Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to support (a) small and (b) independent theatres.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting the arts and cultural sector, including theatres. This is primarily through the Arts Council England whose funding for National Portfolio Organisations has increased to £444.6 million per annum, funding a record 985 organisations, including 214 new organisations outside of London.
Arts Council England invests in nearly 200 theatres or theatre companies that produce, commission, and present theatre, in addition to arts centres, festivals and outdoor theatre companies. These range from large theatres in cities - Liverpool Theatres, Manchester Royal Exchange, Sheffield Theatres - to smaller theatres and theatre companies often with a particular specialism, such as theatre for children, theatre with a disability focus, theatre companies that co-create with different communities or theatre companies that are designed to tour. Overall investment in theatre has increased through the current round of the Arts Council’s National Portfolio programme – both in terms of the number of organisations supported, and the volume of funding which is now more than £110 million per annum.
A number of theatres are also regularly supported through the Arts Council’s open access National Lottery Project Grants programme which has a budget of £116.8 million a year. This is a rolling programme and is open to artists and companies across the country.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to ensure there are no uninsulated overhead electricity cables at domestic sport facilities.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. It is for individual sports clubs to carry out risk assessments and put in place mitigations that will improve player safety.
Sport England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport arm's length body for grassroots sport, is not a regulator of community sport but does provide guidance to help sports clubs carry out risk assessments, as do national governing bodies of sport.
For each new sports facility built, there is a legal obligation shared between developers, designers and contractors to promote health and safety. This applies throughout the entire project cycle from design and construction through to operation, maintenance and demolition. This obligation is given in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations - https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/index.htm. Any breach of these regulations is a criminal offence.
In addition, Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 outline ongoing duties to protect workers and members of the public from risk.
The Health and Safety Executive and others, including the Energy Networks Association, have also produced guidance in relation to safety around overhead lines.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to provide support to (a) Coalville CAN and (b) other charities that provide cooking lessons for children and elderly people.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There is a range of funding available for organisations that are working to support and improve their communities. The ‘Find a grant’ service is a search function which helps organisations search for government grants. The filtering system allows you to select grants which are open to applications from non-profits (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-government-grants).
The National Lottery Community Fund also hosts a number of funding programmes (https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding).
At a more local level, most areas of the country have Community Foundations that manage at least one local grant fund or can offer guidance (https://www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/)
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Sir George Beaumont.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
May 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of the National Gallery. Sir George Beaumont played a crucial role in the Gallery's creation, both campaigning for its formation and donating his own art to what has become one of our greatest institutions. He died just three years later in 1827. Two hundred years on from when the Gallery was founded for the nation, it continues to bring great paintings and people together.
The Gallery is marking its bicentenary with an exciting year of activities, special displays, online events, exhibitions, and significant loans to other galleries across the UK – with everyone, everywhere welcome. The Arts Minister, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, was delighted to have attended the gallery last week to take part in the official start to the celebrations.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department's policy is on the procurement of (a) food and (b) drinks produced in Britain for use in its canteens and restaurants.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS does not own any canteens or restaurants. The canteen facilities we use are provided by our landlords, and we have no involvement in the provision of food and drink to those facilities. For our London headquarters, this is overseen by the Government Property Agency.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Minister without Portfolio's article of 12 May 2024 in The Sunday Telegraph, when her Department expects to terminate its contract with Vercida Ltd., procurement reference 103841; and whether a notice period will be required under the provisions of that contract.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS’s current contract with Vercida is set to expire on 1 October 2024 and continuation of the service will be considered at that point in light of the Cabinet Office guidance.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an estimate of the number of volunteers there were in amateur football in (a) 2010, (b) 2019 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government tracks activity levels through Sport England’s Active Lives surveys. Two surveys run annually: Active Lives Adult, and Active Lives Children and Young People. These surveys measure the activity levels of people across England and allows the Government to collect accurate data on what and how much sport and physical activity different groups are participating in. You can find out more about the surveys on Sport England's website.
2009/10
Active People survey - 15.2 million people took part in sport and wider physical activity for an average of at least 30 minutes a week.
Children and young people - Sport England only started collecting data in 2017.
2018/19
Active Lives Adult survey - 28.6 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young People survey - 3.3 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
2022/23
Active Lives Adult survey - 29.5 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young people survey - 3.5 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
It’s important to note that comparing data on a consistent basis across this time is not possible as the methodologies and metrics employed changed to reflect changes in the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidance.
Since 2010, the CMO guidelines on physical activity changed from five separate sessions of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity in a week to at least 150 minutes of moderate equivalent intensity physical activity a week. In addition to this, Sport England’s remit has extended to include recreational activities and active travel.
Sport England does not record the number of volunteers in amateur football.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an estimate of the number of people that played grassroots sport in England in (a) 2010, (b) 2019 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government tracks activity levels through Sport England’s Active Lives surveys. Two surveys run annually: Active Lives Adult, and Active Lives Children and Young People. These surveys measure the activity levels of people across England and allows the Government to collect accurate data on what and how much sport and physical activity different groups are participating in. You can find out more about the surveys on Sport England's website.
2009/10
Active People survey - 15.2 million people took part in sport and wider physical activity for an average of at least 30 minutes a week.
Children and young people - Sport England only started collecting data in 2017.
2018/19
Active Lives Adult survey - 28.6 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young People survey - 3.3 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
2022/23
Active Lives Adult survey - 29.5 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.
Active Lives Children and Young people survey - 3.5 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.
It’s important to note that comparing data on a consistent basis across this time is not possible as the methodologies and metrics employed changed to reflect changes in the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidance.
Since 2010, the CMO guidelines on physical activity changed from five separate sessions of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity in a week to at least 150 minutes of moderate equivalent intensity physical activity a week. In addition to this, Sport England’s remit has extended to include recreational activities and active travel.
Sport England does not record the number of volunteers in amateur football.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support lower budget film and TV programmes.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. This was set out in June 2023 in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which was accompanied by £77 million of new funding to support the sector’s growth.
We are taking steps to support producers of all sizes and the production sector more generally. This includes generous tax reliefs across studio space and visual effects, investing in studio infrastructure, and supporting innovation and promoting independent content through the UK Global Screen Fund.
At Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor also announced the UK Independent Film Tax Credit. Eligible films with production budgets (excluding marketing and distribution) of up to £15 million will be able to opt-in to claim enhanced Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit at a rate of 53% on their qualifying expenditure.
This is in addition to our long standing interventions supporting the independent television production sector, including the independent productions quota and associated Terms of Trade regime, which have been extremely successful in furthering the diversity of the sector and its output.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many water sports (a) training sessions, (b) activities and (c) events have been reported to her Department due to unsafe water quality in each year since 2020.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Event organisers, including National Governing Bodies (NGBs), are responsible for ensuring appropriate measures are in place to protect participants.
We recognise the need for water sport participants to have access to consistent and up-to-date data about bathing water quality. DCMS is working with relevant water based National Governing Bodies and the Outdoors For All Coalition to understand the barriers to accessing and participating in green and blue spaces.
Designated bathing waters and water quality monitoring in England is the responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency (EA). DEFRA is a permanent member of the National Physical Activity Taskforce, which ensures that we deliver coordinated policy that will help encourage people to get active.