Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Isle of Wight will be eligible for funding under the National Youth Strategy; and what steps are being taken to ensure that the Island is supported thought the national funding criteria.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’ is a 10 year plan to ensure every young person across the country has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of.
This is backed by over £500 million of new youth funding over the next 3 years from DCMS, which complements a range of funding committed by other departments. The majority of the funding underpinning the first steps of the Strategy will be available from next the financial year 2026/27. We will share more information as our plans develop, including details on the eligible areas for funding.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how the schools identified to receive support through the National Youth Strategy will be selected; and whether schools on the Isle of Wight will receive support.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government's National Youth Strategy is a 10-year plan designed to ensure that every young person nationwide has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them, and a community they feel a part of. Schools are key to implementing the strategy including through enrichment activities, especially for disadvantaged youth.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, will invest £22.5 million over 3 years to enable up to 400 schools across England to deliver a youth-voice led, tailored enrichment offer. This funding will help schools meet the Enrichment Framework benchmarks and ensure disadvantaged pupils have access to good enrichment activities, supporting their wellbeing, personal development, and life skills.
The programme is currently in the design phase, and we will share the selection criteria in due course.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance her department provides on ensuring that sports facilities and stadia in (a) Leicester, (b) the East Midlands and (c) the UK are safe and welcoming environments for women and girls.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all sports facilities and stadia are welcoming and safe for women and girls.
We’ve launched the Women’s Sport Taskforce to tackle challenges and barriers facing women and girls in sport, from grassroots to elite, and are harnessing the power of hosting major sporting events, such as investing £6.7 million into the Impact 25’ programme for the Women’s Rugby World Cup to make facilities more accessible for women.
We are also investing £80.3 million in high-quality grassroots sports facilities through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities (MSGF) Programme in England in 2025/26, and will also invest £68.35 million in 26/27. We will more than double priority access to grassroots football pitches for women and girls over the next four years. MSGF funded facilities should reserve at least 20% of priority use slots for women and girls teams. Our delivery partner in England, the Football Foundation, has recently announced the Lionesses HERe to Play Fund which will help to ensure grassroots sports facilities across England are welcoming, safe and accessible for a new generation of women and girls.
Our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign has also worked with ukactive, CIMSPA and Women’s Aid to publish new guidance to help fitness and leisure facilities continue to create safer spaces for women and girls to be active.
In addition, the safety of all those who attend sporting fixtures is a priority for the Government. The Government funds the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) whose purpose is to ensure sports grounds are safe for everyone, including women and girls. The SGSA continues to support world class standards of physical supporter safety for all attendees.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the number of domestic thatch growers on the future of the industry.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
There are approximately 25,000 listed thatched buildings in England, many more are unlisted. These buildings are a quintessential part of some of our best loved rural landscapes.
Historic England, the government’s statutory advisor on heritage, carried out research into the thatching industry and domestic supply of material for thatching historic buildings. A 2024 report estimates that 80% of cereal straw grown for thatching in England is produced by around 25 English growers. In Historic England’s view, it is not necessarily the number of domestic growers that impacts the future of the industry, but their wider challenges such as mechanisation, climate and the wider supply chain.
In response to their research, Historic England updated their guidance on the conservation of traditional thatch in 2025 enabling a change of thatch materials in times of shortage and in cases in urgent need of repair. This update aims to provide confidence to decision makers to grant listed building consent whilst helping to maintain support for the straw-growing sector. To disseminate its latest guidance, Historic England is holding a free workshop for thatching-straw growers in April 2026 with further research into mechanisation solutions for growers planned later this year.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Home Office on fire safety and the use of flammable materials in indoor entertainment venues.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
No such discussions have taken place. The Home Office is the department responsible for fire safety policy and the enforcement of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which governs the safety of all non-domestic premises, including indoor entertainment venues. Building regulations regarding the use of materials are the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of the BBC TV licence in terms of the general cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The cost of the licence fee will rise in line with inflation on 1 April, to provide the BBC with a stable financial footing to deliver for audiences and support the wider creative industries.
