Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to support the maintenance of churches.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The DCMS supports the maintenance of churches through both the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, funded up to £42m per annum, which provides grants towards the VAT paid on repairs, maintenance and alterations to the listed buildings and, the Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund, a one-off £15m scheme. The Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund allows those responsible for looking after listed places of worship across the UK to apply for money to address urgent roof repairs.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to promote golfing holidays in the (a) North West and (b) UK.
Answered by Helen Grant
Golfing holidays in both the North West and the rest of the UK are promoted by VisitEngland and VisitBritain. Liverpool is using £62,500 from VisitEngland's Growing Tourism Locally programme, funded through the Regional Growth fund, to promote ‘England's Golf Coast' in the golfing press, using the staging of the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool to encourage visits to the region. VisitBritain's consumer website highlights golf courses across the whole of the UK including the Golf Coast, which also features in their Sport is GREAT pillar guide. In advance of the Ryder Cup in Gleneagles, VisitBritain has organised familiarisation trips taking American and European journalists to the course. Previous experience tells us that hosting the Ryder Cup is worth tens of millions of pounds to the UK and to the local economy.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve mobile internet connectivity in rural areas.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
One of the licences granted in the 2013 4G auction contains a demanding indoor coverage obligation. The owner of this licence, Telefonica O2 UK, is obliged to provide indoor coverage for 4G mobile services to at least 98 per cent of the UK population (and to at least 95 per cent of the population of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales respectively) by the end of 2017. Ofcom expects that this level of indoor coverage will result in approximately 99 per cent outdoor coverage. As a result of the competitive UK telecoms market, all four of the UK mobile network operators have publicly committed to provide this level of coverage by the end of 2015.
There is also likely to be further improvement in 2G and 3G coverage as a result of increasing roll out of combined 2G/3G/4G equipment by the industry.
However, sometimes it is not commercially viable for operators to install and operate base stations and associated infrastructure in areas of very low population. On 3 October 2011, the Government announced the Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP) with up to £150 million funding to extend mobile phone coverage to remote and rural area across the country that currently receive no coverage from any network. The scheme sees Government provide the capital funding for Arqiva as contractors to build the new infrastructure. The four mobile network operators (EE, Telefonica, Three and Vodafone) will provide coverage from the sites and cover operating costs for the twenty year life of the project. The project is currently underway and is expected to deliver by 2015. It is focussed primarily on improving voice coverage but is also likely to improve data coverage. Details of this work can be found on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-it-easier-for-the-communications-and-telecoms-industries-to-grow-while-protecting-the-interests-of-citizens/supporting-pages/improving-mobile-coverage
Ofcom has also published a plan to improve mobile coverage: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2013/11/five-point-plan-to-improving-mobile-coverage/
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps are being taken to raise the profile of the North West as a tourist destination.
Answered by Helen Grant
The North West is promoted by both VisitEngland and VisitBritain, benefitting from the Holidays at Home are GREAT campaign and the international GREAT campaign. VisitEngland is running a number of thematic campaigns, in particular around Blackpool and Manchester, which can be found at http://www.visitengland.com/ . VisitEngland also regularly promotes the countryside of Cumbria and Lancashire, featuring them in much of their imagery. The North West is featured in VisitBritain's current marketing campaigns including focusing on Manchester as a gateway to the Lake District, Liverpool as the home of the Beatles and the promotion of cities which have Premier League clubs including Liverpool and Manchester.
The International Festival for Business, taking place in Liverpool this summer over a six week period, is a global event which will further strengthen Liverpool's position as a major tourist destination. VisitBritain is promoting the festival through all its platforms, whilst VisitEngland is hosting and participating in a series of events throughout the six week period.