Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the impact of energy price increases on the provision of public swimming pools.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools and that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in swimming facilities.
We recognise the impact rising energy prices will have on businesses of all sizes. Ofgem and the government are in regular contact with business groups and suppliers to understand the challenges they face and explore ways to protect consumers and businesses.
Sport England has invested £25,027,478 in swimming and diving projects since January 2017, which includes £15,724,500 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic, with 1,176 separate pools supported across 701 sites. There are an estimated 14 swimming pools in Portsmouth.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy in provision of public swimming facilities in Portsmouth.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools and that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in swimming facilities.
We recognise the impact rising energy prices will have on businesses of all sizes. Ofgem and the government are in regular contact with business groups and suppliers to understand the challenges they face and explore ways to protect consumers and businesses.
Sport England has invested £25,027,478 in swimming and diving projects since January 2017, which includes £15,724,500 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic, with 1,176 separate pools supported across 701 sites. There are an estimated 14 swimming pools in Portsmouth.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making provision of swimming pools a statutory requirement for local authorities.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools and that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in swimming facilities.
The Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £54.1 billion in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22. The majority of this funding is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities, such as leisure and cultural services. Swimming and leisure services are not currently statutory requirements for local authorities, however we continue to work with partners to consider whether this should continue to be the case.
Sport England has invested £25,027,478 in swimming and diving projects since January 2017, which includes £15,724,500 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic, with 1,176 separate pools supported across 701 sites.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the findings of the November 2021 survey of UK swim schools undertaken by the Swimming Teachers’ Association; and what steps she plans to take to increase (a) national swimming teacher provision and (b) reduce waiting lists for swimming lessons at swim schools.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools. Swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy as well as being a crucial life skill in terms of water safety.
The Government has provided a range of support for swimming pools during the pandemic. The £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country.
Sport England continues to invest in access to swimming, awarding £9,112,544 in grassroots swimming and diving since 2019, including £6,230,502 directly to Swim England. This supports Swim England’s work to develop the swimming workforce, including the Institute of Swimming which delivers training for swimming teachers.
Swim England are running a Recruitment Academy to help tackle the issue of teacher shortages across the sector, offering an end-to-end service which seeks, recruits and trains swimming teachers. There are currently 48 academies in progress with over 200 learners going through the programme.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what measures the Online Safety Bill contains to ensure that legal but harmful online content cannot be accessed through Virtual Private Networks.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Under the Online Safety Bill, tech companies will have to put in place proportionate and effective systems and processes to protect children from harmful content.
Legislation will not require the removal of legal but harmful content accessed by adults. The biggest tech companies will be held to account for the consistent enforcement of their terms and conditions.
The onus will be on companies to ensure that their systems are sufficiently effective. Ofcom will be able to take robust enforcement action against companies that fail to fulfil their duties to keep children safe.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the security of the technology underpinning the proposals for verification for accessing adult content in the Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Age verification technologies are well established and are widely used across a number of sectors, including online gambling. They are proven to be able to verify a user’s age whilst protecting both their privacy and data. This government takes the issue of data privacy and security extremely seriously and that is why safeguards for users’ privacy are included in the Online Safety Bill. Furthermore, the Data Protection Act 2018 sets high standards of data protection and security and includes strong sanctions for malpractice. This will apply to age verification technologies. Both services in-scope of online safety regulation and age verification providers must comply with data protection laws or face enforcement action from the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Many third party age verification solutions provide an anonymised yes/no answer to the question of whether a user is over 18. This can remove the need for a service to process a user’s personal data.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 implementing the recommendations of the Fan led Review of Football Governance; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The final findings and recommendations of the Fan Led Review were published on 24 November 2021. The Government is working at pace to consider the recommendations, including those made on enhancing the existing owners’ and directors’ test, and to determine the most effective way to deliver an independent regulator.
The Secretary of State committed to Parliament on 3 March to bring forward our response as soon as possible. We will issue a formal response in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans she has to implement the (a) fit and proper persons test and (b) all other recommendations of the fan-led review of football published on 24 November 2021.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The final findings and recommendations of the Fan Led Review were published on 24 November 2021. The Government is working at pace to consider the recommendations, including those made on enhancing the existing owners’ and directors’ test, and to determine the most effective way to deliver an independent regulator.
The Secretary of State committed to Parliament on 3 March to bring forward our response as soon as possible. We will issue a formal response in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to increase the number of swimming pools with public access in (a) Portsmouth, (b) the South East and (c) England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools and that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy.
There are an estimated 4291 publicly accessible swimming pools in England, with 855 in the South East and 14 in Portsmouth.
Sport England have awarded £25,753,616 to swimming and diving projects since January 2017, which includes £16,149,002 of funding directly to Swim England. The responsibility of providing access to swimming pools lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in swimming facilities.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she had made of the number of swimming pools with public access in (a) Portsmouth, (b) the South East and (c) England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools and that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy.
There are an estimated 4291 publicly accessible swimming pools in England, with 855 in the South East and 14 in Portsmouth.
Sport England have awarded £25,753,616 to swimming and diving projects since January 2017, which includes £16,149,002 of funding directly to Swim England. The responsibility of providing access to swimming pools lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in swimming facilities.