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Written Question
Culture Recovery Fund: Sussex
Friday 29th January 2021

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding from the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas has been allocated to cinemas in (a) Sussex and (b) Arundel and South Downs constituency.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The government recognises the significant cultural and economic value of cinemas, and has supported them through both sector-specific and economy-wide measures. In the first round of the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, more than 200 independent cinemas have so far received funding from a £30m pot. This funding was administered by the BFI on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, as part of the biggest ever single investment in this country’s cultural sectors.

£1,037,554 from the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas has so far been allocated to cinemas across Sussex, with £643,083 in West Sussex and £394,471 in East Sussex. There have been no applications received from cinemas in the Arundel and South Downs constituency, West Sussex. Further to this funding, we announced in December that cinemas will be able to apply for another £14 million in grants as part of the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund in 2021. This will support cinemas as they transition back to a viable and sustainable way of operating in the months ahead.

In addition to the Culture Recovery Fund, most cinemas will have benefited from economy-wide measures including the VAT cut on tickets and concessions, a business rates holiday, access to Bounce Back Loans, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Local Restrictions Support Grants.


Written Question
Local Press
Wednesday 27th January 2021

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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 support local newspapers.

Answered by John Whittingdale

The government is committed to supporting local and regional newspapers as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. Local newspapers have benefited from a number of recent interventions, including the extension of business rates relief for local newspapers in England for an additional five years; the investment of £2 million in the Future News Fund; and the zero-rating of VAT on e-newspapers.

During the pandemic, many newspapers have also benefited from a unique and unprecedented government advertising partnership, designed to deliver important messages to UK citizens. Newspapers received up to £35 million additional government advertising revenue as part of the first phase of our coronavirus communications campaign. The campaign has subsequently been extended with at least 60% funding going to smaller regional and local titles.

Looking ahead, the government announced in November 2020 that it will establish a new pro-competition regime for digital markets. At the heart of this will be a mandatory code of conduct to govern the relationships between dominant firms and those that rely on their services, including news publishers. The code will be a significant intervention in the government’s effort to support the sustainability of the news publishing industry, helping to rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely.

We will continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining high-quality news journalism at a local level.


Written Question
Mobile Phones: West Sussex
Wednesday 27th January 2021

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on improving mobile coverage in rural West Sussex.

Answered by Matt Warman

The Government wants the UK to have high-quality mobile coverage where people live, work and travel, and we are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage further to 95% of the UK.

That is why the Government announced on 9 March 2020 that it had agreed the £1 billion Shared Rural Network deal with the mobile network operators. This landmark deal will see operators collectively increase mobile phone coverage throughout the UK to 95% by the end of 2025, underpinned by legally binding coverage commitments.

Since signing the agreement, however, initial radio plans have been submitted to the regulator, Ofcom, and an open, fair and transparent competitive procurement process for the publicly funded elements of the programme has commenced.

We are currently unable to provide any details on the precise location or number of new or upgraded masts that may be delivered in rural areas of West Sussex as a result of the programme. However, I have personally encouraged operators to be transparent about their plans.


Written Question
Broadband: Sussex
Wednesday 9th December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department is making on delivering gigabit-speed broadband to rural homes and business throughout (a) Sussex and (b) Arundel and South Downs constituency.

Answered by Matt Warman

We currently split Sussex into East and West when collecting data. According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000011), 97.3% of premises in East Sussex could access superfast speeds and 13.2% had access to gigabit capable speeds, which is up from 0.5% in 2016. Only 0.8% of premises have access to less than 10Mbps, which makes them eligible for the Universal Service obligation (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/uso). Fast, reliable broadband has been instrumental in helping businesses and communities cope with the pressures caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency. It has enabled businesses to continue trading, diversify their offer and assist residents to work from home by allowing everyday activities to become digital.

In East Sussex, the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme has issued vouchers worth £562,272 to deliver gigabit-speed broadband to 852 premises. Many more projects are in the pipeline to receive DCMS support.

DCMS continues to work with Sussex Local Bodies to deliver gigabit-capable broadband solutions through its other programme such as the Superfast programme, which has been delivering gigabit speeds for several years.

West Sussex is similar with 97.2% of premises with access to Superfast and 14% with access to gigabit capable speeds. 0.9% are eligible for the USO (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000032)

West Sussex is committed to its rural digital agenda and has been working with DCMS and suppliers to accelerate coverage in some of the hardest to reach areas of the county.

The DCMS Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, which West Sussex is “topping up” to support rural communities, has attracted great interest. So far 28 community projects have registered with DCMS meaning around 2000 premises are able to benefit from the scheme with £1.1m being profiled to date and a further 26 community projects are seeking quotes.

Arundel and South Downs constituency (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14000534) currently has 93% of premises with the ability to access superfast speeds which is up from 7% in 1012. Currently 8% can access gigabit speeds.

Mid Sussex also has an ongoing Local Full Fibre Network Programme (LFFN) with an investment of £2.2m. The project focuses on developing new fibre and ducting for a scaffold ring in Burgess Hill and a connection to the Brighton Digital Exchange and the creation of a new Digital Exchange in Burgess Hill.

Mid Sussex District Council has also been successful in securing £3.2M of funding through the Getting Britain Building fund from MHCLG. This is to build a Rural Connectivity Full Fibre Network between Burgess Hill and Brighton, across the South Downs.

This project will complement and leverage the DCMS Local Full Fibre Network Programme investment across Burgess Hill. The gigabit capable network will connect 7 rural towns and is within 200m of over 20,000 rural households. The network will be completed by March 2022.


Written Question
Tourism: Sussex
Thursday 3rd December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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 help support the rural tourism sector in Sussex.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

My Department is taking a number of steps to support the rural tourism sector through COVID-19 and beyond, including in Sussex.

Tourism businesses in Sussex will have benefited from the unprecedented pan-economic measures we have put in place during COVID, including the VAT cut for tourism and hospitality activities, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, various grant and loan schemes, as well as business rates relief for the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors.

Launched in 2016, the £45m Discover England Fund has supported the development of internationally focused tourism products across England, including many with a rural focus. The ‘England’s Coast’ project highlights the South East’s coastal tourism offer, while the National Park Experience Collection contains rural itineraries for the South Downs National Park.

Between April and July, VisitEngland’s £1.3 million Destination Management Organisation Resilience Fund supported local tourism organisations in the West Midlands. Tourism South East received £25,914 from through this fund.

VisitEngland and my officials remain in close contact with regional tourism stakeholders to monitor the impact of COVID-19 and related restrictions. We also continue to work closely with the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs on how we can most effectively support rural tourism’s recovery.


Written Question
Cultural Heritage: Sussex
Thursday 12th November 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding from the Culture Recovery Fund has been allocated to the culture and heritage sector in (a) Sussex and (b) Arundel and South Downs constituency.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

Excluding the BFI awards which are still being processed, across arts and heritage the following sums have been awarded:

  1. Awards across Sussex (defined as the counties of East Sussex and West Sussex): £9.64m (71 awards)

  1. Arundel and South Downs constituency specifically: £250,226 (5 awards)

Please note that some awards may be subject to change depending on changing circumstances and need. Geographic allocation is determined by applicant postcode and may not directly relate to where any associated activity occurs.