Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support his Department has provided for museums in Medway.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
DCMS directly sponsors 16 museums and galleries in England including the British Library, and supports regional museums through Arts Council England (ACE), the body responsible for museums and galleries in England. DCMS also supports heritage bodies including the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust which is both a heritage site and independent museum. DCMS has provided £245,000 funding to Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust in 2014-15, and will provide £324,000 in 2015-16.
Both the Chatham Historic Dockyard and Trust, and the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive received support from Arts Council England between 2011 and 2015. Chatham Historic Dockyard and Trust received awards of funding of £312,681 in Renaissance transition funding and £9,500 from the ACE Subject Specialist Networks scheme. The Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive, which has a Designated collection of national importance, received a single award of £73,035 from the ACE Designation Development Fund.
ACE has also provided support to museums in Medway through its Museum Resilience Fund. The Museum resilience fund aims to support a step change for the museums sector by enabling museums to become more sustainable and resilient organisations. The most recent round of awards from the fund was announced in March; the Guildhall Museum was granted £67,100 and Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust £263,000. Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust was also awarded £466,542 from the fund in the previous round.
DCMS and the Wolfson Foundation jointly fund the DCMS Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, which supports projects in English Museums and galleries that improve the quality of displays, collection interpretation, public spaces, and access and facilities for disabled visitors. In January 2014 two Museums in Medway received grants from the DCMS Wolfson Fund. Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust received an award of £150,000 towards its Building the Future project. The Royal Engineers Museum also received £22,794 towards its Waterloo 200: redisplay of Wellington’s Map project.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
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 (a) female and (b) BME participation in football at (i) player and (ii) management level.
Answered by Helen Grant - Shadow Solicitor General
As part of its Whole Sport Plan funding, Sport England is investing £2.4 million into a joint initiative with the Football Association, the Premier League and the Football League Trust. This initiative encourages more women and girls to play football, and a further £3 million to the ‘Women and Girls' Talent Pathway programme to develop the next generation of talented female football players.
As set out in the Autumn Statement, the Government will also be investing £10m in facilities and coaching that will boost grassroots participation across the country. Part of this funding will go to a bursary scheme to help open up the higher tiers of coaching to more people, with a particular emphasis on female coaches, and those from BME backgrounds.
I will also be bringing together key figures from across football for a meeting in the New Year to explore what more can be done to improve the numbers of ethnic minorities in leadership positions in the top tiers of English football.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Nuisance Calls Action Plan.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Tackling nuisance calls is a priority for the Department. We published the first ever Nuisance Calls Action Plan on 30 March 2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nuisance-calls-action-plan-unveiled.
This set out our achievements to date, work underway and proposed actions for the future, which included both legislative and non-legislative measures. We are currently pursuing these measures which, as a combination are beginning to make a significant difference for the benefit of consumers.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of adults in (a) Kent, (b) Medway and (c) Gillingham and Rainham constituency that have taken part in at least one sporting activity each week in each of the last five years.
Answered by Helen Grant - Shadow Solicitor General
Sport participation data is from the Active People Survey which is the main measure of the number of people aged 16 and above taking part in sport in England. The 2013/14 data will be released in January 2015.
Gillingham and Rainham | Kent | Medway | |
2012/13 (APS7) | n/a¹ | 483,100 (34.3%) | 71,600 (33.5%) |
2011/12 (APS6) | n/a¹ | 465,100 (33.3%) | 69,600 (32.9%) |
2010/11 (APS5) | n/a¹ | 435,400 (32%) | 48,700 (23.7%) |
2009/10 (APS4) | n/a¹ | 444,600 (33.1%) | 67,100 (33%) |
2008/09 (APS3) | n/a¹ | 432,900 (32.4%) | 59,400 (29.4%) |
¹Sample size too small to provide figure
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the average (a) download and (b) upload speed in (i) the UK, (ii) the Southeast, (iii) Medway and (iv) Gillingham and Rainham constituency was on the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom is responsible for monitoring the UK broadband market and provides regular updates. In its Infrastructure Report published in December 2014 it reported that in June 2014 average download speed in Medway was 31.8Mbit/sand the average upload speed was 3.8Mbit/s. These compare with the UK average download speed of 23.4Mbit/s and average upload speed of 3.2Mbit/s. Information is not available at a constituency level, but is available at a postcode level at http://infrastructure.ofcom.org.uk/
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many local digital service licences have been awarded in Kent and Medway.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The independent regulator Ofcom, is responsible for allocating commercial TV and radio licences. Ofcom has received two applications to operate a local TV service in the Maidstone area on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform and anticipates making a decision about the award of this licence in the summer.
The licence to operate the DAB radio multiplex covering Kent was awarded in 2003. The Kent DAB multiplex currently carries the following stations: BBC Radio Kent, Capital, Heart Kent, Kmfm, Smooth Kent, Xfm and Pop Up radio.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
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 encourage local media and regional broadcasting in Kent and Medway.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Government recognises the important role local media plays in communities, and has created the foundations for new local TV services to establish themselves and enrich UK television with quality local news and programming. Ofcom has received applications for a local TV licence in Maidstone, and we expect an award to be made soon. More widely, 25 local TV services have been licensed to date, and further launches will take place over the summer and autumn.