Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the sporting industry.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government is committed to using technology to help drive increased participation at every level, as well as economic growth in the sector.
The government will continue to work with both the technology and the sport sectors to help identify innovative, inclusive digital solutions which help increase participation and activity.
On artificial intelligence specifically, for the development of the National AI Strategy and the AI regulation white paper, the government engaged with hundreds of businesses across a range of sectors, including civil society. We will continue this engagement to understand the impacts AI may have on different industries.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will allocate additional funds to the devolved Administrations for community youth groups.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Youth policy is a devolved matter. The devolved administrations are allocated funding using the Barnett formula. It is for the devolved administrations to determine how much of their funding to allocate to youth provision, including community youth groups, in their respective areas.
Future funding for youth provision is subject to future fiscal events, and the Barnett formula will be applied.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on encouraging young women to play football in school.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting women and girls’ sport at every opportunity. In our new Sport Strategy ‘Get Active’, we set an ambitious target of getting 1 million more active children and 1.25 million more active women by 2030.
We have had discussions with DfE at ministerial level on how we can continue to collectively make good progress on school sport. Our cross-government School Sport and Activity Action Plan provides the blueprint for how school sport should be delivered across the country. This includes over £600 million of investment and a clear ambition that all schools should deliver 2hrs of quality PE and equal access to sport for girls and boys, including football. The Department for Education is currently working to publish new non-statutory guidance on Physical Education before the end of March 2024 to help improve delivery.
In 2022, the Government commissioned Karen Carney to lead an independent Review of domestic women’s football. Her recommendations set out a bold vision for the women’s game. On 4 December 2023, the Government responded to the Review of Women’s Football, agreeing that all ten major recommendations should be implemented. The recommendations include a commitment to the delivery of equal access to school sport for girls and we will be convening an implementation group, which will be responsible for ensuring mutual accountability for the delivery of each recommendation.
Outside of school, we are investing over £300 million in grassroots football and multi-sport facilities across the UK by 2025 which will further support women and girls accessing football. The new £30 million Lioness Futures fund will deliver approximately 30 new state of the art 3G pitches at sites supporting women’s and girls’ teams across England.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with (a) farming unions and (b) other organisations on tackling (i) loneliness and (ii) isolation for (A) widowed farmers and (B) other people who live alone in rural areas.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Many people experience loneliness and social isolation, and the government is committed to building a more connected society. We know that social isolation can be particularly challenging for those in rural areas, and as outlined in the fourth Annual Tackling Loneliness Report, the Government has introduced a number of measures to provide support for rural communities and farmers. As loneliness is a devolved policy area, these programmes pertain to England only.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has committed to a range of measures. This includes providing funding for organisations and initiatives that seek to tackle loneliness in rural areas, like Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE). Additionally, DEFRA has made tackling loneliness an objective for the Farmers Welfare Forum and has brought together 15 rural community organisations working to tackle loneliness to better understand the issue and target support.
In addition, in March 2023 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport launched the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund with £30 million of funding designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England, including 5 predominantly rural local authority areas.
Updates on the progress of these commitments will be published in the fifth annual report in March.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of traditional short-term lets on the local economies of (a) rural and (b) coastal communities.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Traditional short-term lets have long provided visitor accommodation to rural and coastal locations, supporting jobs and the local economy. However, it has been highlighted that there is no single, definitive source of data on short-term lets in England with which to make a more detailed assessment, and the Government has committed to introducing a registration scheme for short-term lets in order to better understand the size of the market.
In April 2023, the Government published a consultation on the design of a short-term lets registration scheme. The consultation closed on 7 June 2023, and the Government will respond in due course.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will work with the relevant Government departments on the design of the registration scheme and to ensure that different measures which apply to short-term lets are proportionate, complementary and easy to understand.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department’s criteria are for determining a rise in the television licence fee.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We agreed a fair settlement with the BBC that will see the licence fee remain at £159 until 2024 to protect licence fee payers from inflationary pressures, and then rise in line with inflation until the end of 2027 when the current Charter is due for renewal. Exactly how a future increase would be calculated is yet to be confirmed.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many people were prosecuted for TV licence evasion in Strangford constituency in 2022.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK Government does not hold this data.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to regulate the advertising of gambling (a) to young and (b) other people.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government recognises that, while millions of people gamble online without experiencing problems, for some it becomes an addiction with serious consequences. It is particularly important to take steps to protect young people from risks associated with problem online gambling.
There are robust rules in place to ensure that gambling advertising is socially responsible and cannot be targeted at or strongly appeal to children. Gambling advertising is covered by the UK Advertising Codes which are regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority, and there are also specific Gambling Commission licence conditions which regulate how gambling operators advertise. The UK Advertising Codes were further strengthened last year with new protections for children and vulnerable adults.
Earlier this year, we published the white paper on gambling which outlined a comprehensive package of reforms to make gambling safer. This included measures to tackle the most aggressive and harmful advertising practices by preventing bonuses being constructed and targeted in harmful ways, giving customers more control over the marketing they receive, and introducing messaging on the risks associated with gambling. The Commission has already consulted on improving marketing consents, and we are working closely with them and others to bring the changes into force as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department took to help ensure that streets were (a) safe and (b) not overcrowded during the coronation.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla was a hugely important state occasion, which brought millions of people around the country together in celebration, and showcased the best of the United Kingdom to the world. The Government is delighted to have supported the Coronation to ensure that the events were safe and well-planned.
Robust measures were put in place to ensure the ceremonial route was safe and not overcrowded during the Coronation. These measures included detailed planning alongside a range of partners and crowd management experts, incorporating best practice and lessons from previous events. All space was managed to ensure that there were no concerns relating to crowd safety.
The public viewing areas to watch the Coronation procession were open to the general public from 6am on Saturday 6th May. The government guidance published ahead of the Coronation made clear that capacity at the viewing areas was limited and that they would be closed when they were full. Due to the large numbers of members of the public viewing the event, it was indeed necessary to close the viewing areas once they reached capacity.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions her Department has had with sports governing bodies on (a) promoting awareness of the potential link between concussion in contact sport and dementia and (b) the development of appropriate safety regulations.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The safety, wellbeing, and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is paramount. National Governing Bodies are responsible for the regulation of their sports and for ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to protect participants from harm, including concussion.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has worked with sporting bodies and others to develop a single set of shared concussion guidelines for grassroots sport across the UK, which were published on 28 April 2023. We continue to encourage sports governing bodies to adapt the guidelines to their own sport where appropriate.
Further research on the links between health, dementia and contact sport is needed to better understand the issue. DCMS has established a new Sports Concussion Research Forum to identify key research questions that need answering in this important area.
The government remains committed to working with sports to build on the positive work that is already taking place to mitigate the causes and effects of concussion in sport.