Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
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 streaming services on adopting the British Board of Film Classification's age and content classifications.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom, the independent regulator, has a new duty introduced through the Media Act 2024 to assess audience protection measures used by video-on-demand (VoD) services, such as age ratings, to ensure they are adequate to protect audiences from harm. The Government will in due course be designating mainstream VoD services, bringing them under enhanced regulation by Ofcom. Ofcom will then consult on a new Standards Code for these services, similar to the Broadcasting Code. This could include the use of age ratings, if Ofcom considers it appropriate.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
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 streaming services on effective audience protection measures and age classifications.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom, the independent regulator, has a new duty introduced through the Media Act 2024 to assess audience protection measures used by video-on-demand (VoD) services, such as age ratings, to ensure they are adequate to protect audiences from harm. The Government will in due course be designating mainstream VoD services, bringing them under enhanced regulation by Ofcom. Ofcom will then consult on a new Standards Code for these services, similar to the Broadcasting Code. This could include the use of age ratings, if Ofcom considers it appropriate.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with FIFA on the pricing of participating member association's tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government understands the strong interest in ticket pricing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the impact it has on fans.
FIFA is an independent international body with its own governance structures. Ticket pricing is a commercial decision determined solely by the World Cup organisers, which are FIFA and the Host Nations (Canada, Mexico, and the United States).
Representations regarding the interests of fans fall to the respective football associations. The Football Association (FA), Scottish Football Association (SFA), Football Association of Wales (FAW), and Irish Football Association (IFA) are the recognised home nation representatives within the international football structure, and are the appropriate bodies to raise such matters with FIFA.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the potential savings from the introduction of the £25,000 annual cap on grants under the Listed Places of Worship Scheme.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In January this government announced that we would extend the Listed Places of Worship Scheme for one year with an overall budget of £23 million, coming into effect from April 2025. Previous to that the budget for the scheme was up to £42 million, with an average spend of £29 million per year between 2017 and 2024. However, to ensure the £23 million budget remains affordable, claims are now capped at £25,000 per place of worship.
This means there is a saving of approximately £6m per year.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
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 Church Commissioners on extending the spending cap on the Listed Places of Worship scheme after 2026.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The future of the grant scheme funding after March 2026 will be considered as we work through the results of the Spending Review and Departmental business planning process.
The Department has had various meetings with representatives of the Church and other stakeholders on the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme. In June 2025, the Heritage Minister met church leaders including Marsha de Cordova MP, who is the Second Church Estates Commissioner.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
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 potential impact of the introduction of an annual cap on grants to individual places of worship under the Listed Places of Worship Scheme on those places of worship.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS Ministers received advice on changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, including consideration of the potential impact on introducing an annual cap of £25,000 per place of worship for the 2025/26 financial year.
The changes to the scheme were necessary given the level of fiscal challenges we inherited and the pressures on other parts of the heritage and cultural sectors. Based on the Department’s analysis of previous data, 94% of applications will be unaffected by the change, as most claims are under £5,000.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of gambling legislation in protecting young people from gambling-related harm.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are committed to implementing gambling white paper legislative measures and to evaluating these measures effectively. As part of this, we introduced a £2 online slots stake limit for 18-24 year olds in May this year, a targeted-harm reduction measure for a high risk product. We have committed to review these measures within five years, or earlier if there is evidence to do so.
We have also introduced a statutory gambling levy. 30% of levy funding will be allocated to prevention activity, including education and early intervention to help protect young people from gambling-related harm.
We are also assessing white paper measures through an ongoing evaluation, and will publish the final report on the impact of these measures in due course. In parallel we will continue to monitor the best available evidence to inform how we protect young people from gambling harm amongst children and young people.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is taking steps to support independent cinemas.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are supporting cinemas through permanently lower business rates multipliers for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure premises with rateable values under £500,000 from 2026/27.
Our Plan for Neighbourhoods will provide £1.5 billion to 75 towns across the UK over ten years. Places will be able to use their £20 million to enrich their cultural and media offering and could, amongst other opportunities, refurbish, restore, or develop cultural and heritage assets, including local cinemas.
The British Film Institute (BFI), a DCMS Arms Length Body, also provides support to the cinema sector. The BFI’s Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) is a collaboration of eight film hubs, managed by leading film organisations and venues around the UK. Film hubs are centres of expertise and support that connect cinemas, festivals and creative practitioners including using lottery funding to support the independent cinema exhibition sector by enhancing skills and sharing best practice.
Further information about film hubs is available at: https://www.bfi.org.uk/get-funding-support/bring-film-wider-audience/bfi-film-audience-network
Furthermore, we are actively considering the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's recommendation to deliver capital infrastructure funding for independent cinemas and what we can do to further recognise the importance of cinemas within their local area.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the UK video games industry remains a source of economic growth in the context of US tariffs.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to the long term success of our world class games sector, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy.
£5.5 million in funding for the UK Games Fund (UKGF) has been announced for 2025/26, which will provide grants to early-stage studios across the UK to develop prototypes and new intellectual property, and run development programmes for new graduates.
Video games companies can also access the International Business Development strand of the UK Global Screen Fund, which provides financial support for business strategies that drive international growth and IP development for companies working in film, TV (animation, drama and documentary) and interactive narrative gaming.
Additionally, video games companies benefit from the Video Games Expenditure Credit, and access support from the Create Growth Programme.
We are working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England on skills policy to address skills shortages in the creative industries, including the games sector. This includes DfE’s work on growth and skills levy reform. We will set out more detail as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, to be published in coming months.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has considered reintroducing a skills investment fund dedicated to the games industry to help tackle skills shortages.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to the long term success of our world class games sector, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy.
£5.5 million in funding for the UK Games Fund (UKGF) has been announced for 2025/26, which will provide grants to early-stage studios across the UK to develop prototypes and new intellectual property, and run development programmes for new graduates.
Video games companies can also access the International Business Development strand of the UK Global Screen Fund, which provides financial support for business strategies that drive international growth and IP development for companies working in film, TV (animation, drama and documentary) and interactive narrative gaming.
Additionally, video games companies benefit from the Video Games Expenditure Credit, and access support from the Create Growth Programme.
We are working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England on skills policy to address skills shortages in the creative industries, including the games sector. This includes DfE’s work on growth and skills levy reform. We will set out more detail as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, to be published in coming months.