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
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.
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
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.
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 he will take steps to ensure that online fundraising platforms advertise prominently on their webstes, information on deductions from donations for fees charged.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Online fundraising platforms raise significant funds for charitable causes. Therefore high standards of transparency are important to allow donors to make informed decisions.
Part 2 of the Charities Act 1992 already requires all professional fundraisers, including online fundraising platforms, to inform potential donors of fees and charges.
Furthermore, the Fundraising Regulator has updated the Code of Fundraising Practice to include requirements for these platforms, including new transparency requirements about charges.
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 and which (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have visited the Irish border in the last 12 months; when those visits took place; and how long they spent at the border in each of those visits.
Answered by Margot James
a) No such trips have taken place. Details of Ministers’ overseas travel are published quarterly and are available on GOV.UK.
b) Details of business expenses incurred by senior officials include domestic and international travel. This information is also published quarterly and is available on GOV.UK.
The information requested for all officials in my Department is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate 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, what Guidance he has issued to Government (a) departments and (b) agencies on the use of electronic signatures by people completing Government documents online.
Answered by Margot James
The use of electronic signatures, seals and other trust services is addressed by two set of regulations - eIDAS (electronic identity and trust services), a 2014 European regulation, and the EITSET (Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions) Regulations 2016. The government guidance on eSignatures is published on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electronic-signatures).
This guidance was last revised in August 2016 and is due to be revised within the next six months.
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 a mechanism is in place to allow a football club that has introduced a safe standing area to retain that area if it is promoted to the top two tiers of English football.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The government’s all-seater stadium policy precludes the use of standing accommodation at clubs in the top two tiers of English football.
Spectator safety at sports grounds remains the priority for Government. The Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) is the regulatory body responsible for overseeing and advising on safety at sports grounds.
The government will continue to learn from the latest data, research, and advances in technology to improve the safety of spectators, but we have yet to see robust evidence of a safer approach to protecting spectators at football matches than the existing all-seater arrangements.
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, for what reasons he rejected the application by West Bromwich Albion Football Club to pilot a safe-standing scheme at The Hawthorns in the 2018-19 season; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Spectator safety at sports grounds remains the priority for Government.
The Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) is the regulatory body responsible for overseeing and advising on safety at sports grounds.
The Government will continue to learn from the latest data, research, and advances in technology to improve the safety of spectators, but we have yet to see robust evidence of a safer approach to protecting spectators at football matches than the existing all-seater arrangements.