Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
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 - Spen Valley)
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the National Youth Guarantee funds will become available.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
DCMS received £560 million to deliver the National Youth Guarantee over the Spending Review period.
The first phase of the Youth Investment Fund saw £12 million spent in financial year 21/22 in key levelling up areas, which has provided funding for over 400 youth organisations. Funding was used for a wide range of equipment to assist with youth activities, as well as capital improvements that will reduce overheads and running costs. Phase Two will fund the construction or redevelopment of up to 300 youth facilities, targeting investment in left-behind areas, where young people have the greatest need and lowest provision. £368 million has been allocated to Phase Two, which will open for bids in summer 2022.
DCMS also funds the National Citizen Service (NCS) which is running a range of activities during the 2022 summer holidays, providing access to adventures away from home, skills development, engaging in local community projects and volunteering opportunities for thousands of young people across the country. NCS has already received £72 million this year and will receive around £100 million in the following two years. Additionally, DCMS has already signed a grant agreement with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme for £4.2 million, enabling them to offer every state secondary school in England the chance to participate, in collaboration with the Department for Education.
Finally DCMS has committed £6 million to the #iwill fund, fully matched by the National Lottery Community Fund, to support tens of thousands more youth volunteering opportunities.
Further funding to tackle Uniformed Youth waiting lists will begin to be released later this year.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 12 July 2022 to Question 30208 on Youth Organisations: Kirklees, what assessment her Department has made of the potential role of scouting in the National Youth Guarantee scheme.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The National Youth Guarantee is this government’s commitment that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities.
As part of the National Youth Guarantee funding we intend to launch a Uniformed Youth Fund later this year to increase access to Uniformed Youth groups across the country. The fund will allow organisations such as the Scouts to increase provision in areas with unmet demand, improving the wellbeing of young people and helping them to develop skills for life and work.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason youth organisations in Kirklees have been unable to access the Youth Investment Fund; and what central funding is available to support facilities for organisations assisting young people aged 11-18 in Kirklees.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. The Government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This will be supported by a three year £560 million investment in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing the inconsistencies in national youth spending, with a firm focus on levelling up. The Youth Investment Fund is a geographically targeted fund levelling up access to youth services in those areas that need it the most. Ministerial decisions on eligibility criteria were taken on the basis of high quality, robust and publicly available data, details of which are available on the gov.uk website here. Kirklees did not meet the eligibility criteria for the Youth Investment Fund. However, through the National Youth Guarantee DCMS will fund a range of youth programmes across England, such as the National Citizen Service (NCS) and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, as well as volunteering programmes through the #iwill Fund and tackling uniformed youth waiting lists, all of which the young people of Kirklees can benefit from.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential implications of amending the charity lottery annual sales limit.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Society lottery sales and prize limits were last increased in July 2020 when the annual sales limit was raised from £10 million to £50 million. We published a review of the impact of these changes in March 2022 (link). The review considered evidence on the annual sales limit, and found that the increase had allowed some operators to move to a single licence and reduce costs. The review concluded that more data was necessary to fully measure the impact of the 2020 changes, and that therefore further policy changes were not necessary at this time.
My officials will continue working with the Gambling Commission, as part of its regulatory role, to keep the sector under review.