Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that the police have due regard to protecting the freedom of journalistic (a) photography and (b) other activity when implementing powers under the National Security Act 2023 relating to activity in the vicinity of prohibited places.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The prohibited places measures were included under the National Security Act to safeguard the United Kingdom’s most sensitive sites from hostile activity. The accompanying police powers enable the police to protect these sites by requiring people to not engage in certain conduct and to move away from these places where they have a reasonable belief that doing so is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the United Kingdom.
Recognised journalists conducting activity on or near prohibited sites – for example, a journalist taking photos from outside a prohibited place – where they do not have a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK and there is nothing to suggest taking photographs is not permitted, such as signage or other distinguishing marker, would not commit an offence.
The police have access to comprehensive guidance on how officers should use the powers in relation to prohibited places under the National Security Act 2023. We do not routinely publish internal guidance, however, further resources and information on the prohibited places regime are available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the guidance his Department issues to the police on the implementation of powers under the National Security Act 2023 with regard to protecting journalistic (a) photography and (b) other activity in the vicinity of prohibited places.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The prohibited places measures were included under the National Security Act to safeguard the United Kingdom’s most sensitive sites from hostile activity. The accompanying police powers enable the police to protect these sites by requiring people to not engage in certain conduct and to move away from these places where they have a reasonable belief that doing so is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the United Kingdom.
Recognised journalists conducting activity on or near prohibited sites – for example, a journalist taking photos from outside a prohibited place – where they do not have a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK and there is nothing to suggest taking photographs is not permitted, such as signage or other distinguishing marker, would not commit an offence.
The police have access to comprehensive guidance on how officers should use the powers in relation to prohibited places under the National Security Act 2023. We do not routinely publish internal guidance, however, further resources and information on the prohibited places regime are available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of (a) transport, (b) venue hire and accommodation, (c) printed materials including backdrops, (d) security, (e) staffing, (f) filming and photography and (g) other costs of each public meeting since her appointment.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Office of the Leader of the House of Commons is a business unit of the Cabinet Office and, as such, its administrative costs are part of the Cabinet Office’s wider administrative costs.
Information for 2022-23 can be found in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-23), copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
Information for the last financial year will be published in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 in due course.
Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2024 to Question 16860,on Housing: Valuation, whether the Valuation Office Agency plans to collect additional (a) dwelling house codes and (b) value significant codes in addition to those used in England for the model.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Welsh Government has commissioned the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to carry out a revaluation of all domestic property in Wales. To facilitate this, the VOA has built an Automated Valuation Model which has produced values for 1.46 million properties.
The following external datasets were used:
Additionally, as part of model development, sales verification was undertaken. VOA staff used a range of available data, such as aerial and street view photography, sales particulars, EPC certificates and Local Authority Planning websites to verify the usefulness of the sale.
The VOA has not collected additional codes over and above those already used within England and Wales.
I would observe that this is a policy proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, and does not represent the policy position of the UK Government in England.
Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2024 to Question 16860 on Housing: Valuation, how many value estimates have been produced using the Valuation Office Agency's automated valuation model.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Welsh Government has commissioned the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to carry out a revaluation of all domestic property in Wales. To facilitate this, the VOA has built an Automated Valuation Model which has produced values for 1.46 million properties.
The following external datasets were used:
Additionally, as part of model development, sales verification was undertaken. VOA staff used a range of available data, such as aerial and street view photography, sales particulars, EPC certificates and Local Authority Planning websites to verify the usefulness of the sale.
The VOA has not collected additional codes over and above those already used within England and Wales.
I would observe that this is a policy proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, and does not represent the policy position of the UK Government in England.
Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2024 to Question 16860 on Housing: Valuation, which already available data from third parties was used for the model development.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Welsh Government has commissioned the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to carry out a revaluation of all domestic property in Wales. To facilitate this, the VOA has built an Automated Valuation Model which has produced values for 1.46 million properties.
The following external datasets were used:
Additionally, as part of model development, sales verification was undertaken. VOA staff used a range of available data, such as aerial and street view photography, sales particulars, EPC certificates and Local Authority Planning websites to verify the usefulness of the sale.
The VOA has not collected additional codes over and above those already used within England and Wales.
I would observe that this is a policy proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, and does not represent the policy position of the UK Government in England.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students took undergraduate degrees in Games and Animation in the academic year 2022-23.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Higher Education Statistics Agency, which is now part of JISC, is responsible for collecting and publishing data about UK higher education. The latest statistics refer to the 2021/22 academic year.
The number of full person equivalents [1] studying at undergraduate level in the subject area ‘Games and Animation’ [2] in 2021/22 was 13,430, including 4,820 first year enrolments. To note, figures have been rounded to the nearest five. An additional 4,075 full person equivalents, including 1,420 first year enrolments, were recorded in the ‘animation’ category’ [3], which falls under ‘Cinematics and photography’ subjects, and includes other forms of animation, not gaming animation specifically.
More information is available via the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.
Updates on the timing of statistics for the 2022/23 academic year are available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/upcoming.
[1] Counts are on the basis of full-person-equivalents (FPE). Where a student is studying more than one subject, they are apportioned between the subjects that make up their course.
[2] Enrolments in Computer games and animation (code 11-01-06 of the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) tier 3). More information on CAH codes can be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/hecos/cah.
[3] Enrolments in Animation (code 100057 of the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS)). More information on HECoS codes can be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/hecos.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost of photography services to his Department provided by external contractors was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Non-campaign photography tasks are undertaken by internal staff as part of their routine work and everyday roles and do not get billed separately. This service comes at no extra cost to the taxpayer.
The Cabinet Office does pay external organisations to provide photography and videography for our various cross-government communication campaigns. However isolated spend data on these specific services is not split out from wider campaign costs.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost of photography services to his Department provided by external contractors was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
A full departmental response could only be provided at disproportionate cost as the information requested is not held centrally. The Department has in-house capability to provide photographic services for a wide range of tasks. External photograph services would only be used in exceptional circumstances where that in-house capability was not available for a specific task.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) photographers; and (b) videographers have been employed by his Department since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This information is not held in the specific detail requested as there is no Grade or Job on HRMS and MyHR that can be used to determine if someone is a photographer or a videographer.
The below table is a count of individuals part of the core workforce who have been hired or moved into a position that indicates it was position associated with photography or videography at the point the individual moved into it between 1 January 2010 and 30 November 2023. Types of moves include External Hire, Hire from OGD, or Internal Hire or Post Rotation.
Year | Photographer | Videographer | Both | Grand Total |
2010 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
2011 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2012 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2013 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2014 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
2015 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2017 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
2018 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2020 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
2021 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2022 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2023 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Grand Total | 13 | 5 | 3 | 21 |