Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the £1.57 billion cultural support package he plans to allocate to each region of England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
On 5 July, DCMS announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of sectors, including performing arts and theatres, museums and galleries, heritage sites, live music venues and independent cinema.
We want this package, which will be delivered through Arts Council England, Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the British Film Institute, to support organisations across the cultural, heritage and creative sectors. We will publish further detailed guidance - including eligibility and application processes - as soon as possible in July.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on what date he plans to announce the delivery partners for the £1.57 billion cultural support package.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
On 5 July, DCMS announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of sectors, including performing arts and theatres, museums and galleries, heritage sites, live music venues and independent cinema.
We want this package, which will be delivered through Arts Council England, Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the British Film Institute, to support organisations across the cultural, heritage and creative sectors. We will publish further detailed guidance - including eligibility and application processes - as soon as possible in July.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the submission that Arts Council England made to his Department requesting support for the cultural industries.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In line with its hugely important role in supporting and developing England’s arts and culture, DCMS has worked closely with Arts Council England during the Covid-19 crisis to deliver tailored support packages at speed, and to develop the major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations.
DCMS will continue to work closely with the Arts Council as the landscape develops, but has no plans to publish any specific submissions.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
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 providing theatres and live performance venues with a date before which they will not be able to reopen.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We appreciate that this is an incredibly challenging time and that there are many cultural organisations and professionals who are currently facing difficult and uncertain circumstances. We are very alert to this issue and it is a priority of my department to work with the arts and cultural sectors to address the challenges of reopening, as and when it will be possible to do so.
From the information we have been receiving from various organisations and professionals, we know that the picture is nuanced across the country, with different organisations facing different challenges when it comes to the question of reopening.
The Secretary of State recently revealed a five stage roadmap that the government will work through to get the performing arts sectors back up and running as soon as possible:
Stage One - Rehearsal and training (no audiences)
Stage Two - Performances for broadcast and recording purposes
Stage Three - Performances outdoors with an audience and pilots for indoor performances with a limited socially-distanced audience
Stage Four - Performances allowed indoors and outdoors (but with a limited socially-distanced audience indoors)
Stage Five - Performances allowed indoors / outdoors (with a fuller audience indoors)
From the 11th July, we will move to Stage Three. This means that performances outdoors with a socially distanced audience can take place in line with this guidance. DCMS will work with sector representative bodies to select a number of pilots for indoor performances with a socially distanced audience.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish in full the findings of his Department's Coronavirus Impact Business Survey.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The purpose of the DCMS Coronavirus Business Survey is to assess the impact of Covid 19 on DCMS sectors and the extent to which they have accessed government support packages. DCMS has published selected headline findings, and we will publish the detailed results in due course.
The survey was launched on 23rd April 2020 and closed on 22nd May 2020. The survey was run simultaneously through DCMS stakeholder engagement channels and via a YouGov panel. A total of 3,936 responses were received from DCMS stakeholder engagement channels (2,369) and via YouGov (1,567).
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of participants of the Cultural Renewal Taskforce's working groups are from a (a) BAME, (b) disability and (c) other under-represented background.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Cultural Renewal Taskforce, and the Working Groups which support it, include a wide range of relevant organisations and membership bodies to represent relevant sectors. We have strived to ensure they are made up of a diverse variety of different organisations that vary not only by size and scale, but which also represent a broad range of views and backgrounds from across the country.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what tasks the Cultural Renewal Taskforce is currently undertaking.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Cultural Renewal Taskforce has been working to support the renewal of DCMS sectors and to help develop new COVID-19 secure guidelines for the reopening of public places and businesses in these sectors, where and when it is safe to do so. The focus of the Taskforce’s work is on:
ensuring that COVID-19 secure guidelines are developed in line with the phasing ambitions and public health directions, building on the existing guidance and providing intelligence and sector-specific expert input;
developing creative solutions, to drive the return of sectors whilst maintaining consistency with the medical advice;
agreeing and ensuring alignment of relevant sectoral guidance; and
providing key sector stakeholders with a forum to support government work on cultural renewal.
The Cultural Renewal Taskforce has met seven times between 22 May and 1 July, and will continue to meet over the summer to support the progress towards the reopening and recovery of DCMS sectors.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to provide further information on his Department's proposed sector deal for the arts in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We recognise that these are incredibly challenging times for arts and culture organisations, and the Government will continue to support the sector through the unprecedented financial measures we have announced. DCMS has worked closely with its arm’s-length bodies to deliver tailored support packages at speed, including the £160m Emergency Funding Package announced by Arts Council England, made possible by Government funding.
Alongside this, DCMS continues to engage with the sector extensively to best understand the challenges faced. We are working closely with the Arts Council to consider the additional support that may be needed to support the long-term recovery of the sector.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
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 extent to which his Department's plans for responding to the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the arts align with the Government's so-called levelling up agenda.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We recognise that these are incredibly challenging times for arts and culture organisations, and the Government will continue to support the sector through the unprecedented financial measures we have announced. DCMS has worked closely with its arm’s-length bodies to deliver tailored support packages at speed, including the £160m Emergency Funding Package announced by Arts Council England, made possible by Government funding.
Alongside this, DCMS continues to engage with the sector extensively to best understand the challenges faced. We are working closely with the Arts Council to consider the additional support that may be needed to support the long-term recovery of the sector.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Government guidance on working safely during coronavirus, published on 24 June, and earlier guidance on working safely in homes published on 11 May; whether these guidelines apply to private music teachers; and whether private music teachers can resume face-to-face teaching in their homes provided they adhere to those guidelines.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Education (DfE) has published guidance for providers of community activities, holiday and after-school clubs as well as other out-of-school provision for children over the age of five, which sets out the protective measures that need to be in place to ensure that such settings can open as safely as possible, this guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
Further more detailed DfE guidance on music will be published shortly.
The government has also published specific guidance for people working out of the home, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.