Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help arts and culture venues ensure their premises are covid-19 secure; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing grant funding to those sectors.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS has produced and regularly updates the Performing Arts Guidance to help performing arts organisations, venue operators and participants understand how to make their workplace COVID-Secure so that they can work and take part in the performing arts safely when and where permitted. The guidance applies to both professional and non-professional activity. This includes general guidance for rehearsals, training and pre-production. It also includes advice for managing audience and performances including staging and capacity, social distancing and the Rule of 6, ticketing and payments, cloakrooms, managing people flow, staging arrival times and seating arrangements, ventilation, wearing of face masks and carrying out risk assessments.
DCMS has also convened a Venues Steering Group which includes representatives from leading sector organisations as well as Public Health England and other experts to develop an action plan for maximizing activity under Stage 4 and for how we safely proceed to stage 5 with fuller audiences.
The Government’s unprecedented £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund has now surpassed the £1 billion milestone. Over £500million in recovery grants have been made to almost 3000 arts and heritage organisations in England helping to support 75,000 jobs and over £100million in capital grants.Organisations receiving grants from the CRF include Shakespeare’s Globe, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, The Old Vic, Manchester Royal Exchange and Opera North.
Additionally, a second round of funding was announced on 11 December, which utilises the remaining Culture Recovery Fund funding. There will be over £300m available in grants delivered by DCMS’ delivery partners, and £100m of repayable finance delivered by Arts Council England specifically.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to help improve disabled access at theme parks and leisure venues.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
My Department and VisitEngland, the national tourist board, have taken a number of steps to improve accessibility within the tourism sector.
VisitEngland has a dedicated web portal providing tailored business advice to tourism businesses, including guidance on how to welcome guests with different access needs.
VisitEngland has also made sure that its promotional and marketing activities are inclusive. For example, its Escape the Everyday campaign worked in partnership with Channel 4 to launch the Mission: Accessible series, which highlights the perspective of visitors with access needs enjoying the tourism landscape.
And at the Budget last year, the Chancellor announced a £30m Changing Places Fund to increase the provision of Changing Places toilets in public buildings, including leisure buildings and theme parks.
The Tourism Sector Deal, published in June 2019, set out an ambition to make the UK the most accessible destination in Europe by 2025.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 effect of sports facility closures during the latest covid-19 restrictions on the (a) physical and (b) mental health of the population.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.
Nobody wanted to be in the position of having to introduce further national restrictions. However as the Prime Minister said, with the virus spreading faster than expected we cannot allow our health system to be overwhelmed. Therefore, from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December indoor and outdoor leisure will need to close. The national restrictions are designed to get the R rate under control through limiting social contact and reducing transmissions.
In order for these measures to have the greatest impact, we will all need to sacrifice doing some things that we would otherwise like to do, for a short period of time. As soon as we're in a position to start lifting restrictions, grassroots sports will be one of the first to return.
During this period, people are still allowed to leave their homes for exercise and recreation outdoors, with their household, on their own, or with one person from another household or support bubble.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 scientific advice on which the decision to extend the latest covid-19 restrictions to outdoor swimming facilities is based.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise the importance of opening our indoor and outdoor pools and we agree that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy.
Nobody wanted to be in the position of having to introduce further National Restrictions. However as the Prime Minister said, with the virus spreading faster than expected we cannot allow our health system to be overwhelmed. Therefore, from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December indoor and outdoor leisure will need to close. The national restrictions are designed to get the R rate under control through limiting social contact and reducing transmissions.
In order for these measures to have the greatest impact, we will all need to sacrifice doing some things that we would otherwise like to do, for a short period of time. As soon as we're in a position to start lifting restrictions, grassroots sports will be one of the first to return.
People are still allowed to leave their homes for exercise and recreation outdoors, with your household or on your own, or with one person from another household or support bubble.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether soft play centres will be allowed to re-open from 25 July 2020 as part of the easing of covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
No. As the Prime Minister stated last week, indoor soft play and indoor play centres unfortunately remain closed. We are, however, in discussions about a timeline for reopening the sector. We have also been working with BALPPA, the trade body that represents the industry.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2020 to Question 15107 on Social Media: Advertising, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Advertising Standards Authority on including all injectable cosmetic treatments in its guidance.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS has had no recent discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on including all injectable cosmetic treatments in its guidance.
The ASA seeks to ensure that action is targeted where it is needed, and it has published guidance outlining its evidence-based approach to policy-making: https://www.asa.org.uk/resource/evidence-based-policy-making.html
Noting this, it is already active in the regulation of the advertising of injectable cosmetic treatments, specifically botulinum toxin injections which, as a prescription-only medicine, are prohibited from being advertised to the public by the CAP Code and the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
The ASA’s regulatory system operates independently of government, but where relevant government departments or other regulators identify - independently of the ASA - harm or detriment arising from the advertising of specific products or services, there is opportunity to work with the ASA to address this.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of age restrictions on the sale of video games.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Video Standards Council (VSC) applies the independently determined Pan-European Games Information (PEGI) classification system on behalf of industry in order to provide objectivity and consistency in video games age ratings. The VSC’s classification work is reviewed by Government as part of the assessment of their Annual Report.
We are in frequent dialogue with the VSC about their work and on how we can ensure that children are better protected from inappropriate content. This includes working with them on a call to industry to adopt PEGI ratings for every online game.
The government also 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.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce sanctions for video game manufacturers that do not take reasonable steps to limit the exposure of children to age inappropriate content.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Video Standards Council (VSC) applies the independently determined Pan-European Games Information (PEGI) classification system on behalf of industry in order to provide objectivity and consistency in video games age ratings. The VSC’s classification work is reviewed by Government as part of the assessment of their Annual Report.
We are in frequent dialogue with the VSC about their work and on how we can ensure that children are better protected from inappropriate content. This includes working with them on a call to industry to adopt PEGI ratings for every online game.
The government also 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.