Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department will publish its consultation on verification mechanisms to restrict under 18 access to pornographic websites.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently preparing a consultation on the Government’s manifesto commitment requiring age verification for access to all sites containing pornographic material. This will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
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 prevent illegal online sales of portable antiquities discovered at archaeological sites in the UK.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
DCMS funds the Portable Antiques Scheme (PAS), which encouraged the voluntary recording over 100,000 objects in 2014. PAShas an MoU with eBay to monitor any unreported treasures - and calls in the sellers for questioning if illegal sales reported by third parties.PASFinds liasion officers work closely with local police forces when investigating the illegal recovery ofarchaeologicalmaterialfrom the UK. You can find more information on the PAS website -finds.org.uk.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of poor player behaviour and discipline by Premier League football players on the field on the reputation of UK sport; and if he will hold talks with the Professional Footballers' Association and FA to discuss improving that behaviour and discipline.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government believes that professional footballers have a responsibility to set a good example, especially to children in terms of acceptable behaviour. This is something I have discussed with both the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association when we met recently, and with the FA as part of our regular discussions on a range of football matters.
More generally The PFA works in partnership with the FA and the professional Leagues to implement key areas within football’s inclusion and anti-discrimination plan. Through the plan, a new code of conduct has being introduced from the start of this season, as part of a series of measures to address on-field behaviour in English football. The new code sets out the standards required and consequences for non-compliance.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support his Department provides to finds liaison officers to ensure that detected archaeological finds are properly recorded in a speedier manner in order to encourage more finds to be declared to local authorities.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
DCMS funds the Portable Antiques Scheme (PAS) at the British Museum through grant in aid. The scheme offers specifically-trained Finds Liason Officers to local Authorities to record Archaeological finds. In order to record finds quickly, these officers support Finders in self-recording, and run training schemes.
There is a network of 39 Finds Liaison Officers, based in museums and county councils throughout England and Wales and six National Finds Advisers. The data gathered by the Scheme is published on an online database (www.finds.org.uk).
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold discussions with Camelot on steps they are taking to reverse the recent decline in national lottery sales.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
National Lottery sales are not declining. 2014/2015 was the most successful year for The National Lottery ever, achieving £7.27bn in sales and £1.96bn for good causes. Sales are up on the previous year (£6.73bn) and have even surpassed the record-breaking Olympic year of 2012/2013 (£6.9bn).
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to extend the BBFC's voluntary pilot project for the rating of online music videos to other online platforms, UK music labels and publishers and non-UK music labels; and what plans he has to review the voluntary nature of that scheme.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Independent evaluation of the pilot shows that 78% of parents value age ratings for online music videos and 86% of parents would choose online channels with clear age ratings for their children’s viewing. We were pleased therefore to announce recently that the industry and the BBFC were putting their online music videos ratings scheme on a permanent footing and extending it to include videos produced in the UK by independent labels, as well as by major UK labels.
We welcome this voluntary action by industry and will now be looking at how the lessons learned in the UK could help international partners adopt a similar approach.Government is committed to working with labels and platforms towards seeing age rating on all online music videos.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold discussions with the FA about the affordability of tickets to Premier League matches for people on the national average wage.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The pricing of tickets is a matter for the clubs to decide on, however we would encourage all clubs, whether in the Premier League or not, to think carefully about affordability for all fans when setting their ticket prices.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold discussions with the Football Association about improved access for disabled people to Premier League football matches.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
I meet regularly with the Football Association, Premier League and Football League to discuss a wide range of issues, including improved access for disabled spectators to Premier League football matches. The Government welcomes the recent announcement by the Premier League for all Premiership clubs to achieve compliance with the Accessible Stadia Guide (which can be found at http://www.safetyatsportsgrounds.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/accessible-stadia.pdf ) by August 2017 and we will be seeking regular updates from the Premier League on progress to implement it.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure that (a) high stakes gambling takes place only in (i) casinos and (ii) other highly supervised premises, (b) Fixed Odds Betting Terminals are not located in bookmakers and (c) casinos have more appropriate numbers of slot machines.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
High stakes gambling’ is a relative term and may be open to different interpretation. The Gambling Act 2005 and associated regulations establish the types and levels of gambling permitted in a range of licensed environments and the controls required to be put in place to keep that gambling fair and safe for all.
Regardless of the level of stakes, the Gambling Commission requires all operators providing facilities for gambling to adhere to the licence conditions and codes of practice relevant to their activity designed to minimise harm generated by gambling.
Under the 2005 Act fixed odds betting terminals are permitted in casinos and bookmakers. High street betting shops are limited to four machines per premises. The Act also set the current gaming machine entitlements for casinos.
The Government recently introduced new regulations in April which ended unsupervised stakes above £50 on FOBTs in betting shops. We will want to assess the impact of these measures before we consider any further legislative options.
Any discussion about changes to gaming machine entitlements in casinos would need to be accompanied by robust proposals from the industry for managing any additional risk of harm to players that may arise.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold discussions with Airbnb on ensuring that their suppliers comply with the requirement not to let their properties for more than 90 days each year.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
I have no current plans to discuss this specific matter with Airbnb. The government is setting up an Emerging Industry Action Group for the sharing economy. Through this group it will engage with the whole sector, including companies such as Airbnb, to ensure that they and their suppliers understand and operate under an effective and proportionate regulatory framework that ensures consumers are protected.