Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding from the (a) public purse and (b) National Lottery the Football Association received in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
I am pleased to provide a breakdown in the table below of the funding provided to the Football Association (FA) for grassroots football development since 2010/11.
Lottery | Exchequer | |
2010/11 | £3,461,403 | £4,714,899 |
2011/12 | £4,189,187 | £1,361,723 |
2012/13 | £3,728,266 | £1,314,419 |
2013/14 | £9,247,050 | £1,040,000 |
2014/15 | £8,276,330 | £898,929 |
2015/16 | £6,375,054 | £2,970,910 |
2016/17 | £6,453,501 | £2,000,000 |
TOTAL | £56,031,671 |
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she made of the value gained for the public of Government funds given to the Football Association in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Football continues to be the nation’s most popular team sport, with over 1.5m more weekly participants than any other team sport. Public funding has gone into programmes delivered by the FA that sustain that interest and also that encourage more people from all ages and backgrounds to take part in the sport.
Sport England has challenged the FA to deliver results for the public money it receives. In 2014, £1.6million was taken away after the FA failed to reverse a decline in the number of people regularly playing the sport.
Since then, outdoor 5-a-side football has seen an increase in participation from 744,200 people per week in 2010 (APS4) to 795,700 in 2016 (APS10 Q2) showing changing customer demands which the FA must continue to respond to.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Football Association on recent corruption scandals.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Both the Secretary of State and I spoke to the FA following the recent allegations made by the Daily Telegraph, and they confirmed they are working across football to investigate. It is important that the FA demonstrates good governance of their sport, and that includes dealing effectively with those that look to tarnish its reputation. All the evidence presented to them must be investigated fully and the Government stands ready to assist in any way we can.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much public funding was given to the Football Association in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Since 2010, the Government has invested, via Sport England £56,031,671 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding to the FA to help grow and sustain grassroots football participation in this country. That equates to £8,176,302m in 2010/11; £5,550,910m in 2011/12; £5,042,685 in 2012/13; £10,287,050m in 2013/14; £9,175,259m in 2014/15 and £9,345,964m in 2015/16 and 8,453,501 over this last year.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
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 speed of the delivery of superfast broadband to urban areas and progress in resolving black spots of coverage.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Superfast Broadband Programme focuses on providing coverage to ‘white areas’ as defined by State aid, where there is currently no superfast availability. ‘Grey areas’ have coverage of one provider and ‘black areas’ have coverage of more than one provider.
Superfast coverage in urban areas continues to improve with investment predominantly made by the commercial sector. In Ofcom’s report in June 2014 the proportion of UK urban premises able to receive NGA broadband services was 85%.
Ofcom’s report on Fixed-line broadband is available at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/broadband-speeds/broadband-speeds-may2014/
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
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 potential merits of banning the use of automated telephone dialling technology in order to prevent nuisance calls.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
A call being made by an automated dialler is not automatically a nuisance call, providing the organisation complies with the relevant legislation, such as the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) that specifically relates to sales and marketing calls.
A ban on the use of automated telephone dialling technology has therefore not been considered necessary by Government.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
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 level of complexity of the system for people complaining about nuisance calls; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of consolidating that system under one body.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Tackling nuisance calls is a priority for the Department. We continue to improve signposting information and advice for people wanting to make a complaint. This is mirrored across both regulators websites:
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/phone/tackling-nuisance-calls-and-messages http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/marketing/calls.
Earlier this year, we published our Nuisance Calls Action Plan on 30th March 2014 to enforce existing regulations effectively. Our achievements to date and the work that is currently underway can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nuisance-calls-consultation.
Additionally, on 25 October 2014, we published our consultation that proposes to lower or remove the legal threshold for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to take action against offending organisations. By lowering or removing the legal threshold, the ICO will be able to issue more monetary penalties to organisations in breach of the regulations. The ICO also continues to work collaboratively with Ofcom as evidenced by their joint Action plan, last updated on 3 March 2014: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/silent-calls/joint-action-plan