Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 Government policies on the (i) availability and (ii) cost of tourist accommodation in Fylde constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Parliament legislated for a national registration scheme for short-term lets in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. The government remains committed to implementing this registration scheme as soon as practicable to support sustainable tourism and local communities.
The scheme will provide local authorities and government departments with data on short-term lets in their area for the first time. This information will help local authorities analyse the impact of short term let accommodation on housing and manage local services effectively, supporting a more sustainable visitor economy.
The data may also be used to support business cases for example to boost investment in the UK’s accommodation sector, or when making bids to host cultural and sporting events.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to create a balanced, thriving accommodation market that supports local economic growth and ensure communities can benefit from both tourism opportunities and sustainable housing options, enabling local areas to maximise their economic potential.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the answer of 28 May 2026 to question 2879, what the geographic distribution of applications to the first round of the Creative Foundations Fund was by region and local authority.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The first round of the Creative Foundations Fund awarded £96 million to 74 arts and cultural organisations in England. Arts Council England received 117 eligible applications from organisations based in all English regions, and 78 local authorities. The geographic distribution of applications was: East Midlands (9), East of England (9), London (28), North East (9), North West (11), South East (15), South West (15), West Midlands (11) and the Yorkshire and the Humber (10).
Arts Council England received one Expression of Interest, prior to the application stage, from an organisation based in Fylde, with no organisations from Fylde submitting a full application.
Arts Council England is expanding its Customer Services team to introduce a new Capital Advice Service. This will provide support for organisations applying to the Creative Foundations Fund, particularly for DCMS Culture Priority Places and organisations underrepresented in the first funding round. The service will provide bespoke capital advice, helping upskill the sector and enhance the quality of capital bids and projects.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the answer of 28 May 2026 to question 2879, what steps she is taking to ensure that organisations in constituencies such as Fylde are not disadvantaged by competition with larger metropolitan cultural institutions.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The first round of the Creative Foundations Fund awarded £96 million to 74 arts and cultural organisations in England. Arts Council England received 117 eligible applications from organisations based in all English regions, and 78 local authorities. The geographic distribution of applications was: East Midlands (9), East of England (9), London (28), North East (9), North West (11), South East (15), South West (15), West Midlands (11) and the Yorkshire and the Humber (10).
Arts Council England received one Expression of Interest, prior to the application stage, from an organisation based in Fylde, with no organisations from Fylde submitting a full application.
Arts Council England is expanding its Customer Services team to introduce a new Capital Advice Service. This will provide support for organisations applying to the Creative Foundations Fund, particularly for DCMS Culture Priority Places and organisations underrepresented in the first funding round. The service will provide bespoke capital advice, helping upskill the sector and enhance the quality of capital bids and projects.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 ensure measures to reduce the number of High Street bookmakers does not lead to an increase in online gambling harms.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As part of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, the Government has now introduced Gambling Impact Assessments (GIAs). While the introduction of GIAs will strengthen local authorities’ powers to shape their streets and neighbourhoods, including the ability to put a presumption in place against the opening of new gambling premises, they will not be applied retrospectively and existing premises, including bookmakers, will not be affected.
The Government recognises that land-based gambling typically has a lower risk profile than online gambling. The Government is continuing to work with the Gambling Commission and the sector to strengthen player protections across the sector, both online and in physical venues, to ensure that people can continue to enjoy gambling, without the harms that can sometimes ensue.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will assess the potential merits of a designated fund to help local groups help establish ParkRun events.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities. Local initiatives such as parkrun align with our commitment to place based working, enabling communities to co-create local solutions that break down the barriers to getting active.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 ensure beneficiaries of the Museum Estate and Development Fund provide information that is politically neutral.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) supports non-national, accredited museums across England by providing funding to address urgent infrastructure and maintenance backlogs that exceed standard day-to-day budgets. The programme strictly finances capital projects, such as water ingress, faulty boilers and crumbling roofs, thus ensuring that the physical buildings safeguarding the nation's collections are protected for future generations. The application itself requires strict technical and financial documentation, meaning organisations must submit costed condition surveys, project proposals, planning permissions, and RIBA Stage 3 plans, alongside robust risk registers, financial management strategies, and evidence of match funding. Because MEND focuses entirely on physical infrastructure, museums do not need to submit any details regarding their exhibition content or how it is interpreted.
Core operational matters like exhibition content and day-to-day curation fall entirely outside the scope of MEND. Arts Council England (ACE) does not intervene in these independent creative choices, leaving autonomy to individual museums. While funded organisations must align with the ACE Relationship Framework, this structure is explicitly designed to safeguard public investment while protecting artistic independence. Furthermore, as accredited charities or council-run entities, applicants must adhere to Charity Commission rules against partisan campaigning, thus ensuring that public funds are used solely to secure the physical future of the museum buildings themselves.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 ensure that the outcomes of the Creative Foundations Fund are distributed equitably across the country.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The first round of the Creative Foundations Fund awarded £96 million to 74 arts and cultural organisations in England. Of these, 58 projects—accounting for 78% of the total projects awarded—were located outside of London. Arts Council England, the fund’s delivery partner, used their Priority Places as a balancing criteria to guide round one investment in areas where opportunities for creative and cultural engagement are underdeveloped.
Up to £425 million will be committed across England through the Creative Foundations Fund by 2030 as part of the £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund. This will be invested in areas and organisations that need it most. Arts Council England will announce further details regarding the application process and eligibility criteria for future rounds in due course.
All not for profit arts and cultural organisations are able to apply for funding, if they meet the criteria. It is ultimately for Arts Council England to make funding decisions, in line with the arm’s-length principle.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 increase general awareness of relative energy deficiency in sport.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting women and girls in sport at every level by actively removing the barriers that prevent their full participation.
Female athletes disproportionately experience a number of health conditions, including Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), which has common indicators such as stress fractures and changes to the menstrual cycle.
DCMS’ Women’s Football Taskforce and Women’s Sport Taskforce are driving progress on numerous fronts for sportswomen, including working closely with the Female Athlete Health National Governing Body Collective to better understand where academic research is happening on issues such as RED-S. The Women’s Football Taskforce also commissioned Loughborough University to work with leading insurance providers and brokers to offer more appropriate support for female athletes. This work has encouraged insurers to address blind spots in existing cover, including RED-S.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 grassroots football clubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities, which is why we are investing £85 million into new and upgraded grassroots facilities through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme. Projects funded through the programme include new and upgraded artificial grass pitches, pitch maintenance equipment and floodlights, supporting football clubs across the country to increase access to sport.
Our programme delivery partner in England, the Football Foundation, plans their investment pipeline using Local Football Facility Plans (LFFPs), which are developed in partnership with local authorities so as to understand the needs of each community. The LFFP for Fylde can be found here: https://localplans.footballfoundation.org.uk/local-authorities-index/fylde/fylde-executive-summary/.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 ensure that the potential benefits of a potential Olympic bid in the north of England are distributed equitably across the region.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
London 2012 had a major socio-economic impact and left a lasting legacy for future generations, showing what hosting an Olympic and Paralympic Games can do for our country.
The North of England deserves the same level of ambition. It is central to the UK’s growth agenda and has the scale and economic assets to compete internationally. That is exactly why we want to explore what a Northern Olympics could mean, as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to drive transformational regeneration, job creation and infrastructure investment across the region.
The Government has therefore commissioned our expert arm’s length body, UK Sport, to carry out an initial strategic assessment examining whether it would be feasible for the UK to host an Olympic and Paralympic Games in the North of England in the 2040s.