Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the titles of the reviews that his Department is undertaking.
Answered by Nigel Adams
DCMS has a number of policy consultations and reviews in process. A list of all current and past policy papers and consultations, and methods of contribution, can be found at https://www.gov.uk/search/policy-papers-and-consultations?organisations%5B%5D=department-for-digital-culture-media-sport&parent=department-for-digital-culture-media-sport.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to increase tourism in the North West.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many public swimming pools were closed in the North West in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the number of publicly owned indoor and outdoor swimming pools that have closed and opened in each of the last 10 years is available via Sport England’s Active Places Power database which can be accessed here: https://www.activeplacespower.com/
Between 2017 and 2021 Sport England is investing £12.16 million in Swim England to get more people swimming, and £30 million through its Strategic Facilities Fund to construct 24 new state of the art leisure facilities which include swimming pools. We have also set up an implementation group to explore the recommendations from the school swimming report published last year, including how we can work with local authorities and private operators to make better use of facilities.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
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 theatres in Merseyside.
Answered by Michael Ellis
In Merseyside, Arts Council England (ACE) has increased their National portfolio funding by 14% for the 2018-22 funding period. This includes investment in a number of theatre organisations, such as Liverpool Everyman, the Unity Theatre, the Royal Court, Collective Encounters and 20 Stories High.
A new addition to ACE’s National portfolio for this period is Culture Liverpool, who have built on the legacy of European Capital of Culture 2008 to play a leading role in large scale outdoor and public art commissions. Culture Liverpool recently delivered the theatre production ‘Giant Spectacular’ which took place across Liverpool and the Wirral for a weekend, attracting over 1 million visitors.
In addition to ACE’s National portfolio investment, they have made 81 awards from the Lottery-funded Grants for the Arts and Project Grants schemes to support theatre projects across Merseyside since April 2015, with investment totalling more than £1 million. ACE will also administer a Treasury award of £5 million for the capital development of the Shakespeare North theatre in Knowsley.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
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 9 October 2018 to Question 173522 on Libraries: Merseyside, for what reason this information is not centrally held.
Answered by Michael Ellis
While the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport does not hold the data requested, annual statistics on public libraries are collected by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) from returns provided by local authorities. These include details of the net number of libraries open at 31 March of each year. Details of permanent library closures and library openings have been collected for each year since 2014/15 in these statistics.
The Libraries Taskforce also published on 11 January 2018 an extended basic dataset verified by all local authorities in England. This included detail indicating the number of static statutory public libraries in England as at 1 April 2010 and any changes to their status (and new library openings) up to 1 July 2016.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has allocated in arts grants to Wallasey constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
We are committed to ensuring that people from across the country have access to our world class art and culture, and Arts Council England has worked hard in recent years to ensure investment outside London has increased as a percentage and in cash terms.
In each of the last five years, Wallasey has received funding from Arts Council England as outlined in the table:
2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
£24,824 | £14,800 | £23,600 | £9,533 | £77,000 |
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
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 tackle digital exclusion in Wallasey constituency.
Answered by Margot James
We are committed to tackling digital exclusion and the UK Digital Strategy, published in March 2017, describes the steps we are taking across government, including:
These initiatives will build on the significant investment Government already makes in basic digital skills training through the Adult Education Budget which provides funding to colleges and adult and community learning providers to support provision of training for adults. Depending on an adult’s circumstances, the training may be provided free of charge or at reduced rates. The budget for which will be devolved to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) for Academic Year 2019/20. This will allow the LCRCA to ensure that decisions on adult skills provision are made in the best interest of the residents of Liverpool City Region.
Government also funds the Future Digital Inclusion programme managed by the Good Things Foundation and delivered through the Online Centres network. To date this programme has supported over 800,000 adult learners to develop their basic digital skills, many of whom are socially excluded.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many libraries have closed in (a) Merseyside and (b) Wirral in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport monitors proposed changes to library service provision throughout England, but does not hold complete figures on the number of public libraries closed in each local authority in each of the last 10 years.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support his Department provides for deaf athletes.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Sport England is investing over £360,000 in UK Deaf sport between 2017 and 2020 - this is to help them work with sport and physical activity organisations to increase awareness of deaf people’s needs, share good practice, conduct research and develop the workforce.
UK Deaf Sport are also working closely with deaf people to inspire them to take part in sport and activity, as well as training a number to be qualified sports leaders to their peers and non-deaf people.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the amount spent by his Department on promoting regional tourism in each year since 2010.
Answered by Michael Ellis
VisitBritain and VisitEngland do not hold a breakdown of spending at local level and DCMS do not hold information of spending at local authority level - this is held by the Ministry for Housing, Central and Local Government.