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Written Question
English National Opera: Finance
Thursday 15th December 2022

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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

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.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Disclosure of Information
Monday 21st November 2022

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 - Minister of State (Department 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.


Written Question
Football: Qatar
Wednesday 7th September 2022

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 - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

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.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: EU Law
Friday 8th July 2022

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 - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

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.


Written Question
Chelsea Football Club: Sales
Monday 25th April 2022

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 - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

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.


Written Question
Broadband: Oxfordshire
Friday 10th September 2021

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.


Written Question
Broadband: Oxfordshire
Friday 10th September 2021

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.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Taxis
Monday 6th July 2020

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.


Written Question
Public Houses
Thursday 6th June 2019

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, with reference to his announcement of 18 May 2019 entitled High streets to benefit from £62 million heritage boost, if he will take steps to ensure that funding is used to ensure buildings which used to be pubs are re-opened as pubs and not converted to another use.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The purpose of the Heritage High Street funding programmes is to help high streets adapt to the challenges they face. To do that, both will be working closely with the communities that those high streets serve so as to better understand the particular needs of each place to ensure interventions are designed to support those needs.

The Historic England led High Street Heritage Action Zone programme will be working closely with local partners in the development of each scheme. This emphasis on local need is reflected in the programme’s Critical Success Factors, which include orking with local businesses and communities, to ensure that local needs, knowledge, insight and narratives drive the local investment programme.

The Architectural Heritage Fund’s Transforming Places through Heritage scheme will support social enterprise organisations to take ownership of and bring buildings of local importance - such as pubs - back into use and secure their place as community assets.


Written Question
Public Houses
Thursday 6th June 2019

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, with reference to his announcement of 18 May 2019 entitled High streets to benefit from £62 million heritage boost, what steps he will take to ensure that pub companies are not incentivised to close historic pubs to benefit from funding for other redevelopment uses; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The purpose of the Heritage High Street funding programmes is to help high streets adapt to the challenges they face. To do that, both will be working closely with the communities that those high streets serve so as to better understand the particular needs of each place to ensure interventions are designed to support those needs.

The Historic England led High Street Heritage Action Zone programme will be working closely with local partners in the development of each scheme. This emphasis on local need is reflected in the programme’s Critical Success Factors, which include orking with local businesses and communities, to ensure that local needs, knowledge, insight and narratives drive the local investment programme.

The Architectural Heritage Fund’s Transforming Places through Heritage scheme will support social enterprise organisations to take ownership of and bring buildings of local importance - such as pubs - back into use and secure their place as community assets.