Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions Ministers in (a) her Department or (b) other Departments have had with their Indian counterparts on the ownership and location of the Amaravati Marbles; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Ministers in the department and in other departments have not had any discussions about the Amaravati Marbles with Indian counterparts.
The Amaravati Marbles are lawfully owned by the British Museum, where they are on public display, and can be visited for free by the millions of visitors who go to the museum each year.
The British Museum operates independently of the Government, and decisions relating to the care and management of the museum's collections are a matter for the Trustees of the British Museum.
The British Museum, as well as some other national museums, is prevented by law from removing objects from their collections, with a limited number of exceptions - none of which apply in this case. The Government has no plan to change the law.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many VisitBritain staff are based in Japan.
Answered by John Whittingdale
There is one VisitBritain staff member based in Japan. They are located in the British Embassy in Tokyo.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many VisitBritain staff are based in the Republic of Korea.
Answered by John Whittingdale
There is one VisitBritain staff member based in the Republic of Korea. They are located in the British Embassy in Seoul.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the report of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity's report entitled are media organisations adequately protecting LGBTQ+ journalists; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government has noted the report and is reviewing its findings.
Regarding the findings on protections within media organisations for LGBTQ journalists from harassment and abuse, the Government is committed to helping ensure the safety of journalists in the UK. We have established a National Committee for the Safety of Journalists and published a National Action Plan which sets out how UK journalists will be protected from threats of violence or intimidation. This is part of the UK’s broader commitment to a free and open media.
The UK has a proud history of LGBTQ rights, and some of the strongest legal protections in the world for LGBTQ people. Everyone should be treated fairly in the workplace, so that they can thrive and reach their full potential, including LGBTQ people.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department is providing to grassroots music venues in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We work with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and the recent Energy Bills Support Scheme.
On Stockport specifically, across all artforms and disciplines, Arts Council England have invested £4.45 million since 2018/19 in 56 projects. This includes 13 successful music specific applications, with examples for grassroots music venues as:
Several Stockport-based DJs and music producers have received support via the Develop Your Creative Practice fund, most recently (in 2022) including producer and label owner Jamie Manion who received £8,000 to develop their music productions skills.
In 2021, OmniMusic, a Stockport-based charity using assistive music technology to enable disabled and non-disabled musicians to make and play music received £14,600 for their ‘Reaching Out’ project.
Three Stockport based projects received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund; two were individual DJ/producers and one was music based ‘Rising Stars North West Community Interest Companies’ - one of the few ethnic minority led arts, music, and creative media organisations in Stockport - received £71,000.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to increase funding for (a) youth clubs and (b) other youth services in Stockport (i) constituency and (ii) borough.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people.The Government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing the inconsistencies in national youth spending with a firm focus on levelling up. Young people in Stockport will benefit from elements of the National Youth Guarantee, for example, a year-round National Citizen Service programme; increased access to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; and volunteering opportunities through #iwill fund.
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, the majority of which is un-ringfenced, allowing local authorities to spend on services according to local priorities, including on youth services. The settlement is anticipated to be almost £60 billion this year (FY 23/24) for councils in England - a 9% increase on the previous year.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for (a) her policies and (b) cricket at all levels of the verdict of the Cricket Discipline Commission in March 2023 on allegations of racism by Yorkshire County Cricket Club and seven other indivduals.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is clear that racism has no place in cricket, sport, or society at large. We welcomed the steps that the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Cricket Disciplinary Commission took to investigate historic racism allegations at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
We expect to see clear and sustained evidence of cultural change across the club and the sport and will continue to hold the ECB to account on this.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket on the publication date of its full report.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I have met with the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket to discuss the current status of its report. The timing of the report’s publication is a matter for the Commission. I look forward to the report and hope that the relevant cricket authorities will take close account of its findings to drive cultural change across the sport.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2023 To Question 124155 on Tourism: India, whether her Department has a strategy to promote Greater Manchester as a destination to Indian tourists.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government promotes Britain as a holiday destination to tourists from India through VisitBritain, the national tourist board. India is one of VisitBritain's core markets and has staff based in Mumbai and New Delhi.
VisitBritain (India) works closely with UK inbound tourism businesses, with a particular focus on the North of England, including Greater Manchester, to inform them of the potential of the Indian market. This is done by encouraging UK inbound tourism businesses to tailor their offers and products to the Indian market, as well as educating them on the nuances of working with the local industry and how to provide a quality service to Indian visitors.
In January, VisitBritain hosted the ‘Showcase Britain’ event where they welcomed more than 120 international travel trade buyers for a series of educational visits across Britain including Greater Manchester.
As part of the wider Business and Tourism Programme (BATP), VisitBritain (India) has been utilising Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to encourage longer stays across the UK.
VisitBritain has been building on the work delivered in 2019 during the Cricket World Cup to promote the north of England, positioning Manchester as the Gateway of the North. The exciting events of 2023 such as the King’s Coronation and Eurovision in Liverpool will further help to attract international visitors, including to Manchester as the UK’s third most visited city.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of tourists from India who visit Greater Manchester each year; and what assessment her Department has made of the impact of those tourists on the economy of Greater Manchester.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The latest International Passenger Survey from the Office of National Statistics (and supported by VisitBritain) found that in 2019 there were 39,990 visits to Greater Manchester from India.
Visits from India were equivalent to 2% of the total 1.9m international visits (1,894,760) to Greater Manchester that year, and the £52m spend (£51,959,650) from Indian visitors represented 6% of the total spend from international visits of £850m (£850,075,740) in Greater Manchester.