Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 improve the (a) availability and (b) accessibility of SEND sports camps in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is dedicated to making sport in this country accessible and inclusive for everyone. The holiday activities and food programme provides healthy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. The holiday activities and food programme funding is primarily for school aged children from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals. Local authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children, who are not in receipt of benefits-related free school meals, but who the local authority believe could benefit from holiday activities and food programme provision.
The Department for Education encourages local authorities to engage with local and national organisations, including special schools with expertise in working with children with SEND or additional needs. Local authorities are obligated to include the numbers of children with SEND or additional needs who have participated in their programme in their post provision reporting to the department.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 promote (a) youth arts and (b) cultural festivals in Surrey Heath Constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government promotes and supports the arts predominantly through Arts Council England (ACE).
ACE’s open funding programme, National Lottery Project Grants, is currently accessible to organisations and individuals across the country, including those in Surrey Heath. This programme provides over £100 million of support annually to individuals and organisations. Since 2019, ACE has allocated over £280,000 of funding to individuals and arts organisations based in the Surrey Heath constituency. Last November, Surrey Youth Arts and Culture Festival received £13,311 of funding. The festival, based at Camberley Library and Camberley Theatre was a Surrey County Council partnership led project which aimed to raise aspirations and break down barriers to engagement for young people accessing creative skills development pathways in Surrey.
In addition, Local Authorities remain one of the largest supporters of arts and culture in England, and DCMS will continue to advocate and help local decision-makers understand and recognise the benefits that the arts can bring for young people.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to support the (a) upkeep and (b) preservation of culturally significant buildings in the Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government believes that a fit-for-purpose cultural infrastructure, which increases access for all, is part of this sector's success.
At the Autumn Spending Review government prioritised support for our cultural institutions so that they can continue to be world-leading. This settlement includes investment of over £270 million through the Arts Everywhere Fund for arts venues, museums, libraries and the heritage sector to boost growth and cement Britain’s place as a cultural powerhouse. £85 million will be available through the Creative Foundations Fund, which will support urgent capital works to keep cultural venues across the country up and running.
In addition, DCMS and the Department’s Arm’s-Length Bodies provide a range of financial support for culturally significant buildings. These include the Theatres Trust, who provide small grants to theatres for building work; the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have committed to investing around £100m between 2023 and 2026 to support places of worship; the Churches Conservation Trust, which funds repairs and maintenance of over 350 churches in the CCT portfolio; and Historic England's Heritage At Risk grants, funding £9 million worth of repairs to buildings on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register between April 2024 and March 2025.
All that being said, there has been no MEND or ACE Capital funding in Surrey Heath constituency in the last five years.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Independent Press Standards Organisation for (a) supporting and (b) regulating news publications.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to protecting press freedom, which is essential to a strong and functioning democracy. In the UK, there exists an independent, self-regulatory system for the press, which is crucial to maintain press freedom. The Government therefore does not intervene in or oversee the work of IPSO and Impress.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of The Independent Monitor of the Press for (a) supporting and (b) regulating news publications.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to protecting press freedom, which is essential to a strong and functioning democracy. In the UK, there exists an independent, self-regulatory system for the press, which is crucial to maintain press freedom. The Government therefore does not intervene in or oversee the work of IPSO and Impress.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 proposed increase in employers' National Insurance contributions on not-for-profit organisations.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
At the recent Budget, the government took a number of difficult decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the foundations on public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability.
Ministers have met with representatives from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to discuss this issue and the department is aware of their concerns about the impacts of the increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).
The government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that more than half of businesses (including charities) with NICs liabilities will either gain or see no change next year.
We are also expanding eligibility of the Employment Allowance by removing the £100,000 eligibility threshold, to simplify and reform employer NICs so that all eligible employers now benefit. Businesses and charities will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.
The Government publishes Tax Information and Impact Notes (TIINs) for tax policy changes, which give a clear explanation of the policy objective and an assessment of the impacts. The TIIN for the employer NICs changes was published on 13 November 2024.
Within the tax system, we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving. More than £6 billion in charitable reliefs was provided to charities, Community Amateur Sports Clubs and their donors in 2023 to 2024. The biggest individual reliefs provided are Gift Aid at £1.6 billion and business rates relief at nearly £2.4 billion.