Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the level of government funding to the BBC in each of the last five years for (1) the BBC World Service, (2) BBC Media Action, and (3) other funding streams; and what decisions have been made, if any, to provide the BBC with funding to replace EU payments that will or have ceased.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since 2016, the FCDO has funded the World2020 Programme which has established 12 new language services and provided enhancements to existing services. The FCDO provided the following funding to the World Service: £34.2m for 2016-17; £85.6m for 2017-18; £85.8m for 2018-19 and 2019-20; and £87.2m for 2020-21.
BBC Media action sets out the levels of government funding within its annual review. They are reported to be £17.8m in 2016/17, £9.3m in 2017/18, £8m in 2018/19 and £10.3m in 2019/20. The 2020/21 report is due to be published.
As part of the UK's withdrawal from the EU, the UK will no longer be participating in the vast majority of EU programmes, and the Government has chosen to look at other ways of supporting the UK sectors.
The BBC sets out its full funding streams within its annual accounts.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much money in each of the past five years was raised by the BBC licensing fee; how such fees were collected; and what was the (1) total collection cost, and (2) average cost per fee of collection.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The BBC is responsible for the collection and administration of the television licence fee, not the government. The government is therefore not involved in TV Licensing operations.
TV licencing sets out the amounts collected within it’s annual review. The 2020/21 report is due to be published.
The total income raised by the TV licence fee is stated as being £3.78bn in 2016/17, £3.8bn in 2017/18, £3.6bn in 2018/19 and £3.5bn in 2019/20.
The total collection cost is stated as being £82.2m in 2016/17, £101m in 2017/18, £102.6m in 2018/19 and £119.5m in 2019/20.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport does not hold information on the average cost per fee of collection. This information may be held by the BBC.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of COVID-19 on junior football leagues; and in particular, the refusal of some local authorities to allow pitches to be used after the normal date for the season to end.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have the best opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity. Our Sporting Future strategy sets out how important it is for all children to have a good experience of sport and physical activity while they are young. We want all young people to be healthy and active.
Government has made a £10.1m investment to open school facilities outside the school day to be spent in the Summer term. This is being delivered by Sport England and county-level Active Partnerships. This includes helping schools to make partnerships with local sports providers.
Local authorities have devolved powers and therefore can decide how best to use their land and facilities depending on their assessment of the needs of their local communities.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they have taken since January to ascertain the impact of alternative enforcement schemes for the BBC licence fee.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is considering decriminalisation of TV licence evasion and other possible reforms to the licence fee system to increase fairness and proportionality within the broader context of the ongoing licence fee settlement.
The government may in future undertake a further, technical consultation on the possible alternative civil sanctions to set out in more detail how alternative schemes could work in practice.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reduction in the numbers of children learning to swim due to the closure of swimming pools in the past year.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government does not collect data from schools on how many pupils are able to swim, but data from Sport England's annual Active Lives Children Survey provides the government with a national picture. Data for academic year 19/20 show that 77% of children in year 7 report they can swim 25m.
Swimming and water safety is an important part of the primary PE curriculum. The government is committed to ensuring that all children leave primary school with vital swimming and water safety skills. The PE and sport premium can be used by primary schools to support swimming and water safety, for example through 'top-up' lessons or additional teaching training. We provide schools with the flexibility to decide how to spend their premium in line with conditions of grant and do not collect data on proportion or amount of spend for any given activity.
In addition to the PE and sport premium, schools are able to access new virtual water safety lessons from Oak National Academy and the Department will be supporting the Royal Life Saving Society UK's Drowning Prevention Week in June 2021. The government has provided an additional £10.1m to improve use of school sport facilities, including swimming pools. New resources to support children with SEND learning to swim and knowing how to be safe in and around the water have been developed through the Inclusion 2020 grant, which is led by the Youth Sport Trust. These resources are available on Swim England's inclusion hub.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of schools that have benefited from Football Foundation funding that have withdrawn community access from their facilities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government does not collect detailed central information on individual schools opening facilities to the community. However, engagement and impact on the wider community is evaluated as part of the Football Foundation application and evaluation process.
We are encouraging more schools to open their facilities to the community and have provided £10.1 million this year to support their reopening as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of schools that have benefited from the National Lottery Community Fund but which have withdrawn community access to their facilities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the past five years the National Lottery Community Fund has granted funding to a total of 3,221 schools and educational bodies in the UK.
The National Lottery Community Fund monitors its live grants to ensure they meet the purpose and outcomes for which the funding was intended. The Fund is not aware of any current projects where community access to a school or educational body’s facilities was an expected outcome of the grant and has subsequently not been made available, outside of COVID-19 restrictions.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce legislation to decriminalise non-payment of the TV licence fee.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government believes that it is right to look again at whether the criminal sanction remains appropriate for TV licence fee evasion given ongoing concerns about whether the criminal sanction is unfair and disproportionate.
In February 2020, we launched a public consultation on decriminalising TV licence evasion.
The consultation closed in April after receiving over 150,000 responses. We will listen carefully to those that have responded before setting out our next steps.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has held meetings with representatives of the Charity Commission to discuss the corporate governance standards of the National Rifle Association.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
I have held no meetings with representatives of the Charity Commission to discuss the corporate governance standards of the National Rifle Association.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what analysis his Department has made of the economic impact of broadband blackspots in (a) London and (b) Vauxhall constituency.
Answered by Margot James
The Department has analysed the impacts of superfast broadband, including the economic impact. Our 2013 UK Broadband Impact Study, and an evaluation in 2015 of the UK's National Broadband Scheme are both available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-broadband-impact-study--2 and www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-national-broadband-scheme-an-independent-evaluation.
We will be publishing a further independent evaluation of the Department’s superfast programme, which has provided superfast broadband access to over 4.85 million homes and businesses across the UK.
The Department has not conducted a specific analysis of the economic impact of poor broadband connectivity in London or the Vauxhall constituency.