Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps with (a) local authorities and (b) industry stakeholders to help increase the sustainability of (i) live music venues and (ii) other aspects of the night-time economy.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting touring artists, and the music industry more widely, to adapt to new arrangements following our departure from the EU, and we have worked with the sector and directly with Member States to provide clarity and support.
The UK’s rules for touring creative professionals are more generous than those in many EU Member States.
The UK’s domestic rules allow musicians, entertainers and artists (and their technical staff) from non-visa national countries, such as EU Member States and the US, to perform in the UK without requiring a visa, and the UK does not have work-permits. We have also decoupled the provisions for creative and sporting professionals in the Permitted Paid Engagement (PPE) route, to recognise the unique requirements each group has.
We are committed to supporting the UK’s live music venues and grassroots sector, the research and development centres of our world-leading music sector. That is why we have provided an additional £5m to the highly successful Supporting Grassroots Music Fund, taking our total investment through the fund to almost £15m. This will enable venues to increase support for young and emerging artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
Music venues, other aspects of the night-time economy and some cultural venues are also currently eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, with a 75% relief up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This relief was extended for a further year during the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Ministers continue to engage with the sector to discuss the challenges facing grassroots music venues and explore potential opportunities to provide further support. DCMS actively supports sector-led initiatives such as increased support for grassroots music venues from larger events and venues.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 assessment of the potential impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on (a) venues hosting international artists and (b) other businesses and organisations in the cultural sector.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting touring artists, and the music industry more widely, to adapt to new arrangements following our departure from the EU, and we have worked with the sector and directly with Member States to provide clarity and support.
The UK’s rules for touring creative professionals are more generous than those in many EU Member States.
The UK’s domestic rules allow musicians, entertainers and artists (and their technical staff) from non-visa national countries, such as EU Member States and the US, to perform in the UK without requiring a visa, and the UK does not have work-permits. We have also decoupled the provisions for creative and sporting professionals in the Permitted Paid Engagement (PPE) route, to recognise the unique requirements each group has.
We are committed to supporting the UK’s live music venues and grassroots sector, the research and development centres of our world-leading music sector. That is why we have provided an additional £5m to the highly successful Supporting Grassroots Music Fund, taking our total investment through the fund to almost £15m. This will enable venues to increase support for young and emerging artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
Music venues, other aspects of the night-time economy and some cultural venues are also currently eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, with a 75% relief up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This relief was extended for a further year during the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Ministers continue to engage with the sector to discuss the challenges facing grassroots music venues and explore potential opportunities to provide further support. DCMS actively supports sector-led initiatives such as increased support for grassroots music venues from larger events and venues.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle violence against women and girls in East Devon constituency.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
It is difficult to determine the specific activity to tackle violence against women in the East Devon constituency as services are mostly commissioned at a national level, and not monitored by the Home Office by constituency.
To help support local service commissioners, we published a revised National Statement of Expectations in March 2022, which sets out how local areas should commission effective services. It also aims to increase understanding of the need for specialist services and the value of those designed and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve.
As part of the effort to tackle these crimes across England and Wales, in 2021 we published our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online, at work and in public. This was followed by a complementary cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in 2022.
These documents aim to transform the whole of society’s response to these crimes with actions to prevent abuse, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems that underpin the response. The actions set out in both strategy documents benefit all regions across England and Wales, including East Devon.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan committed to over £230 million from 2022-2025. As part of this commitment, the joint Home Office-Ministry of Justice VAWG Support and Specialist Service Fund will provide up to £8.3 million (in total) from 2023-2025 for specialist organisations to support victims often facing the greatest barriers to getting the help they need.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan funding also includes the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse (CADA) Fund, which allocated £10.3 million over three years (2022-2025) to eight organisations across England and Wales to provide specialist support within the community to children who have been impacted by domestic abuse. Part of this includes c.£1.25m for the Children’s Society to provide direct support for children and young people and families, including those from rural and hard to reach communities, covering Devon, Shropshire, Rochdale and Merseyside.
In May 2023, the Home Office also launched a £300,000 ‘flexible fund’ trial in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation for England to make direct cash payments of £250 to victims and survivors of domestic abuse (£500 to those with children and those who are pregnant) to help remove barriers to leaving an abusive relationship. In November 2023, the Government commitment to support victims was renewed with a further £2m investment into the Flexible Fund until March 2025.
Through the current Round Five of the Safer Streets Fund, the Home Office has directly awarded £34 million to Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales to deliver interventions to tackle neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and VAWG. Devon and Cornwall received £819,998.64 (2024-2025) to support projects covering Paignton, Camborne and Redruth and are delivering educational training packages such as bystander training to help address behaviour and attitudes on VAWG and using night-time economy marshalls for patrols in the town centres.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle violence and sexual offences in Preston.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
As part of steps taken through our Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, we are tackling perpetrators and supporting victims.
We have provided funding to the Lancashire PCC to roll out the Drive Project, which focuses on the most serious domestic abuse offenders to prevent them from abusing again, and funded Preston based Saraha to provide bilingual, comprehensive, face-to-face support service for women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are victims of domestic abuse.
