Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 (a) tennis, (b) golf and (c) other outdoor single sports can resume safely after the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we made sure that people could exercise at least once a day even during the height of the first period of enhanced national restrictions and why we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so.
Nobody wanted to be in the position of having to introduce further National Restrictions. However as the Prime Minister said, with the virus spreading faster than expected we cannot allow our health system to be overwhelmed. The National Restrictions are designed to get the R rate under control through limiting social contact and reducing transmissions. We have not introduced further exemptions because when you unpick at one activity the effectiveness of the whole package is compromised.
However, as the Prime Minister said on 23 November national restrictions will end on Wednesday 2 December and gyms and the wider leisure sector including golf courses and tennis clubs can reopen across all tiers.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 Secretary of State for Transport on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's proposals for older passenger boats on the National Historic Ships Register that are unable to comply with new requirements set out in the review of standards for older passenger ships.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has not met with the Secretary of State for Transport to discuss this matter. However, National Historic Ships UK (NHS-UK), an independent advisory body reporting to DCMS, responded to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's 2019 consultations on behalf of the sector, and discussed the potential impacts of the new requirements on vessels on the National Historic Ships Register, which it maintains. NHS-UK praised the Marine and Coastguard Agency’s inclusive approach.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 Secretary of State for Transport on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’ proposals for older passenger boats and the effect of those proposals on (a) tourism, (b) visitors to National Historic Palaces and (c) vessels no longer being on the National Historic Ships Register; and if will she make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has not met with Ministers or officials from the Department for Transport to discuss the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposals for older passenger boats.
The Department for Transport held an initial public consultation which ran from 6 November 2018 to 29 January 2019 with a second consultation running from 29th May 2019 to 10 July 2019, which included impact assessments and took comments from a range of stakeholders. Officials at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency are happy to discuss impacts with any interested parties and consider relevant evidence.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with regional tourism bodies on the potential effect the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposals for older passenger boats will have on the UK’s (a) fleet of passenger boats and (b) tourism industry.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has not had any discussions with regional tourism bodies on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposals for older passenger boats.
The Department for Transport held an initial public consultation which ran from 6 November 2018 to 29 January 2019 with a second consultation running from 29th May 2019 to 10 July 2019, which included impact assessments and took comments from a range of stakeholders. Officials at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency are happy to discuss impacts with any interested parties and consider relevant evidence.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met with representatives of National Historic Ships UK on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposals for older UK passenger boats.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Department officials continue to have regular meetings with staff from the National Historic Ships UK (NHS-UK) to discuss such matters. NHS-UK, as an arms-length body, has independence when issuing advice, whether that be to the sector, government departments or government bodies such as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 tackle internet trolls uploading (a) false and (b) malicious business reviews.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is making important progress in tackling online safety issues through the Digital Charter, which is guided by a number of principles and whose core purpose is to make the Internet work for everyone - for citizens, businesses and society as a whole.
As part of its work to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, the Government published the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper in October 2017 and published its consultation response in May this year.
The consultation response confirmed that the Government will publish a White Paper as a precursor to bringing forward online safety legislation that will cover the full range of online harms.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 effect of relocation of Ofcom departments from London to other areas of the country on Ofcom's ability to maintain its service standards.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The location of Ofcom departments and its offices is a matter for Ofcom, who are independent from Government.