Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding from the Culture Recovery Fund has been allocated to the culture and heritage sector in (a) Cheshire West and Chester, (b) Halton and (c) Weaver Vale since that fund was established.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The following table includes details of the number of applications received and how many were successful, as well as the total amount of funding requested and how much was allocated for each of the three areas requested. Note this only refers to heritage and arts recovery grants and was correct as of 11 November.
Constituency / Local Authority | No applications | No awards | Total applied for | Total awarded |
Cheshire West and Chester (LA) | 17 | 11 | £1,980,809 | £1,492,15 |
Halton (constituency) | 2 | 2 | £392,660 | £392,660 |
Weaver Vale (constituency) | 3 | 3 | £146,000 | £146,000 |
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of cricket pitches that have been sold for (a) housing development and (b) other commercial development since 2010.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Government is completely committed to playing our part in strengthening grassroots cricket in this country, and are working with Sport England and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to help improve the prospects for the game at all levels. Since 2009, Sport England has invested £100,070,150 of Government and National Lottery funding into the game of cricket including investing in new and existing cricket facilities, boosting participation in the game and attracting people of all ages from diverse backgrounds to start or continue playing cricket.
DCMS does not hold figures for the number of cricket pitches sold for housing or commercial development. Sport England records show there are currently 7,106 pitches in England which are operational at present, whether that be local authority, school, club owned, free to play or otherwise.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to work with partners to ensure that young people have access to affordable sports facilities in their local area.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government's Sporting Future strategy, published in December 2015, emphasised the importance of all young people, regardless of background or ability, being healthy, active and having a good experience of sport and physical activity. It also highlighted the significant role that facilities play in encouraging people of all ages and backgrounds to get more active.
Sport England's Strategic Facilities Fund is making up to £40m of National Lottery funding available over 2017-21 to invest in strategic, solicited facilities projects that support and encourage people, including young people, to get active. Since 2016, the Strategic Facilities Fund has invested £27.5 million to support the construction of 23 new state of the art health and leisure facilities across England.
Sport England's Community Asset Fund is making up to £15m available per year over 2017-21 to support communities to improve and invest in the spaces in their communities that will support people to get more active, including children and young people.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 ensure that the advertising industry promotes positive body images.
Answered by Margot James
Promoting social responsibility is one of DCMS’s six Departmental priorities and we engage regularly with the advertising industry to do this.
Alongside this the advertising industry, through the Advertising Standards Authority, the industries independent regulator, has recently undertaken proactive research on the use of harmful gender stereotypes in advertising and has subsequently made significant changes to the advertising codes.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 takes to ensure that private car park operators are compliant with data protection regulations; and what assessment he has made of the extent of compliance with such regulations in that sector.
Answered by Margot James
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for regulating compliance with data protection legislation. The ICO is an independent body sponsored within government by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Government are currently modernising data protection laws in the UK through the Data Protection Bill to make them fit for purpose for our increasingly digital economy and society. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25th May 2018. All UK businesses together with all organisations that process personal data will be required to comply with this regulation and also the UK's full data protection regime as set out in the Data Protection Bill. The ICO provides guidance and support to UK organisations and have already published a number of resources on the Commissioner's website (ico.org.uk) to help organisations prepare. The ICO has: launched a dedicated helpline service for smaller organisations; updated its 'SME toolkit' to reflect the requirements of the GDPR; simplified its "12-step" GDPR preparation guidance; and published tailored guidance for charities.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) tech start up businesses and (b) the tech sector.
Answered by Margot James
We are committed to supporting the booming UK tech sector. The UK is already a world-leading digital economy with the sector contributing over £116Bn per year in gross value added and is growing twice as fast as the wider economy. Our ground-breaking digital strategy, published in March, set out how we intend to make the UK the best place to start and grow a digital business, and we are already delivering on those aims.
In November, our industrial strategy included commitments to boost spending on the infrastructure of the future, spreading 5G digital connectivity right across the country, raising investment in research and development, and improving skills by investing in maths, digital and technical education - all of which will support the continued success of the tech sector.
In the Autumn Budget, we also announced a further investment of £21 million to expand Tech City UK into a nationwide network – Tech Nation – aimed at accelerating the growth of the digital tech sector across the country. Tech Nation will support 40,000 entrepreneurs and up to 4,000 start-ups as they scale their businesses. Tech Nation will build on the success of its London and Northern clusters, delivering support for digital tech businesses in 11 cities across the UK. This will develop new regional clusters to boost burgeoning tech firms in cities such as Belfast, Cardiff and Newcastle.
The Budget also announced a doubling of the Enterprise Investment Scheme for knowledge intensive companies - including in the tech sector - and announced a 10-year action plan to unlock over £20 billion to finance growth in innovative firms.