Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to increase the rate of Theatre Tax Relief.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Secretary of State and DCMS are committed to supporting the cultural sector through this challenging time and we recognise how severely theatres, theatre companies and live music venues have been hit by COVID-19. The Government is supporting these sectors through unprecedented financial measures, including business rate reliefs, the Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the world-leading £1.57 billion support package for culture. DCMS has also 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, made possible by Government funding.
In 2018-19, £78 million of theatre tax relief was paid out relating to 3,380 productions, of which 950 were touring and 2,430 were non-touring. Since Theatre tax relief was introduced in September 2014, £208 million has been paid out relating to 8,395 productions. HM Treasury keeps all tax reliefs under review and DCMS continues to engage with these sectors extensively to best understand the challenges they face and consider the additional measures that may be needed to support the long-term recovery of these sectors.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will discuss with the Chancellor of the Exchequer the potential merits of extending eligibility to Theatre Tax Relief to live music venues.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Secretary of State and DCMS are committed to supporting the cultural sector through this challenging time and we recognise how severely theatres, theatre companies and live music venues have been hit by COVID-19. The Government is supporting these sectors through unprecedented financial measures, including business rate reliefs, the Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the world-leading £1.57 billion support package for culture. DCMS has also 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, made possible by Government funding.
In 2018-19, £78 million of theatre tax relief was paid out relating to 3,380 productions, of which 950 were touring and 2,430 were non-touring. Since Theatre tax relief was introduced in September 2014, £208 million has been paid out relating to 8,395 productions. HM Treasury keeps all tax reliefs under review and DCMS continues to engage with these sectors extensively to best understand the challenges they face and consider the additional measures that may be needed to support the long-term recovery of these sectors.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 May 2020 to Question 43023 on Angling: Coronavirus, whether the Government's guidance on angling has changed as a result of the Prime Minister’s covid-19 announcement on 10 May 2020.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 11 May, Government published updated guidance on lockdown measures, including updates on how people can remain active. From Wednesday 13 May, people are allowed to go outside more than once a day for exercise as long as they are following social distancing guidelines, alone, with members of their household, or with one person from outside of their household. People must still only exercise in groups of no more than two people, unless they are exercising with their household.
All outdoor sports and physical activities are now permitted, without time limit, including angling. Swimming in an open-air swimming pool is an exception, however, this does not apply to individuals’ private swimming pools within their own homes.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on support for charity workers in faith organisations through the package of support announced for charities.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We are proactively engaging across the sector, to maintain a complete picture of the impact of coronavirus, and working to identify the additional support charities require through this time of financial instability. The £750 million package of grants announced by the Chancellor on 8 April is a substantial package of targeted support for charities and their staff working on the frontline of responding to Coronavirus. Charity workers can also make use of other measures announced by the Chancellor including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
The Government funding will be allocated based on evidence of service need. No allocations of government funds have been made yet but departments are working at pace to identify priority recipients. Once funding has been allocated, eligible Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise organisations will be able to start accessing funds within weeks.
More information will be announced shortly
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to raise awareness of the National Citizen Service among young people from each of the classified ethnic groups.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NCS Trust’s contracts with their local partners include a requirement that young people participating in NCS match, as closely as possible, to the local demographics. For example in areas where there are mixed ethnic groups our partners are required to reflect this in the makeup of NCS participants. This is tracked by the NCS Trust as part of their overall contract management of partners.
In addition marketing campaigns and materials have been developed to appeal to a wide and diverse mix of young people with many featuring local participants.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to Answer of 21 January 2020 to Question 3229 on Children and Young People, what will be classified as harder to reach areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My department is committed to ensuring this investment reaches young people who need it most, including those who currently have difficulty in accessing youth services. We are still developing plans for the delivery of the Youth Investment Fund and will announce more information in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to Answer of 21 January 2020 on Question 3229 on Children and Young People, where she plans to build the 60 new youth centres.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are still developing plans for the delivery of the Youth Investment Fund - including the building of new youth centres - and will announce more information in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many young people participated in the National Citizen Service in each of the last 10 years, by classified ethnic group.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Please see a breakdown of participation in National Citizen Service Trust for the period 2015-2017, classified by ethnic group:
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Total | 75,605 | 92,996 | 98,808 |
Ethnic Group | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
White | 70.7% | 70.7% | 67.9% |
Asian | 13.5% | 14.0% | 15.8% |
Black | 7.8% | 7.9% | 7.9% |
Mixed | 5.1% | 4.7% | 5.0% |
Other | 1.5% | 1.6% | 1.9% |
NA | 1.4% | 1.2% | 1.6% |
BAME | 27.9% | 28.2% | 30.5% |
NCS attracts young people from a diverse range of backgrounds and participation by those who classify themselves as BAME has been consistent since 2015.
In 2017, more than a quarter (30.5%) of NCS participants classified themselves as BAME. This compares to 26% of the state secondary school population.
The NCS annual report for financial year 2018/19 has not yet been published and therefore the data for 2018 and 2019 has not been shared here.
NCS used a different data management system prior to 2015. As a result, the data is not consistent over the ten year period. I will write with further clarification once I have received further information from NCS.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with broadcasters on the omission of religion as a category in the diversity monitoring system Project Diamond.
Answered by Margot James
We expect broadcasters to voluntarily publish their data on all diversity characteristics - not just those they are legally obliged to - and the BBC should be leading the way on this.There have been no discussions with broadcasters regarding Project Diamond monitoring categories. Project Diamond is an industry led monitoring scheme owned by the Creative Diversity Network which is made up of all of the UK’s major broadcasters. Therefore, the decision to include or exclude categories is for the Creative Diversity Network alone.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the BBC on (a) the omission of religion in the diversity monitoring system Project Diamond and (b) the effect of that omission on on-off screen diversity monitoring of faith groups working in or with that public service broadcaster.
Answered by Margot James
We expect broadcasters to voluntarily publish their data on all diversity characteristics - not just those they are legally obliged to - and the BBC should be leading the way on this.There have been no discussions with broadcasters regarding Project Diamond monitoring categories. Project Diamond is an industry led monitoring scheme owned by the Creative Diversity Network which is made up of all of the UK’s major broadcasters. Therefore, the decision to include or exclude categories is for the Creative Diversity Network alone.