Charities: Funding

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The noble Lord is right, and we have worked closely with the National Lottery Community Fund and other funding partners—Comic Relief and Children in Need in particular—to make sure that charities working with BME communities and led by BME individuals receive the right level of support to reflect the importance of their work.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, following on from the question of my noble friend Lady Hayter, while transparency is important, does the Minister not agree that even more important is the difficulties that charities face raising funds during the Covid epidemic? While the Government have given them some moneys—she mentioned the £750 million—some organisations such as Age UK, and at this time of year, the Royal British Legion, which is doing fantastic work, are facing great difficulties as to whether they can continue to exist. Will the Minister talk to these organisations and try to find some further support to make sure that none of them stop doing their vital work?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I absolutely agree with the noble Lord that these organisations do vital work. To be clear, there was a £750 million grant package, billions through the job retention scheme and other significant pots of money. I talk to these organisations literally daily, and my genuine understanding is that a lot of funds have been distributed for this year and we are working with them to understand their challenges in the years ahead.

Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Insolvency and Dissolution) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2020

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Friday 9th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op) [V]]

My Lords, I am really grateful to the Minister for her full and helpful explanation of the regulations. Like her, I shall first say a few words to put them into context and in doing so I declare an interest as a former chair of Age Scotland and, many years ago, a director of Age Concern Scotland. I know from that experience how difficult it is to fundraise. The pressures on charities to raise money to support vital work to help poor, vulnerable and lonely people are very great indeed, even in normal times.

The impact of Covid-19 on the charity sector has been significant, in some cases devastating, exacerbating many of the financial challenges facing charities across the United Kingdom, which were increasingly relied on to provide vital services—to older people in the case of Age UK—during the pandemic. Charities such as Age Scotland and Age UK and their regional and local partners have been doing their utmost to provide services to support older people despite these financial difficulties. For example, during lockdown Age UK lost one-third of its income overnight due to the closure of 400 of its charity shops. That was £900,000 a week. While the charity has made significant changes nationally to respond to this drop in income, many local Age UK branches have also had to make significant cutbacks, closing services and making staff redundant, with consequent effects on their clients. Some Age UK branches have closed, and many more will have to make similar decisions in the coming months, as the impact of the virus on the income of the organisation is becoming clearer. For Age UK such financial hardship could likely mean that many older people were left without support in future. It is incredibly sad and difficult for the staff in the partner charities who work tirelessly to support those most vulnerable in our community. For our elderly in society this is of grave concern, especially as we slowly see the erosion of other vital services that have successfully been provided until now for older people—for instance, the withdrawal of free TV licences for the over-75s. I am worried that this is a straw in the wind and that we will see the erosion of other services for the elderly.

While Age UK has now reopened around two-thirds of its charity shops and is beginning some recovery of its income, uncertainty around life getting back to normal and the threat of local and national lockdowns are a continuous threat to the charity and others. While the Government are providing some financial support to charities—after much cross-party pressure—it does not go far enough when many are likely to face even greater financial hardship and increasing workloads over the coming months. Indeed, the advice officered by the Government to charities in managing finances is vague and impractical. The GOV.UK website suggests

“developing alternative sources of funding or launching an emergency appeal”,

which is unlikely to be possible,

“borrowing money from banks”—

again, not likely to be successful—and

“reducing actual or planned spending”,

which is what they are doing, but that reduces services. Finally, it suggests

“stopping doing some of your charity’s activities”,

which is exactly what is happening, so the advice is not really very helpful.

I now turn to some specific points related to the regulations before us. The moratorium period is said to give an organisation breathing space during which time some creditors cannot take specific action of enforcement. Why only some of them and not all creditors? The breathing space that these regulations give is provided while remedies are sought. Will the Minister say what remedies and from where? Can she enlighten us on that? Furthermore, does the Minister believe that a 20-day delay is long enough, particularly given the extraordinary circumstances that we are in? Did the Government, for example, conduct an assessment before deciding on those 20 days? As the Minister sees, I have some concerns about the position charities are in and whether these regulations will be a significant help. Nevertheless, I support them today.

Covid-19: Regional Theatres

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I am sorry to hear about the fate of the Dudley Hippodrome. However, strategically, this fund has been very much aligned to the fact that we must protect key physical institutions to protect the jobs and creativity that are found there.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op) [V]]

My Lords, will the Minister explain why all those who work in the theatre are not eligible for the Chancellor’s new job support scheme?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I hope that the noble Lord welcomes the new job support scheme and, importantly, its extension for self-employed people to the end of April. The uptake in the art sector of these schemes has been among the largest of any sector in the economy.

