Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance he has issued to universities on the effect of face coverings on deaf students during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government expects all higher education (HE) providers to fulfil their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to be making reasonable adjustments for all disabled HE students. Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their HE providers.
On 22 February 2021, we published updated guidance on Students returning to, and starting higher education in Spring Term 2021, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963446/HE_guidance_spring_term_220221_FINAL.pdf. This does not apply in situations where wearing a face covering would impact on the ability to take part in exercise or strenuous activity. Face coverings do not need to be worn when outdoors on the premises.
Transparent face coverings, which may assist communication with someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expression to communicate, can also be worn. There is currently very limited evidence regarding the effectiveness or safety of transparent face coverings.
Those who rely on visual signals for communication, or communicate with or provide support to such individuals, are currently exempt from any requirement to wear face coverings.
Face visors or shields should not be worn as an alternative to face coverings. They may protect against droplet spread in specific circumstances but are unlikely to be effective in reducing aerosol transmission when used without an additional face covering. They should only be used after carrying out a risk assessment for the specific situation and should always be cleaned appropriately.
We are now advising providers that they can resume in-person teaching and learning for students who are studying practical or practice-based subjects (including creative arts) and require specialist equipment and facilities from 8 March 2021. Providers should not ask students to return if their course can reasonably be continued online. The government will review, by the end of the Easter holidays, the options for timing of the return of remaining students. This review will take account of the latest data and will be a key part of the wider roadmap steps.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their relief package for the culture and heritage sector, announced on 5 July, will include support for visual artists.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We recognise the crucial role that individuals play in making our arts and creative industries world-leading. As a result of these grants and loans, organisations will be more able to resume cultural activity, albeit in a socially distanced way, which will increase employment opportunities for freelancers, including visual artists.
We are working closely with the DCMS Arm’s Length Bodies to develop guidance indicating who can apply for the different elements of this funding, and we will publish detailed guidance as soon as possible in July.
Furthermore, this package complements the announcement made last week by the Arts Council England to reopen their project grants competition and make £59m funding available to support creativity, in particular from freelancers, creative practitioners and independent organisations.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend and adapt the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme to take into account the specific needs of visual artists.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Self-employed visual artists are among the millions of people who are able to benefit from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS). The SEISS has been extended, with applications opening in August, for a second and final grant. The grant will operate in the same way as the existing scheme, with self-employed workers eligible for a single payment covering three months, at a level of 70% of average monthly earnings up to a maximum of £6,570.
Alongside this, DCMS has worked closely with its arm’s-length bodies to deliver tailored support packages at speed, including the £160m Emergency Funding Package announced by Arts Council England (ACE) in March. This includes £20 million of financial support for individuals, including visual artists, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. More than 9000 individuals and organisations have been successful in applying for this emergency funding.
On 5 July, the government also announced a major £1.57 billion package to provide support for key organisations across the cultural, heritage and creative sectors. As a result of these grants and loans, organisations will be more able to resume cultural activity, thereby increasing work opportunities for freelancers and self-employed practitioners.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support he is providing to (a) self-employed actors and (b) theatres who lost income as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In order to support the sustainability of the arts sector, including self-employed actors and theatres, DCMS has worked closely with Arts Council England (ACE) to provide a tailored package of financial support. In March, ACE announced a £160m emergency response package to complement the financial measures already announced by the Government and to ensure immediate resilience of this vital sector.
This includes £20 million of financial support for individuals, including self-employed actors, and £140 million of support for organisations, including theatres, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. To date over 9000 individuals and organisations have been successful in applying for this support.
Furthermore, self employed visual artists are among the millions of people (including self-employed actors) who can now benefit from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, which will provide those eligible with cash grants worth up to £2,500 per month. We expect that the Self-Employed Income Support scheme will cover 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to use the commissioning of public artworks as a mechanism to support the cultural sector during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; and if they have any such plans, how they intend to do so.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
DCMS is working with partners to ensure all major programmes and policies support the national renewal. Festival 2022 will begin its commissioning phase this year through funded R&D with the sectors, and the Government Art Collection, which directly supports emerging and established British artists and galleries in the visual arts sector through their annual acquisitions budget, is looking to ensure this year’s acquisitions respond to the current situation.
