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 implications for her policies of the Bectu report entitled UK film and TV industry in crisis, published on 26 February 2024.

Answered by Julia Lopez

The UK Government understands the huge value of our world-leading film and TV production sector and the importance of self-employed workers to the sector and wider creative economy.

The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. This was set out in June 2023 in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which was accompanied by £77 million of new funding to support the sector’s growth. This is on top of a range of tax reliefs for the creative industries that have been introduced or expanded since 2010.

The Government is already taking steps to ensure a strong, skilled and resilient workforce for the film and TV sector - as well as the wider creative industries - across the UK. The Creative Industries Sector Vision set out that by 2030 we want to deliver on our creative careers promise, to build a pipeline of talent into the sector and supports a million extra jobs. The Sector Vision includes a long-term strategy to improve the job quality and working practices in the sector, including supporting the high proportion of self-employed workers through the promotion of fair treatment, support networks and resources (for example through Creative UK's Redesigning Freelancing initiative).

The Government also welcomes the steps that our public service broadcasters have taken to support self-employed workers in response to current pressures. This includes the programme of support Channel 4 and the BBC announced in August, in partnership with the National Film and Television School.

DCMS and industry have also committed to produce an action plan in response to the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre’s Good Work Review, and actions include the recent launch of the British Film Institute’s £1.5 million Good Work Programme for screen. The government will continue to work with the BFI and the Screen Sector Skills Task Force to support a strong skills pipeline in the sector.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help encourage visitors to libraries.

Answered by Julia Lopez

We will be publishing a refreshed Government strategy for public libraries later this year, informed by the independent review of English public libraries conducted by Baroness Sanderson of Welton which engaged with a wide range of interested parties, including through the series of roundtable meetings she held across the country.

One of the recommendations of Baroness Sanderson’s review was that Libraries Week be moved from October, which often clashes with the party conference season, to a time in the year when MPs and peers can more easily engage with it and promote the work of libraries in their local area. We are delighted that, from this year, Libraries Week will take place at the end of June (this year, 24–30 June).

The forthcoming strategy will set out our plans to ensure that people across the country can benefit from excellent library services, and HM Government will explore opportunities to increase library use and engagement especially by children in line with Baroness Sanderson’s independent review recommendations.

In addition, the £20.5 million, DCMS-funded Libraries Improvement Fund is supporting public library services across England. The fund is supporting 95 projects to enable library services to upgrade their buildings and improve digital infrastructure, increasing their potential to develop more flexible spaces and improving digital access, thereby increasing library access and use.

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 estimate of the number of libraries that have closed since 2010.

Answered by Julia Lopez

Arts Council England collects data from local authorities and publishes a basic dataset of information on public libraries in England. The libraries basic dataset for 2022 shows the number of static libraries in England (statutory and non-statutory) from April 2010 to 31 December 2022 and includes information on permanent library closures (though not information on where replacement libraries have been set up). It can be found here.

More broadly, there remains a significant challenge for both the Government and for the libraries sector in getting robust, accurate, and timely data which can be used to support both advocacy and improvement. We are clear about the need to address this problem and are working closely with sector bodies (including Arts Council England, Libraries Connected and the Local Government Association) to chart a way forward in this area. Our forthcoming Government strategy for libraries will follow up on recommendations made by Baroness Sanderson of Welton’s independent review of public libraries in this regard.

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 estimate of the number of volunteers there were in amateur football in (a) 2010, (b) 2019 and (c) 2023.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Government tracks activity levels through Sport England’s Active Lives surveys. Two surveys run annually: Active Lives Adult, and Active Lives Children and Young People. These surveys measure the activity levels of people across England and allows the Government to collect accurate data on what and how much sport and physical activity different groups are participating in. You can find out more about the surveys on Sport England's website.

• 2009/10

• Active People survey - 15.2 million people took part in sport and wider physical activity for an average of at least 30 minutes a week.

• Children and young people - Sport England only started collecting data in 2017.

• 2018/19

• Active Lives Adult survey - 28.6 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.

