Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Department is taking to support amateur boxing.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Supporting grassroots sport is a key Government priority and we are committed to ensuring everyone has the opportunity to be able to play sport and be active. Our new strategy ‘Get Active’ sets out our unapologetic ambition to build a more active nation, with a target to get 3.5 million more people classed as ‘active’ by 2030.
We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which receives £323m in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. Since 2020, Sport England has provided over £11.9m of investment into projects which facilitate participation in boxing. This includes £6.3m of system partner funding which has been provided to England Boxing to grow and develop boxing across the country between 2022 and 2027. England boxing has a team of club support officers based around the country who provide guidance to grassroots clubs looking to secure funding for new projects.
In addition to this UKSport have invested just over £12m in Team GB amateur boxers during the Paris investment Cycle.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish guidance for owners of XL Bully dogs who were unable to register their dogs by the deadline.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Applications for a Certificate of Exemption to keep an XL Bully dog opened on the 14 November and closed at midday on 31 January. This date was set out in legislation and gave owners over two months to apply. It is now against the law to keep an XL Bully dog without a valid Certificate of Exemption, and new exemptions can only be authorised by a court order. If owners think they have an XL Bully dog and do not have a Certificate of Exemption, we advise that they should contact their local police force. We have published this guidance on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department is providing to people who were unable to register their XL Bully dogs before the deadline on how to (a) remain compliant with the law and (b) ensure that their dog is not at risk of being destroyed.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Applications for a Certificate of Exemption to keep an XL Bully dog opened on 14 November and closed at midday on 31 January. This date was set out in legislation and gave owners over two months to apply. It is now against the law to keep an XL Bully dog without a valid Certificate of Exemption, and new exemptions can only be authorised by a court order. If owners think they have an XL Bully dog and do not have a Certificate of Exemption, we advise that they should contact their local police force.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department is providing to XL bully dog owners who were unable to neuter their dog before the deadline.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Owners who applied for a Certificate of Exemption by 31 January 2024 must provide evidence of neutering to Defra by the relevant deadlines to ensure that their certificate remains valid. We provided extended neutering deadlines so that owners did not need to wait to have their dog neutered before applying for a Certificate of Exemption. Dogs that were older than one year old on 31 January 2024, must be neutered and evidence received by 30 June 2024. Dogs that were younger than one year old on 31 January 2024 must be neutered and evidence received by 31 December 2024. We recommend that owners arrange for their dogs to be neutered as soon as possible to meet these deadlines.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age, published on 27 April 2023 and her article in the Racing Post, published on 2 November 2023, what steps she is taking to help ensure that the proposed financial risk checks are frictionless for consumers.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government recognises that, while millions of people gamble online without experiencing problems, for some it becomes an addiction with serious consequences. The Gambling White Paper, published in April this year, outlines a balanced and proportionate package of measures in response - one of which is a new regime of frictionless financial risk checks.
As stated in our recent response to the e-petition concerning the implementation of financial risk checks, we are clear that the checks should not overregulate the gambling sector, should not unduly disrupt the millions of people who gamble without suffering harm, and should not cause unnecessary damage to sectors which rely on betting, in particular horse racing. These will be implemented to protect those at the greatest risk of gambling harm and to stop potentially devastating and life-changing financial losses. These checks will be based on data sharing, and we will not roll them out until we are certain they are frictionless.
We have held a number of roundtables with representatives of industry, horse racing, and the Gambling Commission to discuss how we can work together to ensure that these checks will be frictionless. We have also stressed that the status quo, a host of industry-run checks, are often inconsistent, ad hoc and can be unnecessarily onerous, with customers having to manually provide reams of personal data to navigate a maze of different tick-boxes. We have urged the Gambling Commission and industry to work together to mitigate the impact of these checks while we develop a new, frictionless system.
We and the Gambling Commission have also been working closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office, credit reference agencies, and UK Finance to ensure new frictionless checks can be implemented in an effective but proportionate way. We are also exploring the role of pilots or phased implementation to ensure the checks are effective and work as intended.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has held with the(a) the United Nations, (b) Israeli government and (c) Palestinian authority on steps to improve the safety of (i) journalists and (ii) other media professionals covering the conflict in Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We recognise the valuable work of journalists operating on the ground in Gaza, providing important coverage of the conflict in incredibly challenging circumstances. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have both met the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and have stressed to him that Israel must protect all civilians as far as possible and abide by International Humanitarian Law; under International Humanitarian Law, journalists covering conflicts should be afforded protection. We continue to press both at the UN and directly with Israel for unhindered humanitarian access and substantive humanitarian pauses, to ensure the conditions are safe for humanitarian organisations to deliver aid to those in need and give respite to civilians.
The UK also supported the recent Media Freedom Coalition statement expressing concern over the repercussions for the safety of journalists and access to information caused by the serious escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas. It called on all parties to the conflict to comply with international law and guarantee the protection of journalists and media workers covering the conflict.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what consultations her Department undertook with children and young people to (a) inform and (b) prepare the policy paper entitled Get Active: a strategy for the future of sport and physical activity.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Youth Voice Advisory Group was set up to encourage young people to participate and engage with national policy. They were consulted to help inform and shape the focus of the ‘Get Active’ strategy. We intend to continue to engage with young people as we implement measures in Get Active, as we have done at a recent roundtable with the Youth Sport Trust and at the most recent meeting of the National Physical Activity Taskforce.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department’s guidance entitled Levelling Up Fund Round 3: explanatory and methodology note on the decision-making process, published on 20 November 2023, whether it is his Department which will allocate the £100 million which has been set aside for culture projects; and what is his planned timetable for the allocation of this funding.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet Office colleagues on issuing guidance to Ministers on upholding the operational independence of (a) the BBC and (b) Ofcom in respect of the conflict in Gaza.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC is editorially and operationally independent and decisions around its editorial policies and guidelines are therefore a matter for the BBC.
The BBC has a duty to provide accurate and impartial news and information. That is particularly important when it comes to coverage of highly sensitive events. The BBC’s accuracy and impartiality is critical to viewer trust. And as the external independent regulator of the BBC, Ofcom is responsible for ensuring BBC coverage is duly impartial and accurate under the Broadcasting Code and BBC Charter.
The events in Israel since 7 October are terrorist acts committed by a terrorist organisation, proscribed in the United Kingdom since 2021 and designated as such by many other governments and international organisations.
However, calling these acts what they are, and accurately labelling the perpetrators, helps audiences to understand what has happened, is happening and its context.
That is why the Secretary of State has communicated with the BBC, and with the public, her disappointment that the BBC has refused to describe Hamas as terrorists, or the atrocities it has carried out as terrorism. The Secretary of State made that point to the BBC on multiple occasions since the terrorist attacks on 7 October.
Ofcom has been clear that responsibility lies with the BBC to decide the vocabulary it uses to describe unfolding events. The Broadcasting Code does not prevent broadcasters referring to terrorist organisations, nor does it prevent them referring to Hamas as terrorists.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent conversations her Department has had with platforms on the technological feasibility of offering regional prominence.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Department engages regularly with stakeholders – including TV platforms – on all aspects of the Media Bill, including matters relating to prominence.
In particular, the Bill was published in draft on 29 March 2023 and the Department subsequently engaged with key stakeholders to ensure that it would deliver the desired outcomes for industry and audiences. The Bill also underwent pre-legislative scrutiny conducted by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
Following this engagement, we are confident that the measures set out in the Bill, including in relation to regional prominence, are technologically feasible.