The Government has already announced an unprecedented package of measures in place to provide immediate and vital support to the cultural sector during this pandemic. These include the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self Employment Support Scheme, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, business rates relief and cash grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.
DCMS has also worked with various Arms Length Bodies to create tailored funding packages to support the cultural sector at this time. Arts Council England has announced a £160m emergency response package to complement the financial measures already announced by the Government and support the resilience of this vital sector. This funding package will support organisations and individuals who need the most support to see them through this crisis.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
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 covid-19 outbreak on the income of self-employed visual artists.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In order to support the sustainability of the Arts sector, including arts companies and arts venues, DCMS has worked closely with Arts Council England (ACE) to provide a tailored package of financial support. In March, ACE announced a £160m emergency response package to complement the financial measures already announced by the Government and to ensure immediate resilience of this vital sector.
This includes £20 million of financial support for individuals, including visual artists, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. The Arts Council have received 10,293 applications from individuals for this fund and will be publishing the details of how they have awarded this funding at the beginning of June, once all the decisions have been made and applicants notified.
The Secretary of State, myself and officials continue to consult the Art sector extensively to ensure we fully understand the financial impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the sector.
On the basis of that engagement, DCMS and ACE are continuing to work closely to consider the additional measures that are needed to ensure the long-term recovery and growth of the cultural sector, including self-employed artists.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proportion of (1) individuals and (2) organisations working in the creative industries who will be eligible for the emergency funding being made available by Arts Council England in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including through the funding being provided to National Portfolio Organisations and Creative People and Places lead organisations.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
While the Government has not made a specific assessment of the proportion of professionals working in the creative industries that are eligible, it has worked with the Arts Council to ensure that the application process was as simple as possible and to encourage as many applications as possible.
So long as an applicant has experience of delivering publicly funded work, and fits the Arts Council’s definition of ‘creative practitioner’ (writers, translators, producers, editors, educators, directors and designers in the disciplines and artforms they support, as well as choreographers, composers, visual artists, craft makers and curators), they are eligible.
The Arts Council received a total of 13,684 applications from independent cultural organisations and individual practitioners to the first two elements of their Emergency Response funds.
In detail, this breaks down to 3,391 applications from organisations and 10,293 applications from individuals. The Arts Council will be publishing the details of how they have awarded this funding at the beginning of June, once all the decisions have been made and applicants notified.
The third element of their Emergency Response funds, for National Portfolio Organisations and Creative People and Places lead organisations, closes on 19 May.
All of the Arts Council’s 840 National Portfolio Organisations and 30 Creative People and Places lead organisations were eligible to apply to that fund. The Arts Council will be publishing details of how they’ve awarded this funding at the beginning of July.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) EU and (b) non-EU nationals employed in the creative arts industries.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The department produces annual employment statistics for the creative industries, published as part of DCMS’s economic estimates. The numbers of EU and non-EU nationals employed in the creative industries in 2018 are given in the table below. Overall, employees in the creative industries are 85.8% UK, 7.4% EU and 6.8% non-EU nationals.
Creative Industries employment by subsector in 2018, 000s [1]
Sub-sector | UK | EU [2] | Non-EU |
1. Advertising and marketing | 168 | 15 | 12 |
2. Architecture | 96 | - | - |
3. Crafts | 9 | - | - |
4. Design and designer fashion | 143 | 11 | - |
5. Film, TV, video, radio and photography | 219 | 19 | 8 |
6. IT, software and computer services | 604 | 50 | 78 |
7. Publishing | 164 | 24 | 11 |
8. Museums, Galleries and Libraries | 80 | - | - |
9. Music, performing and visual arts | 268 | 17 | 12 |
Creative Industries | 1,750 | 150 | 139 |
Source: DCMS Economic Estimates, Employment 2018 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dcms-sectors-economic-estimates-2018-employment
Notes
1. Estimates rounded to the nearest 1,000.
2. Does not include UK nationals
Notation
"-" Figure has been suppressed due to disclosiveness
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which arts organisations in the North East of England his Department plans to allocate funding to in 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The list outlines Arts organisations and practitioners across the North East that have been allocated funding from Arts Council England for 2020. This list is not exhaustive as ACE expects further funding applications from practitioners and organisations based in the North East of England throughout the year.
