Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the forthcoming National Vision for Facilities report will include a strategy for the long-term funding of community swimming pools.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our new strategy, ‘Get Active: A strategy for the future of sport and physical activity’, committed to the development of a National Vision for Facilities. This vision will set out the role of facilities and wider spaces for participation, including the importance of the public and private leisure sector, to anticipate future fiscal events.
The Government has confirmed significant funding for facilities, including a £63 million support package for swimming pools announced at the Budget. This package will help provide investment in energy efficiency measures to reduce future operating costs and make facilities sustainable in the long-term.
Government is also investing nearly £400 million directly into grassroots sports facilities across the country up to 2025.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reintroducing a sports gambling levy.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government levies duties on gambling operators based on their profits, including from sports betting. The Government also invests millions into grassroots sport facilities, with the majority of support coming through Sport England, which receives over £100m in Exchequer funding each year. A further £205m has been committed to grassroots facilities between 2022 and 2025. While the horserace betting levy recognises the unique relationship between horse racing and betting, other sports have far broader appeal. We currently have no plans to introduce a sports betting levy.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a general levy on sports betting and redistributing it to grassroots sport across the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government levies duties on gambling operators based on their profits, including from sports betting. The Government also invests millions into grassroots sport facilities, with the majority of support coming through Sport England, which receives over £100m in Exchequer funding each year. A further £205m has been committed to grassroots facilities between 2022 and 2025. While the horserace betting levy recognises the unique relationship between horse racing and betting, other sports have far broader appeal. We currently have no plans to introduce a sports betting levy.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on domestic rates of gambling-related harms.
Answered by Paul Scully
A variety of initiatives are in place across the gambling regulatory framework and health services to protect individuals and the public from harmful gambling and raise awareness of its risks.
The Gambling Commission requires all gambling operators to make information available to customers on how to gamble safely and how to access information on problem gambling and the support available. Most operators signpost to the charity GambleAware’s begambleaware.org site, which contains a wide range of information on risks as well as links to advice and support, including the 24 hour National Gambling Helpline. The NHS webpage 'Help for problem gambling' covers common indicators which suggest that individuals may be experiencing harmful gambling, and the NHS Live Well page on gambling has been updated, providing information on gambling-related harms and signposting to sources of support.
The Department for Health and Social Care is also taking steps to improve and expand specialist treatment services available for people with a gambling addiction. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, £15m has been committed to establish 15 clinics by 2023/24. Seven specialist clinics are already open and accepting patients. DHSC has committed to undertake an audit of gambling-related harm training materials for healthcare professionals to build capability in the healthcare workforce.
There have also been a number of recent voluntary and regulatory initiatives to reduce the visibility of gambling around major sporting events. The gambling industry’s ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban, prevents gambling ads from airing during and immediately before or after live sports coverage before 9pm. Further to this, the Advertising Standards Authority recently implemented tough new rules banning content with ‘strong appeal to children’ from gambling ads, including top-flight and UK national team footballers. GambleAware have also launched a new phase of their ‘Bet Regret’ campaign for the tournament providing increased signposting to support for gambling harm around the 2022 World Cup.
Evidence on the impacts of gambling advertising, including sponsorship around sports, is being closely considered as part of the government's Review of the Gambling Act. A white paper will be published in the coming weeks outlining our conclusions and next steps.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support is in place to protect those affected by gambling harm during the FIFA World Cup.
Answered by Paul Scully
A variety of initiatives are in place across the gambling regulatory framework and health services to protect individuals and the public from harmful gambling and raise awareness of its risks.
The Gambling Commission requires all gambling operators to make information available to customers on how to gamble safely and how to access information on problem gambling and the support available. Most operators signpost to the charity GambleAware’s begambleaware.org site, which contains a wide range of information on risks as well as links to advice and support, including the 24 hour National Gambling Helpline. The NHS webpage 'Help for problem gambling' covers common indicators which suggest that individuals may be experiencing harmful gambling, and the NHS Live Well page on gambling has been updated, providing information on gambling-related harms and signposting to sources of support.
The Department for Health and Social Care is also taking steps to improve and expand specialist treatment services available for people with a gambling addiction. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, £15m has been committed to establish 15 clinics by 2023/24. Seven specialist clinics are already open and accepting patients. DHSC has committed to undertake an audit of gambling-related harm training materials for healthcare professionals to build capability in the healthcare workforce.
There have also been a number of recent voluntary and regulatory initiatives to reduce the visibility of gambling around major sporting events. The gambling industry’s ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban, prevents gambling ads from airing during and immediately before or after live sports coverage before 9pm. Further to this, the Advertising Standards Authority recently implemented tough new rules banning content with ‘strong appeal to children’ from gambling ads, including top-flight and UK national team footballers. GambleAware have also launched a new phase of their ‘Bet Regret’ campaign for the tournament providing increased signposting to support for gambling harm around the 2022 World Cup.
