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Written Question
Public Libraries
Monday 13th September 2021

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what data his Department holds on the number of books no longer required in public library collections that have been made available for sale to the public in each of the last five years.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The government does not hold this information. The review and disposal of bookstock is the responsibility of each library authority and its individual libraries to determine.


Written Question
Playing Fields: Sales
Monday 12th July 2021

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what data his Department holds on the number of local authority football pitches that have been sold in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

This department and Sport England (the lead organisation with responsibility for grassroots sport in England) do not hold information on the number of local authority pitches that have been sold in each of the last 10 years.


Written Question
Youth Services: Finance
Tuesday 13th April 2021

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the £500 million pledged in the 2019 Conservative Party Manifesto has been allocated for youth services.

Answered by Matt Warman

The Youth Investment Fund remains a manifesto commitment for transformative levelling up across the country over the course of the parliament and in the recently completed Spending Review, £30m was committed from the fund as capital investment for 2021-22. This will provide investment in new and refurbished safe spaces for young people, so that they can access youth support workers, and beneficial activities outside of school, including sport and culture. Further details of the timetable for allocation and eligibility criteria will be announced in due course.

DCMS is currently undertaking a review of all its spending on services for young people, including future plans for the Youth Investment Fund, which will support 2021 Spending Review proposals.

Government recognises the significant impact of Covid-19 on young people, and on the youth services that support them. The 2020-21 £16.5m Youth Covid-19 Support Fund was announced to protect the immediate future of grassroots and national youth organisations. The funding is allocated from the government’s unprecedented £750 million package of support, which is already benefiting tens of thousands of frontline charities. More than £88 million of this package has already been provided to organisations working with vulnerable children and young people.


Written Question
5G
Tuesday 13th April 2021

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of new sites required for the provision of telecommunications infrastructure in order for the UK to meet government targets for the rollout of 5G.

Answered by Matt Warman

The government’s ambition is for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027. This will be achieved by a combination of upgrading existing sites and acquiring new sites.

Network deployment plans are a matter for the mobile network operators, but the government is undertaking a number of actions to support this. We have consulted on whether further changes to the Electronic Communications Code are needed to tackle barriers to network deployment, upgrading and sharing. Our consultation closed on 24 March 2021, and we are currently analysing responses. The government is also working to ensure that the planning system continues to support the deployment of mobile infrastructure, and we plan to publish our technical consultation very shortly.

We are confident that through these actions we will achieve our 5G rollout ambitions.


Written Question
Musicians: Visas
Thursday 25th February 2021

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the UK economy of the removal of visa free travel for British musicians within the EU.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The Government recognises the world-leading position of the UK music sector and the rich breadth of musical talent across the UK. According to UK Music’s 2020 report, the sector contributed £5.8bn GVA to the UK economy in 2019 and generated £2.9bn in export revenue.

In negotiations with the EU, the government fought for a good deal for our world-leading creative industries. The UK’s proposal was developed in consultation with our creative sectors, and would have enabled performers, artists and support staff to tour and perform in the EU without needing work-permits. Regrettably, the EU rejected our proposals.

The Government is committed to supporting the sector to maintain its world-leading position, and to help it recover from the impact of the Covid pandemic. We recognise that the new provisions in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) will require the sector to adapt to new requirements and ways of working with the EU now we are no longer a Member State.

Therefore, UK cultural professionals, including musicians, seeking to perform within the EU will be required to check domestic immigration and visitor rules for each Member State in which they intend to perform. We are committed to continuing to help the music sector understand and adapt to these changes. These issues are being looked at as part of the DCMS-led working group on creative and cultural touring, which involves sector representatives and other key government departments, to ensure the sector gets the clarity and support it needs.


Written Question
Video Games: Children
Monday 10th February 2020

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage parents to set up technical controls on their children's gaming devices to control their gaming and online use.

Answered by Nigel Adams

The government continues to work with industry and the age ratings bodies to help consumers learn about parental controls available on devices, including through initiatives such as AskAboutGames and PEGI advice about safe gaming.

We also welcomed the launch in January 2020 of the games industry’s Get Smart About P.L.A.Y. campaign encouraging parents to use parental controls and take an active role in their children’s gaming.


Written Question
Young People
Wednesday 5th February 2020

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2019, to Question 6701, on Young People, for what reason the referenced long-term vision for young people is not the responsibility of the Department for Education and the Minister for Children and Families.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Policy relating to young people is shared between several government departments. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is responsible for out of school activities for young people. DCMS officials are working closely with several other government departments to develop a bold and ambitious youth offer, including the Department for Education.


Written Question
Social Media: Children and Young People
Tuesday 28th January 2020

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the recommendations of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ report, Technology use and the mental health of children and young people, whether it is his Department's policy to give the independent regulator for online safety powers to compel social media companies to share anonymous data for research into the benefits and risks for children and young people.

Answered by Matt Warman

The government is developing world-leading plans to make the UK a safer place to be online. This includes a duty of care on online companies, overseen by an independent regulator with tough enforcement powers, to hold them to account. The regulator will have the power to require transparency reports from companies outlining what they are doing to protect people online. These reports will be published so parents and children can make informed decisions about their internet use.

We will carefully consider the recent report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, including its recommendations relating to access to anonymous data for research.


Written Question
Young People
Monday 27th January 2020

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 3229 on Children and Young People, which Department will be developing the long-term vision for young people; and which Minister will have responsibility for that strategy.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department for Culture Media and Sport is working with colleagues across Government, and with young people, to build an ambitious long-term youth offer. The Secretary of State and Minister for Civil Society are responsible for this.


Written Question
Children and Young People
Tuesday 21st January 2020

Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department plans to develop a cross-government strategy for children and young people.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Last year the government announced its intention to set out a long-term vision for young people and has been working to develop this. Building on this announcement, in September the Chancellor announced a £500m Youth Investment Fund to build 60 new youth centres across the country, refurbish around 360 existing youth facilities, and provide over 100 mobile facilities for harder to reach areas. The funding will also be used to ensure that young people have access to a range of positive activities and qualified youth workers.