Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many times (a) she and (b) officials from her Department have had discussions with the Chair of the Future of Women's Football Review since the Chair's appointment.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government is a staunch supporter of women’s football and the Future of Women’s Football Review is the next step in driving forward momentum for women’s football in this country.
Officials from the Department form the secretariat of the Review alongside the FA. Officials are in near daily contact with the Chair of the Review, and speak at least twice weekly with the Chair to discuss progress and analyse evidence. To date officials have collaborated with the Chair on nine individual stakeholder evidence sessions, a roundtable with Women’s Super League Clubs, and a roundtable with Women’s Championship Clubs. Officials will work with the Chair on a further eight stakeholder roundtables covering the key themes of the review over the next two weeks.
Ministerial engagement will take place in tandem with planned stakeholder roundtables over the coming weeks. The results of the Review will be published in the Chair’s final report, which will be published in spring 2023.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to increase support to women's football, following the success of the lionesses at Euro 2022 and the open letter the Lionesses wrote to the Prime Minister in August 2022.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are determined to support more women and girls to get active and football is the most popular team sport in terms of participation for women and girls.
The Lionesses’ fantastic performance at the 2022 Women’s Euros has truly inspired the nation with a record breaking crowd of over 87,000 attending the final and 23.3m UK viewers tuning into the BBC’s coverage. It is essential that we take the opportunity to capitalise on and build on the success and legacy of the tournament and the team to secure a long lasting and sustainable future for the women’s game.
To raise the profile of facilities in the UK, and to commemorate the Lionesses, the Football Foundation is working with facility owners to name pitches/facilities in towns and cities that have a strong link to each tournament winning squad member. We will also continue to invest in grassroots sport to bring on the next generation of Lionesses and continue to work with the Department for Education to ensure girls have equal access to sports. The Prime Minister and the DCMS Secretary of State were delighted to meet the Lionesses earlier this month who are extraordinary ambassadors for sport. They reconfirmed their commitment to reviewing the barriers to girls accessing two hours of PE.
The recently announced Women’s Football Review will look at how to deliver bold and sustainable growth of the women’s game at elite and grassroots level. We would encourage all interested stakeholders and organisations to come forward and contribute views to Karen Carney’s review. It is vital that we hear from a variety of voices across the game.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the adequacy of supply of covid-19 lateral flow tests; and what assessment he has made of whether there will be adequate supplies of those tests to enable planned summer events to go ahead safely.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Last year we quickly established one of the largest asymptomatic testing programmes in the world. We have now conducted over 90m lateral flow tests in England alone, finding nearly 200k cases. Home testing has been confirmed for some Events Research Programme (ERP) pilots only, and is not indicative of Step 4 policy decisions. ERP learnings will feed into wider policy making on step 4, and further details on broader testing policy will be released in due course. Current asymptomatic testing is available until 31 July, with further decisions on extending this to be taken in line with Step 4 of the Prime Minister's roadmap.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the financial situation of companies in the live events industry supply chain due to the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
DCMS continues to work closely with other government departments, academic institutions and stakeholders to review evidence on the impact of ongoing restrictions within the live events industries.
Most of the financial support schemes do not end until September or after, in order to provide continuity and certainty for businesses.
Throughout this pandemic there has been over £400 billion of economic support, one of the most generous and comprehensive packages in the world.
Although there is no current plan to make a statement on financial situations of individual sectors/settings, our engagements have helped us to understand both the nature and scale of the impact that this particular industry has faced.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a list all ministers, including the Prime Minister who have received a copy of the Events Research Programme results.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Events Research Programme report was published on Friday 25 June and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/events-research-programme-phase-i-findings
The Events Research Programme is a joint programme between DCMS, DHSC, and BEIS overseen by an industry-led steering group co-chaired by Sir Nicholas Hytner and David Ross. Evidence from the pilot events is considered by the group to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Secretaries of State for DCMS, BEIS and DHSC on how restrictions could be safely lifted at Step 4 of the Roadmap.
The report has been subject to a comprehensive and rigorous coordination and approval process across departments, academic institutions and ERP governance boards, and takes into account the latest public health data.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the results of the Events Research Programme.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Events Research Programme report was published on Friday 25 June and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/events-research-programme-phase-i-findings
The Events Research Programme is a joint programme between DCMS, DHSC, and BEIS overseen by an industry-led steering group co-chaired by Sir Nicholas Hytner and David Ross. Evidence from the pilot events is considered by the group to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Secretaries of State for DCMS, BEIS and DHSC on how restrictions could be safely lifted at Step 4 of the Roadmap.
The report has been subject to a comprehensive and rigorous coordination and approval process across departments, academic institutions and ERP governance boards, and takes into account the latest public health data.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish all (a) economic and (b) other assessments of the effect of not allowing large events during the covid-19 outbreak in summer 2021.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We recognise the challenging times facing all sectors currently, and continue to support them in line with the prime minister's roadmap to the full reopening of the economy.
Although we have no plans currently to publish an assessment, the Department has been working closely with stakeholders across large event settings throughout the pandemic, and this has helped us to understand both the nature and the scale of the impact this sector has faced.
Step 4 of The Prime Minister's roadmap allows large events to go ahead in Summer 2021 without restrictions. The roadmap sets out a cautious and gradual approach - led by data, not dates - and while we know there may be loss of some business as a result of the delay to step 4, public health must remain the government’s top priority.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 26 April 2021 to Question 185358 on the National Leisure Recovery Fund, when the early information from the Government's data capture system will be published.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The data capture system for the National Leisure Recovery Fund, Moving Communities, is now fully operational. The platform opened for data submissions at the start of April with 280 Local Authorities relating to c.1100 leisure facilities across England.
A series of headline national statistics will be released over the coming weeks with a fuller report available at the end of June. Local Authorities and the leisure service providers have been able to access their local data and interrogate through the filtering and dashboards available on the platform since the beginning of May.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to (a) ensure that the UK is a world leader in legislation on streaming and (b) increase the revenues artists receive from their streamed music.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises that it is important that artists are fairly remunerated for their work. We are aware of the concerns that have been raised recently with regards to artists’ revenue from music streaming. The Government welcomes the DCMS Select Committee inquiry into the economics of music streaming, and we have provided evidence to inform the inquiry. We look forward to receiving the Committee’s recommendations, which we will respond to.
We will continue to encourage the ongoing dialogue between music creators, record labels, and streaming services on this issue. The Government has funded a 12-month industry-led research project investigating the flow of money from streaming to creators which is due to report this summer.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the 20 April 2021 letter to the Prime Minister signed by over 150 artists on ensuring that artists receive a greater share of revenue from the streaming of their music; and if he will meet with artists to discuss that letter.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has not made a specific assessment of the implications of what was set out in the letter from artists to the Prime Minister, but we are considering the issues relating to music streaming more generally.
We welcome the DCMS Select Committee inquiry into the economics of music streaming, and have provided evidence to inform the inquiry. We look forward to receiving the Committee’s recommendations, which we will respond to. We will also be happy to consider any meeting requests from interested stakeholders as appropriate.
The Government has funded a 12-month industry-led research project investigating the flow of money from streaming to creators which is due to report this summer. We will continue to encourage the ongoing dialogue between music creators, record labels, and streaming services on this issue.