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 effect of Tier 2 covid-19 restrictions on (a) choirs, (b) singing groups, (c) acting groups and (d) other amateur creative organisations.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In Medium Local Covid Alert Level areas (Tier 1) it is against the law to gather in groups of more than 6, unless everyone is from the same household and support bubble. In High (Tier 2) and Very High (Tier 3) areas, it is against the law to gather indoors in groups which do not consist only of the same household and support bubble. A number of exemptions apply. For example, some activities - such as those organised for under-18s including education or training supervised activities provided for children, including wraparound care, youth groups and activities - are exempt.
In addition, in a COVID-secure venue or public outdoor place, non-professional performing arts activity, including choirs, orchestras or drama groups can continue to rehearse or perform together where this is planned activity in line with the performing arts guidance and if they can do so in a way that ensures that there is no interaction between separate and distinct groups of no more than 6 (In Medium areas and outdoors) or individual households (in High and Very High areas) at any time (depending on Local Covid Alert Level restrictions). If an amateur group is not able to ensure that no mingling takes place between these sub-groups (depending on Local Covid Alert Level restrictions) - including when arriving at or leaving activity or in any breaks or socialising - then such non-professional activity should not take place. Local Covid Alert Level guidance (Medium, High, Very High) provides details on group size.
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 effect of Tier 3 covid-19 restrictions on (a) choirs, (b) singing groups, (c) acting groups and (d) other amateur creative organisations.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In Medium Local Covid Alert Level areas (Tier 1) it is against the law to gather in groups of more than 6, unless everyone is from the same household and support bubble. In High (Tier 2) and Very High (Tier 3) areas, it is against the law to gather indoors in groups which do not consist only of the same household and support bubble. A number of exemptions apply. For example, some activities - such as those organised for under-18s including education or training supervised activities provided for children, including wraparound care, youth groups and activities - are exempt.
In addition, in a COVID-secure venue or public outdoor place, non-professional performing arts activity, including choirs, orchestras or drama groups can continue to rehearse or perform together where this is planned activity in line with the performing arts guidance and if they can do so in a way that ensures that there is no interaction between separate and distinct groups of no more than 6 (In Medium areas and outdoors) or individual households (in High and Very High areas) at any time (depending on Local Covid Alert Level restrictions). If an amateur group is not able to ensure that no mingling takes place between these sub-groups (depending on Local Covid Alert Level restrictions) - including when arriving at or leaving activity or in any breaks or socialising - then such non-professional activity should not take place. Local Covid Alert Level guidance (Medium, High, Very High) provides details on group size.
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 applicants to the Arts Council England administered Cultural Recovery Fund who applied for less than £250,000 in support will receive detailed explanation for the reasons that their application was unsuccessful.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Each arms length body, in this case Arts Council England, has the delegated authority over allocating grant funding.
Their decision-making processes have been designed to balance limited resource with the urgent need to award funds, and process a very high number of applications, as soon as possible. This means that they do not have the resources to provide tailored feedback to applicants who applied for grants of under £250k. These applications were assessed and considered within area-based panel meetings, with recommendations passed on to a National Investment Panel for final decision.
We know that some applicants will be disappointed with the outcome and both the Arts Council and DCMS will continue to do all we can to support creativity and culture in England. Arts Council have published resources on their website both for organisations and individuals which include alternative sources of support and wellbeing resources.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure homelessness does not increase as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme comes to an end.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government has introduced the Job Support Scheme as part of a wider package to protect incomes and has injected over £9 billion into the welfare system, which will support people with housing costs.
This includes increasing the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that they are set at the 30 th percentile of market rents. £180 million of Discretionary Housing Payments are available for those who require additional support, and local authorities continue to provide their statutory homelessness duties.
Legislation has also been introduced requiring landlords to give tenants 6 months’ notice before they can progress eviction cases to court, except in the most serious circumstances. Where cases do reach court, new rules require landlords to inform judges if tenants have been impacted by coronavirus and to re-activate cases from before 3 August.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the £551,350.34 provided to Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council via the Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant due to end at the end of October 2020, what funding will be provided to ensure that Kirklees can continue to provide local crisis support to people in financial need.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has put in place a range of support for families. The Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant includes £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of COVID-19. Additionally, the Department for Work and Pensions has increased Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by over £1,000 a year for this financial year, benefiting over 4 million households, and increased Local Housing Allowance rates – putting an average of £600 into people’s pockets.
We are providing local authorities with an unprecedented package of support, including over £4.8 billion in funding for?spending?pressures, comprising £3.7 billion of un-ringfenced grants and over £1.1 billion for the Infection Control Fund. Kirklees Council has received £28.22 million in additional COVID-19 funding, on top of an increase in core spending power of £19.84 million (6.6%) this year.
The 2020 Spending Review is our opportunity to get the right funding for local government over the coming years, following the 4.4% real terms increase in Core Spending Power delivered in 2019, the largest year-on-year increase for a decade.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his comments in York on 16 February 2020, when he plans to hold a flood summit for the whole of Yorkshire.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the impact that flooding has had on individuals and local communities. As floods Minister, I have continued to engage with a range of flood affected Members across Yorkshire since the November 2019 flooding.
The hon. Member will be aware that at the adjournment debate of 30 September I confirmed that I will be meeting with flood affected Members on 8 October with a focus on South Yorkshire following the letter from the hon. Member for Barnsley Central.
I will continue to discuss flood matters with colleagues from Yorkshire and across the country more widely, going forward.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are receiving funding from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Jesse Norman
By 31 July 2020, 187,000 individuals from Yorkshire and the Humber had claimed the first SEISS grant. This is seven per cent of all claims made for the first SEISS grant.
By 31 August 2020, 147,000 individuals from Yorkshire and the Humber had claimed the second SEISS grant. This is seven per cent of all claims made for the second SEISS grant.
These figures were taken from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics published on 21 August and 18 September respectively.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of successful applications to the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme are from people in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Jesse Norman
By 31 July 2020, 187,000 individuals from Yorkshire and the Humber had claimed the first SEISS grant. This is seven per cent of all claims made for the first SEISS grant.
By 31 August 2020, 147,000 individuals from Yorkshire and the Humber had claimed the second SEISS grant. This is seven per cent of all claims made for the second SEISS grant.
These figures were taken from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics published on 21 August and 18 September respectively.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people in receipt of support from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme live in (a) areas of intervention and (b) areas of enhanced support or concern.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The information requested is not available.
HMRC have published tables showing the geographical distribution of the numbers of individuals claiming the first SEISS grant by 31 July 2020 and the second SEISS grant by 31 August 2020. The tables include claims by parliamentary constituency and local authority: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-august-2020 and https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-september-2020.
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, how many independent cinemas have made applications to the Cultural Recovery Fund; and how many and what proportion of those applications have been (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
On July 5 the Government announced the Culture Recovery Fund, a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them preserve their local cultural offer and rescue organisations that are at risk of insolvency this financial year. This is the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture. Within this, the British Film Institute (BFI) is allocating up to £30 million in grants on behalf of my department to support independent cinemas in England.
As of Friday 2 October 2020, the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas has received 72 applications from 109 individual cinema sites (one application can be made on behalf of a small cinema chain), amounting to grant requests of just over £4.5million. From this, 28 grants worth over £650,000 have been awarded to 42 cinema sites across England. This means almost 40% of applications received have been successfully awarded funding so far. The fund is being awarded on a rolling basis and will continue to assess and accept applications through to 30th October. For those organisations which have not yet had decisions, BFI are continuing to assess the evidence provided in line with the eligibility criteria and are working with them to explore their needs.