Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Budget 2017, how much of the £35 million allocated to establishing trials to provide mobile connectivity to passengers on the Trans-Pennine rail route has been spent.
Answered by Margot James
The Government’s Trans-Pennine Initiative (TPI) has three objectives: to trial delivery of high capacity fibre using the rail corridor, to trial provision of high speed connectivity to the train and to create a 5G testbed at Network Rail’s ‘Rail Innovation Development Centre’ (RIDC).
At Budget 2017, the Government allocated £35 million to projects that will support improvement to rail passenger connectivity, including the TPI. We are in the process of concluding a review of the responses to the Call for Information on the design phase of the project, after which we will determine the next steps including expenditure.
DCMS launched a Call for Information on the mobile connectivity aspects of the proposal, which closed in the summer of 2018. We are in the process of concluding our review of the responses received, after which we will determine the next steps.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on establishing trials to provide mobile connectivity to passengers on the Trans-Pennine rail route as set out in Budget 2017.
Answered by Margot James
The Government’s Trans-Pennine Initiative (TPI) has three objectives: to trial delivery of high capacity fibre using the rail corridor, to trial provision of high speed connectivity to the train and to create a 5G testbed at Network Rail’s ‘Rail Innovation Development Centre’ (RIDC).
At Budget 2017, the Government allocated £35 million to projects that will support improvement to rail passenger connectivity, including the TPI. We are in the process of concluding a review of the responses to the Call for Information on the design phase of the project, after which we will determine the next steps including expenditure.
DCMS launched a Call for Information on the mobile connectivity aspects of the proposal, which closed in the summer of 2018. We are in the process of concluding our review of the responses received, after which we will determine the next steps.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to improve the levels of mobile connectivity available to passengers along the rail corridor.
Answered by Margot James
Following a Call for Evidence in December 2017, DCMS is considering how best to improve the levels of mobile connectivity along key rail corridors. In 2018, Ofcom provided further advice to government on improving rail passenger access to data services. The report can be found at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/123657/Rail-connectivity-advice-DCMS.pdf Ofcom are also collecting data on the signal strength available to rail passengers. We expect a report to be published this calendar year.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support (a) grassroots football and (b) other sports in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) Gateshead and (iiii) the North East.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Government, through Sport England, is investing over a billion pounds over the next four years to support grassroots sport. The Football Foundation is an organisation investing £60m each year into improving the country's grassroots football and sports infrastructure with money provided by its funding partners: the Premier League, The FA and the Government (via Sport England).
Total grassroots football investment (Sport England and Football Foundation) for the North East is over £23m since 2010.
A full breakdown of figures for other grassroots sports funded by Sport England are available on their website: www.sportengland.org.
UK Sport, which receives funding from the UK government and the National Lottery, prepares athletes for Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK, and is investing up to £345m to fund at least 38 sports across the current 4-year Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic funding cycle. UK Sport has also invested over £32m into Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports in the current PyeongChang 2018 funding cycle.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to amend its policy on safe standing; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
This Government believe that all-seater stadia are currently the best means to ensure the safety and security of fans at designated football matches in England and Wales, but we continue to work closely with the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and football authorities to consider relevant advances in technology and data.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support (a) grassroots football and (b) other sports in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the North East and (iv) the UK.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Sport England, government's arms length body, is spending over a billion pounds over the next four years to support grassroots sport. The Football Foundation is an organisation investing £60m each year into improving the country's grassroots football and sports infrastructure with money provided by its funding partners: the Premier League, The FA and the Government (via Sport England)
Total grassroots football investment (Sport England and Football Foundation) for the North East is over £22m since 2010 and a full breakdown of figures for other grassroots sports funded by Sport England are available on their website, www.sportengland.org.
Responsibility for grassroots sport is devolved and each country has a Home Nation Sports Council, sportscotland, Sport Wales and Sport Northern Ireland in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.
UK Sport, which receives funding from the UK government and the National Lottery, prepares athletes for Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK, and is investing up to £345m to fund at least 38 sports across the current 4-year Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic funding cycle. UK Sport has also invested over £32m into Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports in the current PyeongChang 2018 funding cycle.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 4.83 of the Autumn Budget 2017, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating some of that funding for cultural projects to support regeneration and local growth in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by John Glen
We recognise the powerful role that culture plays in regeneration and local growth, and we are committed to ensuring these benefits are spread across the country. The Great Exhibition of the North will be the largest event in England in 2018 and a game-changing moment for the North of England. Further announcements on how the funding announced at Budget will be invested will follow in due course.