Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage women and girls to participate in sports when they have a fear of judgement.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I am absolutely committed to supporting women's sport at every opportunity including pushing for greater participation. Sport England’s latest Active Lives data, published in April last year, shows that men (63%) are still more likely to be active than women (60%).
There are some fantastic initiatives that exist to encourage women to take up sport and physical activity, for example Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign, which has already inspired millions of women and girls to get active regardless of shape, size and ability. This Girl Can has also been working with ukactive and the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) to provide resources and training to help leisure and fitness facilities ensure their spaces are safe and inclusive for all women.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to financially support advisory charities, in the context of the rising cost of living.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
With government support, charities from across the Civil Society sector have shown significant resilience over the past two years, and will again be crucial in supporting communities and households through the winter.
We are providing support to all charities, public sector organisations and businesses with their energy costs this winter by offering an energy price guarantee for six months through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This scheme will benefit charities and community groups across the country, including those which provide advisory services.
My Department will keep engaging constructively with the civil society sector and across government to monitor the impact of levels of demand, and ensure DCMS is engaged on policy which impacts charities and crisis support services.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with the Home Secretary on the effect of rules for recruiting and hiring workers from the EU on the roll out of superfast broadband.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has regular discussions with the Home Secretary about the Points-Based Immigration System to ensure that our Skilled Worker route provides generous catering for the telecommunications sector to attract the workers it needs, provided that skills, salary and English language requirements are met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 action taken by large technology companies to ban third party companies from using certain advertising platforms.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to promoting competition in digital markets. A draft Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill was announced as part of the Queen’s Speech 2022. This draft legislation will set out new rules for digital markets, which will rebalance power between major tech firms and the businesses and consumers that rely on their services such as advertisers. We will publish the draft bill as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 help increase access to ultrafast full fibre broadband in Birmingham.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Thanks to the government's work to promote competition and investment and bust barriers in the UK telecoms market, over 93% premises in Birmingham can now access the fastest gigabit-capable networks.
The commercial rollout is continuing at record pace, and for those premises where private sector deployment is not viable without subsidy, our £5bn Project Gigabit will contribute to nationwide coverage, with Birmingham and the Black Country set to benefit in phase 3 of the programme.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many homes have access to ultrafast full fibre broadband in Birmingham.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Thanks to the government's work to promote competition and investment and bust barriers in the UK telecoms market, over 93% premises in Birmingham can now access the fastest gigabit-capable networks.
The commercial rollout is continuing at record pace, and for those premises where private sector deployment is not viable without subsidy, our £5bn Project Gigabit will contribute to nationwide coverage, with Birmingham and the Black Country set to benefit in phase 3 of the programme.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 adequacy of household's access to ultrafast full fibre broadband in Birmingham.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Thanks to the government's work to promote competition and investment and bust barriers in the UK telecoms market, over 93% premises in Birmingham can now access the fastest gigabit-capable networks.
The commercial rollout is continuing at record pace, and for those premises where private sector deployment is not viable without subsidy, our £5bn Project Gigabit will contribute to nationwide coverage, with Birmingham and the Black Country set to benefit in phase 3 of the programme.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 ability of Channel 4 to compete with Netflix and Amazon following the privatisation of that station.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The arrival in the UK of global media and streaming groups means that Channel 4, as with other public service broadcasters (PSBs), faces growing competition for audiences, programmes and talent from new global groups with greater spending power. Netflix, for example, spent £779m on UK original productions in 2020, over two times more than Channel 4.
Channel 4 and these global streamers are necessarily different, but the markets Channel 4 operates within have been radically changed by the arrival of such competitors, and Channel 4 will need different tools to succeed in the future.
Under its current ownership model, Channel 4 has limited ability to borrow money or raise private sector capital by issuing shares. The current setup also effectively stops Channel 4 from making its own content. This means Channel 4 is heavily reliant on advertising revenues which are cyclical and also moving to digital platforms - linear TV ad revenues fell 31% from 2015 to 2020.
Private ownership could allow Channel 4 to diversify its revenue through greater access to capital and an ability to make and own content. This would drive investment at greater pace into content and technology, allowing it to compete more effectively with the likes of Netflix and Amazon without losing what makes Channel 4 so distinctive. The required investment to do this at scale and pace is best provided under private ownership, rather than leaving taxpayers exposed to the associated risk under public ownership.
The Government will set out the future of Channel 4 in a White Paper shortly.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 potential impact of the privatisation of Channel 4 on his policies on levelling up in the context of that station’s employment scheme for disadvantaged people living outside London and the relocation of its headquarters to Leeds.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government values Channel 4’s work in developing skills and talent pipelines, particularly in the nations and regions, through schemes like 4Skills. The Government would expect any new owner to have a business interest in continuing to support the development of talent and skills across the UK creative industries.
The Government will set out the future plan for Channel 4 in a White Paper shortly.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps ensure that Channel 4 will commit to implementing programmes similar to the 4Skills scheme once that station has been privatised.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government values Channel 4’s work in developing skills and talent pipelines, particularly in the nations and regions, through schemes like 4Skills. The Government would expect any new owner to have a business interest in continuing to support the development of talent and skills across the UK creative industries.
The Government will set out the future plan for Channel 4 in a White Paper shortly.