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 many officials in his Department are working for the Office for Civil Society.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 01/03/2019, 106 officials in the Department are working for the Office for Civil Society.
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 many meetings the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society has had with (a) social enterprises, (b) charities and (c) voluntary sector umbrella bodies since her appointment in November 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I meet regularly with representatives from social enterprises, charities and the voluntary sector. A full list of meetings is published quarterly on:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications
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 many of the eight bids selected by his Department's Innovation in Democracy programme will proceed.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Innovation in Democracy Programme is an important part of the Civil Society Strategy announced last year. The successful pilot locations will be announced in due course.
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, with reference to page 60 of the Government's Civil Society Strategy, published August 2018, what steps his Department has taken to work with Big Society Capital and others to develop new models of community funding.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Civil Society Strategy is long term, setting out our vision for government’s work with and for civil society over the next 10 years and beyond. As we said in the Strategy, we believe there is a need for long-term, sustained relationships between communities and investors, with local funding that meets the specific investment requirements of the community, develops local resilience, and has the ability to attract private capital at scale.
Big Society Capital and Access (The Foundation for Social Investment) are devoting around £35 million funding to initiating this effort and have been working with national and local funders and civil society organisations to prepare for the launch of “Local Access”, a new programme designed to build the resilience of local charities and social enterprises in around 5 local areas, which will be identified over the coming months. The programme will run for up to 10 years and will provide long term support and investment to launch and grow enterprise ideas, with funding largely devolved to local partnerships.
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, whether his Department plans to undertake an inquiry into the Garden Bridge Trust; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Charity Commission have scrutinised the Garden Bridge Trust trustees’ conduct and the management of the charity carefully and continue to monitor the charity’s progress in winding up. The Charity Commission intends to publish a concluding report on the running of the Garden Bridge Trust. This is to set out wider lessons policy makers and others can draw from it.
It is important to note the Charity Commission has a specific role to look at the extent to which trustees are meeting their legal duties and whether charities are complying with charity law. It is not in the regulatory remit of the Commission to examine other issues such as the merits of a project or how it is funded.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure the definition of extremism used by OFCOM is aligned with the definition used by his Department.
Answered by Margot James
As an independent regulatory body, Ofcom’s duties and powers are set out by Parliament in legislation. This does not include a definition of extremism but sets Ofcom a wider duty to protect the public from harmful and offensive material, and directs Ofcom to set content standards, through a code, for television and radio. Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code sets out standards around harmful and offensive broadcast material; incitement of crime, disorder, hatred or abuse; and responsible religious programming.
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, whether he has (a) had discussions with the Charity Commission and (b) received representations on the appropriateness of the Garden Bridge Trust chair meeting the Charity Commission chair in 2013 to seek his advice on how to register the trust as a charity.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have no record of any discussions between DCMS Ministers and the Charity Commission about the Garden Bridge Trust. We also have no record of any representations about the Garden Bridge Trust meeting with the Charity Commission.
As stated in Helen Stephenson’s (Chief Executive, Charity Commission) letter to you in response to PQ 221693, the Commission’s case files show that, prior to registration, two officials at the Charity Commission held a teleconference with the Garden Bridge trustees and their representatives on 12 December 2013 to provide preregistration advice.
It is not unusual for officials at the Commission to provide pre-registration advice where applications to register are for particular high-profile or complex organisations.
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 recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the funding allocated to the Charity Commission.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. For charities to thrive, the sector needs a strong and effective regulator. Last year additional government funding of £5m per year was agreed in recognition of the growing pressures on the Commission’s core regulatory functions, particularly registration and compliance. The Civil Society Strategy has committed to further work with the Commission, in order to ensure it is adequately resourced to meet any future challenges.
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 meetings (a) the chair of the Charity Commission and (b) other staff of the Charity Commission held with the Garden Bridge Trust after its registration as a charity.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Charity Commission. Helen Stephenson CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Charity Commission for England and Wales has responded with the attached letter.
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, with reference to page 41 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to further embed and scale people taking action as a core part of how public services are delivered and explore how the government can best continue to back and scale high impact social value initiatives.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is investing £7.5m in innovative social action projects, including early years interventions, support for savers, and initiatives that help people to volunteer throughout the lifecourse.
We are also supporting local authorities to embed social action in the way they deliver their services. We have reached over 900 commissioners, civil society organisations and councillors across the country through our Enabling Social Action Programme. In February, we announced the ten places who will receive a share of £2.3 million to devise programmes that enable people to take action on the issues they care about.