Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
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 following the action taken by the Advertising Standards Authority against misleading presentation of pricing information on the websites of secondary ticket operators.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the existing ticketing provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, are in the process of introducing a new criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets than that allowed, and support the work of the Competition and Markets Authority and National Trading Standards in enforcing the law in this area. We recognise, however, that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken in March by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, and the assurances from these platforms that they would make changes to their websites to comply with this ruling. We hope this will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has plans to increase the funding for basketball at grassroots level across the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Sport England has invested over £31 million in grassroots basketball since 2009, and is investing £5,140,000 in Basketball England across the 2017-21 period.
Sport England makes funding for grassroots sport available through a series of investment programmes, details of which are set out on its website, and which are open for individual organisations to apply for. It has also recently launched a new grant finding service on a one year trial to help organisations access the right type of funding opportunities that are appropriate to them: http://www.idoxopen4community.co.uk/sportengland/
Sport England is the arms length body of government that supports and invests in grassroots sport and physical activity in England. Support for grassroots sport and physical activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the respective Home Nations Sports Councils.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has any powers to intervene over the removal of Channel 4 HD services from the Freesat satellite television network.
Answered by Margot James
The Secretary of State does not have any statutory powers to intervene in the removal of Channel 4 HD from the Freesat satellite television network. The High Definition version of Channel 4 is not a public service channel. Therefore, Channel 4 Corporation may provide Channel 4 HD to platforms on a commercial basis.