Nationally, we have invested £9.4 million to develop a New Operation Model for the investigation of rape through Operation Soteria. This ensures investigations are suspect based. All police forces in England and Wales are now implementing this new approach to rape investigations and we have provided £8.5m in 2023/24 to continue to support policing to improve their response to rape.
Through the Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night Funds, we have invested over £150 million to deliver interventions to tackle violence against women, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime.
This includes just over £3.4m for Lancashire, of which £146,568 has been awarded to Preston City Council to fund interventions such as the installation of CCTV, the deployment of taxi stewards and night-time economy sector training, along with improvements to accommodation for services assisting women at risk and recovery services for victims of sexual violence.
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £8m for a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in Lancashire. VRUs bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area, including sexual abuse and domestic abuse.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing minimum unit pricing for alcohol; and what other steps he is taking to help reduce alcohol harm.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government continues to watch the impact of MUP in Scotland with interest.
In England and Wales there is an ambitious programme of work in train to tackle alcohol-related harms including significant investment in treatment and recovery services, equipping the police and local authorities with the right powers to take effective actions against alcohol related-crime and harms in the night-time economy.
The Government has delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties for 140 years. From 1 August 2023, all alcohol has been taxed by strength, putting public health at the heart of alcohol duty.
This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty. This new system is incentivising the production and consumption of lower strength products by introducing a reduced rate of duty for products of a lower alcohol by volume (ABV).
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has had recent discussions with Ofgem on the potential impact of recent changes in off-peak night rates on Economy 7 electricity tariffs on households which use electricity to heat their homes in comparison with other households.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As the demand for electricity during the night-time period has grown, energy suppliers have had to pay significantly more to purchase that electricity for their customers. In turn, this is reflected in rising night-time rate for time-of-use tariffs
The setting of tariffs, including for peak and off-peak periods for ‘Time-of-Use’ tariffs (such as Economy 7), are a commercial matter for individual energy suppliers.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has issued recent guidance to the organisers of festivals on the use of back-of-house drug testing licences.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no safe way to take illegal drugs, which devastate lives, ruin families and damage communities. The Government recognises the potential benefits of ‘back-of-house' drug checking services in the night time economy, at festivals and similar events. Back-of-house services are those which test surrendered or confiscated drugs, but do not offer individuals the opportunity to submit drugs for testing, do not return any drugs to individuals or give individuals any information on the content of the drugs following testing.
Instead, they provide intelligence to law enforcement and healthcare agencies about the kinds of illicit drugs in circulation and they enable localised public alerts if toxic or otherwise dangerous drugs are detected so that anyone at risk can dispose of those drugs in amnesty bins. This type of service does not encourage drug taking, recognising that all illicit drugs are harmful and that there is no safe way to take them.
No recent guidance has been issued to festival organisers. Organisations wishing to deliver back-of-house services have always been able to apply for a Home Office controlled drug licence and we continue to encourage potential applicants to plan ahead to ensure that they apply for a licence in good time for the festival season next year.
Guidance on applying for a Home Office controlled drug licence can be found at the following link: Controlled drugs: domestic licences - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what plans he has to modernise dynamically teleswitched meters; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to those meters on energy price charging.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The smart metering system in Great Britain has been designed to enable a range of flexible and dynamic tariffs that reward energy consumers for using electricity away from peak times, or when there is excess clean electricity available.
Suppliers are in the process of contacting consumers using the Radio Teleswitching Service (RTS) to encourage them to upgrade to smart meters. This upgrade will ensure continued access to ‘time of use’ tariffs, including Economy 7. All smart meters can support tariffs which charge different prices throughout the day and night.
The RTS will remain operational until at least 31st March 2024.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of restrictions on night flights on the competitiveness of the UK.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the benefits that night flights bring to the economy, through connectivity and the movement of time-critical freight. We also recognise that aviation night noise can disturb people’s sleep - with the potential for health impacts.
To strike a balance between the benefits and detriments, the Government sets restrictions on night flights at Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted airports, and local planning authorities set restrictions at other airports.
For the airports where restrictions are set by Government, the Government regularly consults on appropriate restrictions to find this balance. The most recent related consultation closed in early May, and we will consult on future proposals towards the end of this year. The Government is aware that the aviation industry has in the past sponsored research to assess the economic impact of night flying in the UK. Through these consultations, it is incumbent on the aviation industry to continue to develop the evidence base and demonstrate the value that night operations bring to the UK economy.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of restrictions on night flights on the efficiency of air freight (1) into, (2) out of, and (3) within, the UK.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the benefits that night flights bring to the economy, through connectivity and the movement of time-critical freight. We also recognise that aviation night noise can disturb people’s sleep - with the potential for health impacts.
To strike a balance between the benefits and detriments, the Government sets restrictions on night flights at Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted airports, and local planning authorities set restrictions at other airports.
For the airports where restrictions are set by Government, the Government regularly consults on appropriate restrictions to find this balance. The most recent related consultation closed in early May, and we will consult on future proposals towards the end of this year. The Government is aware that the aviation industry has in the past sponsored research to assess the economic impact of night flying in the UK. Through these consultations, it is incumbent on the aviation industry to continue to develop the evidence base and demonstrate the value that night operations bring to the UK economy.