Organisation Name
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
North Music Trust
North Music Trust
Durham & Darlington Music Education Hub
Tees Valley Music Service
Sunderland Music Education Hub
Music Partnership North
North Tyneside Music Education Hub
Gateshead and South Tyneside Music Education Hub
New Writing North
Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
November Club
North Music Trust
Ballet Lorent Limited
The Forge
National Youth Choirs of Great Britain
Dance City
Northern Stage (Theatrical Productions) Ltd
TIN Arts
The Maltings Berwick Trust Limited
Helix Arts Ltd
Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust
Middlesbrough Town Hall
Association for Cultural Enterprises
Stockton International Riverside Festival
Gem Arts
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
North East Theatre Trust Ltd
The Customs House
Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Theatre Hullabaloo
Woodhorn Charitable Trust
The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company
Generator North East
Amber Film & Photography Collective
Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books
Vane Contemporary Art Limited
a-n The Artists Information Company
Durham County Council
Queen's Hall Arts
Sunderland Culture
Unfolding Theatre
The NewBridge Project
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Workplace Foundation
Inpress Ltd
Stockton Borough Council Tees Valley Museum Group
Arts&Heritage
Beamish Museum
Teesside University
Northern Print
Tyneside Cinema
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival
Open Clasp Theatre Company
Stockton Arts Centre Ltd
The Bowes Museum
Umar Butt
Jamie Tansley
The Auxiliary Project Space
DJAZZ - Durham City Jazz Festival
Southpaw Dance Company
Lisette Rebecca Auton
Nadia Iftkhar
Kris Johnson
David Lisser
Vivien Wood
Lydia Brickland
Michael John Heatley
Jade Byrne
National Youth Choirs of Great Britain
Festival of Thrift
South Tyneside Council
New Prospects Association Limited
Hartlepool Borough Council
Michael Evans
Curious Arts Ltd
Katie Doherty
Middlesbrough Council
Little Cog
Make & Mend Company
North Tyneside Council
Sunderland MAC Trust
Primate Productions Ltd
Patrick Ngabonziza
Amy Lord
Rachael Walsh
Little Inventors Worldwide Ltd
Sophie Buxton
Benedict Wellstood
MBC Arts Wellbeing
Kate Hunter
Gillie Kleiman
Tracks
Southpaw Dance Company
Rosa Postlethwaite
Amanda Ogden
Rebecca Glendenning-Laycock
Elizabeth Jane Klotz
Changing Relations
Beacon Films CIC
Middlesbrough Mela Association
Harambee Pasadia CIC
Katherina Radeva
Christopher Folwell
Tatwood Puppets
Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance
Alistair McDonald
Newcastle Asian Arts and Music
Hannah Thompson
Dora Frankel
Laura Harrington
Action for Children
The Middlesbrough Art Weekender
Let's Circus
Hannah Murphy
The Empty Space
Paul Miller
Durham County Council Arts Programmes Team
Eliot Smith Company
Alphabetti Theatre
Two Destination Language
Wesley Stephenson
Pineapple Black
Sheila Graber
COMMON
Regeneration NE CIC
Martin Hylton
Workie Ticket Theatre CIC
Norfolk Street Arts Community Interest Company
Aidan Moesby
Stellar Projects
Thoughtful Planet 3
William Steele
Cameron John Sharp
Teesside University
Zoe Murtagh
Miranda Tufnell
Ushaw College
Christina Castling
Newcastle City Council Culture
Tony Hopkins Entertainments Ltd
NTC Touring Theatre Company Ltd
Lindsay Duncanson
Northumbria University
Julian Germain
Mortal Fools
Opera Sunderland
Durham University
Jake Jarratt
Elizabeth Jane Klotz
fanSHEN
Lydia Brickland
Scott Turnbull
Tusk Music
Mad Alice Theatre Company
Payal Ramchandani
Chris Hornsby
Sunderland City Council
Tim Shaw
Becci Sharrock
North Music Trust
Charlie Bramley
Creative Spaces North East C.I.C.