Television Licences

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to discuss with the incoming Director General of the BBC the postponement of the withdrawal of free television licences for people aged over 75.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Barran) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government congratulate Tim Davie on his appointment as the new director-general of the BBC. The Secretary of State spoke to Tim Davie on his appointment and looks forward to working with him in the months and years ahead. However, I must make it clear that the BBC is responsible for the over-75s licence fee concession, not the Government. The BBC board is keeping the start date of its new policy for the over-75s under review and has said it will announce its decision on any further delay to the changes to the concession in July.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op) [V]]

My Lords, that is a totally unacceptable Answer. Surely both the BBC and the Government have accepted by postponing for two months how vital television is for old people to keep in touch with vital information from the Government, as well as entertainment and other information. Now, since older people are being asked to be in lockdown, many of them indefinitely, surely it is not too much to ask the Government and the BBC to get together now to discuss postponing this withdrawal of free TV licences, also indefinitely. Will the Minister give the assurance today that the BBC and the Government will get round the table to discuss postponing this indefinitely?

[Baroness Barran]

The Government are well aware of the sacrifice that many people, particularly elderly people, have made during the past few months. However, the responsibility is absolutely clear and was debated extensively by this House during the passing of the Digital Economy Act in 2017: the BBC is responsible for this matter.

Data Strategy

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

I do not think the Government would accept that we have compromised our data security standards. We keep them under review at all times and this is obviously a fast-moving area. We remain confident that we can obtain a full agreement on data adequacy by the year end and are optimistic that that will be the case.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op) [V]]

My Lords, since the Government have unilaterally ended the daily media briefing, how do they now intend to publicise regularly, preferably daily, all the essential data about the pandemic?

Covid-19: Television Licences

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the restrictions in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic, what plans they have to reconsider the decision on the provision of free TV licences for people aged over 75.

The Question was considered in a Virtual Proceeding via video call.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Barran) (Con)]

My Lords, the BBC is responsible for the over-75 licence concession—not the Government. The Government are disappointed with the BBC’s decision to restrict the concession to those in receipt of pension credit. Recognising the exceptional circumstances posed by Covid-19, the BBC board has decided to delay the new start date of its policy on over-75s until 1 August; the BBC will keep his issue under review.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Does the Minister accept that it is the Government who are forcing many hundreds of thousands of old people to stay at home for many more months and that, by agreeing to delay the implementation to the beginning of August, they have already accepted the principle that the TV is vital for many old people for information about Covid-19 and other things as well for entertainment? Since August is less than two months away, will the Minister and the Government get around the table with the BBC and decide to continue this delay indefinitely, or are they willing to condemn many hundreds of thousands of old people to even greater isolation and misery?

[Baroness Barran]

The noble Lord seeks to protect the health of our nation and that particularly includes old people. As I understand it, they are especially vulnerable to the impacts of Covid-19, so staying at home is a health issue. The Government are regularly around the table with the BBC and the other public service broadcasters; my right honourable friend the Secretary of State said recently that, should we be in a similar situation at the beginning of August, she very much hoped that the BBC would show the same flexibility on this issue as it has shown already.

Premier League: Project Restart

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker]

We will go on just for a minute. I call the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I know that sport is devolved but international relations are reserved to the UK Government, so will they make representations to UEFA to investigate why the Scottish Premier League is not carrying out its clear instructions to complete the top-tier domestic competition? It is flouting what UEFA has recommended.

[Baroness Barran]

My understanding is that it is up to the Scottish Premier League to agree with its member clubs the way forward, taking into account the particular opportunities and challenges that they face.

BBC and Public Service Broadcasting

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I am grateful to speak in this debate and I join in the justifiably effusive congratulations to my noble friend Lord Young. This has been one of the most impressive and informed debates I have sat through in this Chamber, and we have many impressive ones—it has been really tremendous.

The role of public service broadcasting is a crucial issue. I highlighted it recently in a report I was privileged to prepare for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on threats to media freedom throughout Europe. As I reported, public service broadcasters are under increasing threat from the growing number of authoritarian Governments in Europe today, and now, sadly, we see it happening here in the United Kingdom, as my noble friends Lady Liddell and Lord Puttnam said. As was made clear to me by MPs from all over Europe at the parliamentary assembly, the BBC is seen as the gold standard in public service broadcasting.