• Active Lives Children and Young People survey - 3.3 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.

• 2022/23

• Active Lives Adult survey - 29.5 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.

• Active Lives Children and Young people survey - 3.5 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.

It’s important to note that comparing data on a consistent basis across this time is not possible as the methodologies and metrics employed changed to reflect changes in the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidance.

Since 2010, the CMO guidelines on physical activity changed from five separate sessions of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity in a week to at least 150 minutes of moderate equivalent intensity physical activity a week. In addition to this, Sport England’s remit has extended to include recreational activities and active travel.

Sport England does not record the number of volunteers in amateur football.

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 estimate of the number of people that played grassroots sport in England in (a) 2010, (b) 2019 and (c) 2023.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Government tracks activity levels through Sport England’s Active Lives surveys. Two surveys run annually: Active Lives Adult, and Active Lives Children and Young People. These surveys measure the activity levels of people across England and allows the Government to collect accurate data on what and how much sport and physical activity different groups are participating in. You can find out more about the surveys on Sport England's website.

• 2009/10

• Active People survey - 15.2 million people took part in sport and wider physical activity for an average of at least 30 minutes a week.

• Children and young people - Sport England only started collecting data in 2017.

• 2018/19

• Active Lives Adult survey - 28.6 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.

• Active Lives Children and Young People survey - 3.3 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.

• 2022/23

• Active Lives Adult survey - 29.5 million took part in 150+ minutes of activity a week.

• Active Lives Children and Young people survey - 3.5 million doing an average of 60+ minutes per day.

It’s important to note that comparing data on a consistent basis across this time is not possible as the methodologies and metrics employed changed to reflect changes in the Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidance.

Since 2010, the CMO guidelines on physical activity changed from five separate sessions of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity in a week to at least 150 minutes of moderate equivalent intensity physical activity a week. In addition to this, Sport England’s remit has extended to include recreational activities and active travel.

Sport England does not record the number of volunteers in amateur football.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support lower budget film and TV programmes.

Answered by Julia Lopez

The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. This was set out in June 2023 in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which was accompanied by £77 million of new funding to support the sector’s growth.

We are taking steps to support producers of all sizes and the production sector more generally. This includes generous tax reliefs across studio space and visual effects, investing in studio infrastructure, and supporting innovation and promoting independent content through the UK Global Screen Fund.

At Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor also announced the UK Independent Film Tax Credit. Eligible films with production budgets (excluding marketing and distribution) of up to £15 million will be able to opt-in to claim enhanced Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit at a rate of 53% on their qualifying expenditure.

This is in addition to our long standing interventions supporting the independent television production sector, including the independent productions quota and associated Terms of Trade regime, which have been extremely successful in furthering the diversity of the sector and its output.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to ensure there are no uninsulated overhead electricity cables at domestic sport facilities.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. It is for individual sports clubs to carry out risk assessments and put in place mitigations that will improve player safety.

Sport England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport arm's length body for grassroots sport, is not a regulator of community sport but does provide guidance to help sports clubs carry out risk assessments, as do national governing bodies of sport.

For each new sports facility built, there is a legal obligation shared between developers, designers and contractors to promote health and safety. This applies throughout the entire project cycle from design and construction through to operation, maintenance and demolition. This obligation is given in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations - https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/index.htm. Any breach of these regulations is a criminal offence.

In addition, Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 outline ongoing duties to protect workers and members of the public from risk.

The Health and Safety Executive and others, including the Energy Networks Association, have also produced guidance in relation to safety around overhead lines.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with public service broadcasters on commissioning (a) film and (b) TV products from media organisations within the UK.

Answered by Julia Lopez

Individual commissioning decisions are a matter for the public service broadcasters (PSBs) themselves, which are operationally and editorially independent of Government. In 2022, commissions by PSBs were worth more than £1.5 billion to the independent production sector in the UK.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps with relevant football bodies to help increase British Asian representation in football (a) on and (b) off the pitch.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps with relevant football bodies to help increase the level of volunteering in grassroots football.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.