COMMON
Elysium Theatre Company
The Creative Seed CIC
Curious Monkey Ltd
Abdulrahman Abu - Zayd
DAVE GRAY
Allan Hughes
Debra Carey
Izaak Gledhill
Hexham Book Festival
Moving Art Management
Cap-a-Pie
Alys North
blimey!
Juliana Mensah
Harriet Ghost
Transitions17
Sabina Sallis
Conversations in Painting
Faye MacCalman
Caroline Collinge
Robert Graham
Henry Amos
christopher fallow
Michelle Bayly
Leah Millar
Nell Catchpole
Melanie Rashbrooke
Slugtown
Hartlepool Wintertide Festival
Emma Dunn
Greyscale Theatre Company
D6 Culture Ltd
North East Theatre Trust Ltd
Michael Mulvihill
Teesside University
Cat Robey
Catherine Bertola
South Tyneside Council
Head of Steam - Darlington Railway Museum
Matt Jamie
Bethan Kitchen
Woodhorn Charitable Trust
South Tyneside Council
Faculty of Arts, Design and Creative Industries
Jazz North East Ltd
Simon West
Eliot Smith Company
Chalk
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Durham University
Vindolanda Trust
Mortal Fools
Middlesbrough Council Cultural Services
Gary Wilkinson
Newcastle Gateshead Initiative
Dominic Nelson-Ashley
Martha Wheatley
Skimstone Arts
Luca Rutherford
Surface Area Dance Theatre CIC
Kerrin Tatman
Hannah Thompson
Gateway Studios
Liberdade community development trust
Nexus
Mathieu Geffré
identity on tyne
Shane Wreford-Sinnott
Michaela Wetherell
Steve Byron
Mi Viejo Fruta Ltd
Independent Sunderland
New Writing North
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
November Club
North Music Trust
Ballet Lorent Limited
The Forge
National Youth Choirs of Great Britain
Dance City
Northern Stage (Theatrical Productions) Ltd
TIN Arts
The Maltings Berwick Trust Limited
Helix Arts Ltd
Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust
Middlesbrough Town Hall
Association for Cultural Enterprises
Stockton International Riverside Festival
Gem Arts
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
North East Theatre Trust Ltd
The Customs House
Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Theatre Hullabaloo
Woodhorn Charitable Trust
The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company
Generator North East
Amber Film & Photography Collective
Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books
Vane Contemporary Art Limited
a-n The Artists Information Company
Durham County Council
Queen's Hall Arts
Sunderland Culture
Unfolding Theatre
The NewBridge Project
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Workplace Foundation
Inpress Ltd
Stockton Borough Council Tees Valley Museum Group
Arts&Heritage
Beamish Museum
Teesside University
Northern Print
Tyneside Cinema
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival
Open Clasp Theatre Company
Stockton Arts Centre Ltd
The Bowes Museum
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the contribution of the music industry to the UK economy.
Answered by Margot James
DCMS does not specifically record the contribution of the music industry to the UK economy. The Department does however, produce annual estimates of the contributions of all of its sectors (including the Creative Industries, and within that the ‘music, performing and visual arts’ sub-sector) to the UK economy, measuring GVA, imports and exports of goods and services, employment, and number of enterprises. These statistics are available online at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/dcms-sectors-economic-estimates.
The ‘music, performing and visual arts’ sector contributed over £9.5bn to the UK economy in 2017. This contribution has increased by 69% since 2010 and has grown at more than twice the rate of the wider UK economy.