As my noble friends have said, the BBC is under attack in different ways: the principle of funding through the licence fee, in particular; but also, as others have said, in the despicable way of passing the buck for free TV licences for the over-75s, which is and ought to be the responsibility of the Government, and the Department for Work and Pensions in particular. It is disgraceful that that buck should be passed to the BBC. It will have a huge impact on vulnerable pensioners up and down the country, particularly those who fall just short of qualifying for pension credit but are by no means well off. It is those people who will be hardest hit by the changes, contrary to what was in Tory manifesto, which promises older people

“the security and dignity they deserve”.

Loneliness is a critical issue facing older people. It is an issue I have raised previously, in this Chamber and in my work as chair of Age Scotland, and it is one that the Government pretend to be concerned about. Research by Age UK found that more than 1 million people say that TV is their main source of company, yet the lack of responsibility from the Government to honour their promise to support older people who rely heavily on TV has been rightly met with overwhelming dismay and disappointment. That 2019 manifesto said:

“We recognise the value of free TV licences for over-75s”,


yet the Government still continue with the nonsense that their licences should be funded by the BBC, despite the widespread opposition.

Another worrying aspect of this approach is that asking the BBC to take on this responsibility must be incompatible with data protection laws, as well as being a time-consuming and costly exercise. Above all, I fear that some pensioners who will, in fact, remain entitled to free TV licences will nevertheless pay the fee for fear of prosecution, the resultant fines and even the threat of imprisonment if this remains a criminal offence. It is outrageous that the Government should put the most vulnerable people in our society in this position.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

We are now into March. This scheme is supposed to come into operation in a couple of months, yet we do not know how it is going to operate, who is eligible or whether the data protection laws will come into it. The last time I raised this, the noble Baroness said that she was disappointed that the BBC had not taken the funding on board. What is happening in relation to sorting this out?

[Baroness Barran]

If he will forgive me, in the interests of time I will write to the noble Lord with some of the detail. He raised a point about data sharing and the over-75s concession. The BBC’s decision document sets out that the BBC will operate a self-verification model. Therefore, the issues that he has raised should not arise but I am happy to write to him in detail about this.

A number of noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Judd, Lord Hennessy and Lord West, raised soft power—a matter that I have already touched on. The Government strongly support the BBC’s mission to bring high-quality and impartial news to audiences across the world. The noble Lord, Lord West, had done some clever maths on expenditure.

BBC: TV Licence Evasion

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

The last thing that this Government want to do is weaken or abandon an asset as strong and important as the BBC. My noble friend the Secretary of State set out the process earlier today and it might be helpful to repeat that. She said, “What we are talking about today is the consultation on decriminalisation. The licence fee for the 2022 to 2027 period will be the next stage in terms of setting that and then there is the mid-charter review confirming that the obligations in the charter have been met”. The full charter review needs to be thought through and everything will be included within that, including the funding model, making sure that the BBC remains the asset that we all cherish, but in a very changed world.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Will the Minister tell the House whether, under the cover of this consultation, the Government intend to renege on their promise to continue free TV licences for those over 75?

[Baroness Barran]

The Government remain disappointed with the BBC’s decision to restrict the over-75 licence fee concession to those in receipt of pension credit.

TV Licence Fee Enforcement

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morgan of Cotes]

I thank the noble Lord. I know that these issues were also considered briefly by this House yesterday during a Question responded to by my noble friend. Like the noble Lord, I will take the opportunity to pay tribute to the leadership of the BBC that the outgoing director-general has shown over the last seven years. It will undoubtedly be a challenging act for the board to find somebody to replace him.

I take what the noble Lord said about the way that TV licence evasion prosecutions are handled. However, it is correct that, in 2018, 121,203 people were prosecuted and sentenced for non-payment of a licence and, as I think came up yesterday, the broadcasting landscape is changing, people across the country are concerned about the payment of the licence fee, and it is right that the Government should look at the system overall, with lots of consultation.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, but what are the Government doing to ensure the continuation of free TV licences for all people over 75?

[Baroness Morgan of Cotes]

Well, I discuss this issue regularly with senior management of the BBC. The Government of course remain disappointed that, despite the settlement agreed with the BBC over the licence fee in 2015, which was welcomed by the BBC at the time, this step has been taken. Discussions continue, but we think that the BBC should be funding free TV licences for the over-75s.