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 he plans to launch the Triennial Review of gambling machine stakes and prize limits.
Answered by David Evennett
In April 2015 the previous Government introduced regulations which require authorisation of stakes over £50 on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals through a “verified account” or staff interaction.The Government published its evaluation of the £50 regulations on 21 January. The evaluation paper can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-gaming-machine-circumstances-of-useamendment-regulations-2015
We will now consider the findings of the evaluation before deciding if there is a need for further action.
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 conduct research on the potential link between levels of productivity and the provision of high-speed data services and broadband connectivity.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport commissioned research by SQW Consulting who produced the UK Broadband Impact Study in November 2013. The study demonstrates a clear link between improved productivity and high quality broadband connectivity. For example, the study estimated that the availability and take-up of faster broadband speeds will add about £17 billion to the UK’s annual Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2024.
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 encourage more online platforms to carry prominent age ratings and content advice for music videos classified by the British Board of Film Classification; and what steps he is taking to link such age ratings to parental control.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Government is committed to working with music labels and platforms towards seeing age ratings on all online music videos. Under the industry’s voluntary ratings scheme for online music videos,which is an initiative that I started,more than 150 music videos have been age rated by the BBFC to date and the ratings appear alongside them on YouTube and Vevo.
Work is continuing with industry to encourage them to further develop the online ratings scheme, including making the ratings more visible on online platforms and ensuring the ratings work as effectively as possible with parental controls.
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.