Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 impact of the Art Council England National Portfolio Organisation funding between 2023 to 2026 on the English National Opera Breathe programme.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Decisions regarding what programmes an organisation delivers are made independently of the Government. As part of its decisions relating to its 2023–26 Investment Programme, Arts Council England – which operates at arm’s length from the Government – has proposed a package of support for English National Opera. The Department is keen that Arts Council England and English National Opera work together on possibilities for the future of the organisation.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) non-disclosure and (b) other confidentiality agreements relating to (i) employment, (ii) bullying, (iii) misconduct and (iii) harassment cases have been agreed by their Department in each year since 1 January 2010; and how much money from the public purse has been spent on (A) legal costs and (B) financial settlements for such agreements in each year since 1 January 2010.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government is clear that confidentiality clauses should not be used to prevent staff from raising or discussing allegations of bullying, harassment or discrimination.
DCMS does not make use of non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements and therefore has also not incurred expenditure related to legal fees or financial settlements.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 representations (a) FIFA and (b) the Football Association and (c) Football Association Wales on the potential merits of establishing a workers compensation fund for workers who built stadiums for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We welcome the steps Qatar has taken to date on workers’ rights, with the priority now the full implementation and enforcement of those reforms.
We encourage continued close collaboration between the Government of Qatar and International Labour Organization during the second phase of their technical cooperation programme – which runs until the end of 2023. We also welcome continued Qatari cooperation with entities such as the international trade unions.
On 4 July, FCDO Minister Milling met the Qatari Minister for Labour in Doha. They discussed Qatar’s progress on labour reforms, and the Ministry’s on-going cooperation with the International Labour Organization.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of officials in her Department involved in recording retained EU legislation for the purposes of the Retained EU Law Dashboard in the latest period for which figures are available and (b) the cost to the public purse of recording that information.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
DCMS’ response to the Cabinet Office’s commission for the Retained EU Law Dashboard was coordinated by the department’s Legislative Strategy team and drew from a range of officials, with varying involvement over a period of time. It is therefore not possible to disaggregate specifically.
There has been no additional non-pay cost to the public purse by creating the dashboard. The process was led by the Cabinet Office, who commissioned Government Departments to find REUL within their legislation and compile an authoritative account of where REUL sits on the UK statute book.
The dashboard itself is made by the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform for hosting public dashboards.
The dashboard will continue to be updated at no additional cost.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 had any involvement in the proposed sale of Chelsea Football Club.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has been clear that it would like to see the club sold to an appropriate new owner before the end of the season. The process for any bid continues to be run by the club, and it will be for them to decide the precise terms of a proposed sale.
At the point the club has a preferred bidder we would expect them to apply for a licence to enable the sale. The Government will consider the merits of this licence application on its own terms, noting that we can only impose conditions on a licence which authorises the sale of the club if they are linked to the sanctions policy.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether premises in Oxfordshire that are deemed rural by the ONS and classified as being in Ofcom Area 2 are eligible for vouchers under his Department's Gigabit Voucher Scheme.
Answered by Matt Warman
There are 14,678 premises in Oxfordshire that are classified as rural (using data from the Office for National Statistics) and in Ofcom’s Area 2. These premises are not eligible for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme as the independent market regulator for the telecoms market, Ofcom, as part of its Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 has determined there is, or there is likely to be potential for, material and sustainable competition in the commercial deployment of competing networks. This avoids the risk of public money crowding out commercial investment, and provides value for taxpayer money whilst delivering to those areas most in need. However, DCMS will continue to survey operators on their commercial build plans. If it becomes clear that premises are unlikely to benefit from a commercially delivered gigabit programme within a reasonable timeframe, then DCMS will take action to address this market failure. These detailed reviews will take place in partnership with the local authority through the process of Open Market Review and then Public Review to ensure an accurate map of existing networks is drawn up.
There are over 55,000 premises in Oxfordshire that are eligible for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many premises in Oxfordshire which are classified as rural by the ONS are included in Ofcom Area 2.
Answered by Matt Warman
There are 14,678 premises in Oxfordshire that are classified as rural (using data from the Office for National Statistics) and in Ofcom’s Area 2. These premises are not eligible for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme as the independent market regulator for the telecoms market, Ofcom, as part of its Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 has determined there is, or there is likely to be potential for, material and sustainable competition in the commercial deployment of competing networks. This avoids the risk of public money crowding out commercial investment, and provides value for taxpayer money whilst delivering to those areas most in need. However, DCMS will continue to survey operators on their commercial build plans. If it becomes clear that premises are unlikely to benefit from a commercially delivered gigabit programme within a reasonable timeframe, then DCMS will take action to address this market failure. These detailed reviews will take place in partnership with the local authority through the process of Open Market Review and then Public Review to ensure an accurate map of existing networks is drawn up.
There are over 55,000 premises in Oxfordshire that are eligible for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many private hire cars his Department has used since 2015; how long each journey was; and what the cost was of those journeys to the public purse.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur a disproportionate response.