
Superfast Extension Programme: Scottish Government R100, Northern Ireland Project Stratum, and Connecting Cheshire Superfast Broadband Phase 3.
Gigahubs Programme: Department for Education, National Health Service (Scotland), Highlands Council, Welsh Government, Oxfordshire County Council, Dorset Council, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Full Fibre Northern Ireland.
In addition, almost 1,500 projects have received funding through the Project Gigabit voucher scheme.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the £5 billion Project Gigabit funds have been spent as of 19 May 2022.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UK coverage of gigabit broadband has boomed from 6 per cent to more than 68 per cent in the last three years. The Department has upgraded 600,000 hard-to-reach premises to gigabit and we remain on track to hit our target of 85 per cent gigabit coverage by 2025.
To date, we have spent over £61 million to provide reliable, lightning-fast connections to hard-to-reach premises across the UK via Project Gigabit. A further £35 million is already contracted to be spent and over £500 million of funding is now out to procurement.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of adding the Flow Country to prospective list held by the Government for consideration for inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage Site List.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I am pleased to confirm the Flow Country was added to the UK’s Tentative List in 2012. This is the list of prospective sites to go forward for the World Heritage Committee’s consideration for inscribing new sites on the World Heritage List.
We expect the Committee to make a decision on whether to add the Flow Country to the World Heritage List at their meeting in 2024. In the meantime, the Flow Country will remain on the UK’s Tentative List through the current review exercise to select new prospective sites.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing subsidies for low income households to support access to broadband.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department continues to work alongside Ofcom to review the affordability of telecoms services.
Support currently exists in the market for low-income households to access broadband services. There are a range of fixed broadband social tariff products available to over 5 million low-income households in receipt of Universal Credit, and other means-tested benefits. These tariffs are available to eligible households in 99% of the country. We will monitor the effectiveness of these products in supporting low-income households' access to broadband.
The Government currently has no plans to expand subsidies for low-income households accessing broadband beyond DWP’s existing partnership with TalkTalk to provide job-seekers a free 6 month broadband connection.
In relation to reducing VAT on social tariff products, it is never guaranteed that any reduction in tax on a service would be passed on by the businesses to the consumer, and this request should be viewed in the context of over £50 billion of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum. We also recognise that any cut would need to be balanced elsewhere, either through increased taxes, more borrowing or reductions in Government spending.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing or removing VAT on social tariffs to support low income families to be able to afford broadband.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department continues to work alongside Ofcom to review the affordability of telecoms services.
Support currently exists in the market for low-income households to access broadband services. There are a range of fixed broadband social tariff products available to over 5 million low-income households in receipt of Universal Credit, and other means-tested benefits. These tariffs are available to eligible households in 99% of the country. We will monitor the effectiveness of these products in supporting low-income households' access to broadband.
The Government currently has no plans to expand subsidies for low-income households accessing broadband beyond DWP’s existing partnership with TalkTalk to provide job-seekers a free 6 month broadband connection.
In relation to reducing VAT on social tariff products, it is never guaranteed that any reduction in tax on a service would be passed on by the businesses to the consumer, and this request should be viewed in the context of over £50 billion of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum. We also recognise that any cut would need to be balanced elsewhere, either through increased taxes, more borrowing or reductions in Government spending.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the total value was of the cover provided to theatre events insured under the UK Live Events Reinsurance Scheme.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As set out in its response of 8 December, the Government is unable to share commercially sensitive data related to the Live Events Reinsurance Scheme.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of theatre events that have been successfully insured under the Live Events Reinsurance Scheme.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the important contribution the theatre sector makes to the UK’s culture and economy and the significant challenges the sector has faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Live Events Reinsurance Scheme provides live events across the country with the confidence to plan for future events, and as such will support the UK’s post-Covid economic recovery.
We are unable to share commercially sensitive data about the events that have purchased eligible policies.