Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to promote (a) the North and (b) Lancashire as tourist destinations.
Answered by Michael Ellis
VisitEngland administers the £40m Discover England Fund, supporting the development of innovative and bookable tourism product across England to international markets. For example, the “Discover More Than Just A Holiday” project, led by Marketing Lancashire and “Buzzing For The Weekend”, led by Warrington Council.
VisitBritain also has a Gateway Partnership with Manchester Airport, promoting Manchester as a gateway to the North of England, encouraging visitors to choose Manchester, the North of England and Northern Wales as their destination.
ExploreGB will be held in Harrogate this May, promoting UK tourism product to over 200 international buyers from over 30 countries. Destinations from the North of England will be attending this event, promoting their products face to face.
The proposed Tourism Sector Deal aims to improve productivity in the tourism industry across the country through a range of initiatives. The sector and the Government are currently in formal negotiations over the deal and we hope to be able to provide further information in due course.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to promote the UK as a tourist destination abroad.
Answered by Michael Ellis
VisitBritain are responsible for marketing Britain to the international market and do so through a variety of campaigns. This is a statutory duty under the Development of Tourism Act 1969. For example in 2018, they launched their ‘I travel for…’ global marketing campaign using short films and story-telling to highlight less explored parts of the country.
VisitEngland administer the£40m Discover England Fund which invests in innovate, bookable products aimed at specific international markets around the world.
VisitEngland also use English Tourism Week to promote English tourism product through social media channels, working with Government to create impactful posts to a large audience.
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 plans her Department has to enable the BBC to introduce subscription charges for viewing content on its iPlayer outside the UK.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Under the new BBC Charter and Framework Agreement the BBC are able to trial international subscription models, and now it is a matter for the BBC to progress this.
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 mechanisms are in place to represent the interests of consumers in relation to the extent of mobile telephone coverage and prices in the event of changes to the number of mobile network operators.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Communications Act 2003 places a principal duty on Ofcom to further the interests of citizens and of consumers, where appropriate by promoting competition. Ofcom set and enforce regulatory rules for the communications sector and have powers to enforce competition law in those sectors, alongside the Competition and Markets Authority. The competition authorities will take all relevant evidence on market circumstances, including market consolidation moves and any remedies elsewhere, into account when considering mergers and acquisitions that affect the UK market.
Under the infrastructure report, Ofcom will continue to report to my Right Hon. Friend the Secretary of State on the coverage of communications networks across the UK and its nations, including publishing detailed maps of mobile network availability by operator. On 18 December my Right Hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a landmark agreement with the mobile network operators that they would extend mobile coverage to 90% of UK landmass by the end of 2017. This became a legally binding obligation in January 2015 through an amendment to the spectrum licences held by the mobile network operators.
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 - Shadow Solicitor General
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/