Evidence on the impacts of gambling advertising, including sponsorship around sports, is being closely considered as part of the government's Review of the Gambling Act. A white paper will be published in the coming weeks outlining our conclusions and next steps.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to extend the listed events regime to include digital on-demand rights to help ensure continued free access to key national sporting events and moments.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government believes that certain sporting events of national interest should be shown on free-to-air television so that they can be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible.
We want to ensure that as viewing habits change and technology evolves the regulatory framework remains fit for purpose.
The listed events regime works effectively for traditional linear broadcasting by prohibiting the broadcast of exclusive rights of an event on the list without prior consent from Ofcom. The current list is divided into two categories (Group A and Group B) and where rights holders make an event available, full live coverage must be offered for purchase to qualifying channels for events in Group A. Group B events may have live coverage on subscription TV provided that secondary coverage or highlights are offered for purchase to qualifying broadcasters. However, no rights holder can be compelled to sell its rights, and no broadcaster can be compelled to acquire rights.
In our Broadcasting White Paper, we announced our intention to make qualification for the listed events regime a PSB-specific benefit. This will more clearly enshrine the important role our PSBs play in distributing important and valuable content to UK audiences. The Government will introduce this legislation when Parliamentary time allows.
Our Broadcasting White Paper also confirmed our intention to undertake a review to look at whether the scope of the listed events regime should be extended to include digital rights. The Government is speaking to stakeholders to look at whether in the face of technological change, the objectives of the existing regime are still being met and whether digital rights should be included in the regime. The review will need to balance the ability for audiences to watch national sporting events at no additional cost with the ability for sporting organisations to generate revenues from sports rights to re-invest in their sports at all levels.
The Terms of Reference for the review can be found here.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that only public service broadcasters have the right to broadcast listed events.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government believes that certain sporting events of national interest should be shown on free-to-air television so that they can be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible.
We want to ensure that as viewing habits change and technology evolves the regulatory framework remains fit for purpose.
The listed events regime works effectively for traditional linear broadcasting by prohibiting the broadcast of exclusive rights of an event on the list without prior consent from Ofcom. The current list is divided into two categories (Group A and Group B) and where rights holders make an event available, full live coverage must be offered for purchase to qualifying channels for events in Group A. Group B events may have live coverage on subscription TV provided that secondary coverage or highlights are offered for purchase to qualifying broadcasters. However, no rights holder can be compelled to sell its rights, and no broadcaster can be compelled to acquire rights.
In our Broadcasting White Paper, we announced our intention to make qualification for the listed events regime a PSB-specific benefit. This will more clearly enshrine the important role our PSBs play in distributing important and valuable content to UK audiences. The Government will introduce this legislation when Parliamentary time allows.
Our Broadcasting White Paper also confirmed our intention to undertake a review to look at whether the scope of the listed events regime should be extended to include digital rights. The Government is speaking to stakeholders to look at whether in the face of technological change, the objectives of the existing regime are still being met and whether digital rights should be included in the regime. The review will need to balance the ability for audiences to watch national sporting events at no additional cost with the ability for sporting organisations to generate revenues from sports rights to re-invest in their sports at all levels.
The Terms of Reference for the review can be found here.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish the gambling review white paper.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Gambling Act Review is a comprehensive and evidence-led review of gambling regulation to ensure it is fit for the digital age. We will publish a White paper setting out our conclusions in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether it is her policy to ensure that protections for people with epilepsy from malicious posts designed to cause seizures will be included in the Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Damian Collins
The Government is committed to introducing a new offence of epilepsy trolling in the Online Safety Bill to address this appalling online abuse.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
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 impact of rising energy costs on charities; and if will she take steps to generate additional funding for them through charity lottery reform.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As households and communities face rising energy prices, charities are seeing increased demand for their services while contending with the same price increases themselves.
With government support, charities have shown significant resilience over the past two years, and will again be crucial in supporting communities and households over the winter.
That is why the government will support all charities, public sector organisations and businesses with their energy costs this winter, offering an energy price guarantee for six months, equivalent to the protection offered to British households. Further details will be announced in due course.
Following the increases in July 2020 and the review of their impact published in March 2022, there are no plans to make further policy changes to society lottery sales and prize limits. Funding raised by the large society lottery sector is continuing to grow, as data published by the Gambling Commission since the review shows.
My department will keep engaging constructively with their counterparts across the sector and government to continuously monitor the impact of rising energy costs on the charity and broader civil society sector.