The Government recognises the financial difficulties being faced by households and is committed to ensuring the BBC’s funding model is sustainable, fair and affordable. To support the public with the cost of the TV licence, we will also continue to support the Simple Payment Plan to spread payments through smaller instalments. Free licences remain available for over-75s on Pension Credit, with reduced fees for care home residents and blind individuals.
The ongoing Charter Review will ensure the BBC is sustainably and fairly funded to provide value for licence fee payers and drive growth, opportunity and good jobs across the country.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has assessed the adequacy of the Green Book's methodology of the social and health benefits of places of worship, including when determining levels of capital and tax relief support.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS welcomes the new Green Book, including its treatment of social and health benefits. DCMS interventions in listed places of worship were assessed in line with Green book methodology. The Culture and Heritage Capital Programme, provides supplementary guidance to the Green Book which increasingly helps us understand and articulate the growth, health and wellbeing impacts of interventions like the Places of Worship Renewal Fund.
Asked by: Lord Butler of Brockwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor the impact of the ban on mixed-product promotional offers and the cap on bonus wagering requirements on high-risk gambling behaviour.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to strengthening protections for those at risk of gambling harm. We continue to monitor the best available evidence that assesses the impact of consumer protection measures when making future policy decisions.
Alongside monitoring the best available evidence, we have commissioned a robust evaluation of a subset of the measures introduced through the Gambling Act Review, including socially responsible incentives. We expect the findings of that evaluation to be published by the end of this year. This work will be supported by the statutory gambling levy, which directs 20% of its funding toward independent research to fill critical gaps in the evidence base. This will also include a proportion of funding for the Gambling Commission to direct further research in line with the licensing objectives.
Asked by: Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent progress has been made in negotiations relating to cultural mobility, with particular reference to CITES-regulated instruments moving between the UK and EU.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has reset the UK’s relationship with the EU, and committed to help our touring artists in our manifesto. This is in full recognition of the challenges that touring artists, and their support staff, face when touring in Europe. Our aim is to identify practical solutions to ensure that UK artists can continue to perform across Europe with minimal barriers while respecting the regulatory frameworks on both sides.
At the inaugural UK-EU Summit, the UK and European Commission committed to supporting UK-EU cultural exchange, recognising the activities of touring artists. This is in the UK’s national interest, and the EU’s interest.
By ensuring artists and crew can tour more easily, we can support shared economic growth, job creation, and artistic innovation across our continent.
Therefore, we will continue to engage constructively with the EU and Member States to explore solutions that improve mobility arrangements for touring across Europe.
Specifically on CITES, The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) recently consulted on potential reforms to the UK’s CITES framework, including Musical Instrument Certificates, with the aim of ensuring the system is clear, proportionate, and effective.
This consultation provided the opportunity for the music sector to make its voice heard directly on the proposals for fees, charges, and processes, ensuring the unique needs of touring artists are fully reflected in the outcome. The consultation closed on 23 October 2025, and responses are currently being analysed by Defra. The outcome of the consultation, and associated amendments, will be discussed and reviewed across Government.
DCMS will continue working closely with Defra and other partners, including the EU, to ensure the impacts on the music sector are properly understood and considered.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of Arts Council England staff are disabled at each pay quartile.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The table outlines the proportion of disabled and non-disabled members of Arts Council England (ACE) staff in each quartile’ between April 2024 and March 2025. Unlike gender pay gap data, there are no requirements or guidance on how disability pay gap data must be collected or reported.
Quartile | Disabled % | Non-disabled % |
First (lower) quartile | 19.70% | 74.60% |
Second quartile | 19.10% | 75.70% |
Third quartile | 17.30% | 79.20% |
Fourth (upper) quartile | 9.30% | 87.80% |
ACE are only able to provide such data based on the information staff choose to disclose, and so these figures are based on those who have identified as one of i) disabled, ii) not disabled, or iii) prefer not to say. Please note that this data does not add up to 100% because a number of ACE staff chose ‘prefer not to say’ when asked to disclose their status.
ACE has undertaken a number of initiatives in recent years to increase recruitment prospects for disabled candidates at both the attraction and selection stages. For example, ACE explicitly welcomes applications from people with experience of disability for roles such as National Council positions, which shows their intention to broaden applicant pools at the attraction stage.