Asked by: Richard Arkless (Scottish National Party - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage music venues to improve ticket and seating arrangements for disabled people.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
We believe that everyone should have access to arts and culture - having a disability should not be a barrier to enjoying Britain’s awe-inspiring cultural treasures. That is why we are working with venues and organisations representing disabled people to identify barriers to access, while at the same time seeing how we can share examples of best practice and what more cultural venues need to do to be accessible to people with disabilities. Our recently published Culture White Paper makes a specific commitment to work with the cultural sector to improve physical access to venues.
We support the work of Attitude is Everything, which works with audiences, artists, and the music industry to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live events. My ministerial colleague Ed Vaizey also held a roundtable meeting with Justin Tomlinson, Minister for Disabled People to look at access to cultural venues and events for disabled people. Additionally, provisions in the Equality Act 2010 require providers of services to the public (for example music venues), to make a ‘reasonable adjustment’ so that disabled people are not placed at a “substantial disadvantage” to non-disabled people.
Asked by: Richard Arkless (Scottish National Party - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government is taking steps to promote satellite broadband access in areas where fixed line broadband is limited or available at slower speeds than average.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government’s Universal Service Commitment will allow universal access to speeds of at least 2 Megabits per secondto any household in the UK,through the option of satellite broadband connections by the end of 2015.
Asked by: Richard Arkless (Scottish National Party - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to provide to internet service providers detailed information relating to the broadband Universal Services Obligation announced by the Prime Minister on 7 November 2015.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government’s Universal Service Commitment will allow universal access to speeds of at least 2 Megabits per second through the option of satellite broadband connections by the end of 2015.
In addition, an £8 million Market Test Pilot fund is piloting a number of technologies and funding models, including satellite solutions. The results of these pilots will help inform future policy to extend superfast broadband coverage beyond 95%. Avanti, a broadband provider using satellite technology, is currently operational in Dumfries and Galloway and providing superfast coverage.