Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has a voluntary exit programme for civil servants serving under her Department.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS does not currently have a voluntary exit programme for its serving Civil Servants.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
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 breakdown of the total payments made to civil servants in his Department for relocation costs to Government offices outside London in 2021.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS did not make any payments to Civil Servants to support relocation costs in 2021.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Ministerial Statement HCWS322 and the Answer of 25 April 2022 to Question 156485 on Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Public Opinion, what proportion of spend on research and evaluation services in 2021 related to focus groups; and which suppliers were used to run those focus groups in 2021.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department spent £110,875 (excluding VAT) on distinct focus groups commissioned to an external Supplier in 2021. These focus groups were delivered by C M Monitor (Britain Thinks) and details of the contract can be found on Contracts Finder, in line with Government Transparency Policy.
More broadly the Department spent £1,259,396.63 (excluding VAT) on research and evaluations services, which may have encompassed the use of focus groups to some degree, in 2021. Details of the Department’s contracts, over £10,000 (including VAT) can be found on Contracts Finder. The Department cannot apportion expenditure on the use of focus groups, beyond the figure provided, as the expenditure cannot be wholly and exclusively isolated from within the use of wider research and evaluation services.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department holds a minute of the meeting on 18 January 2021 between Lord Brownlow and herself.
Answered by Matt Warman
My department follows the Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers, and as such holds a minute of the meeting held on 18 January 2021 between Lord Brownlow and Oliver Dowden.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
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 research of Professor Bart van Ark from the University of Manchester on the digital economy, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that digital technologies can support inclusive productivity.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We recognise that, as highlighted in Professor’s van Ark’s research, digital technology can only fulfil its potential of increasing productivity without widening societal inequality, when it is made available to everyone. Our recently published Digital Strategy sets out our ambitions for harnessing the power of digital technologies to the benefit of our economy and society as a whole. The Government recognises the barriers associated with digital exclusion, so we are addressing these in particular through our work on digital infrastructure and essential digital skills.
DCMS is backing Project Gigabit with £5 billion, so that hard to reach communities are not left out. To further improve access to the internet, help is available for low income households to access broadband, mobile and landline services through a range of low-cost social tariffs.
To improve access to vital digital skills, the government has introduced a digital entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills. This allows adults wishing to acquire essential digital skills to gain specified digital qualifications, up to level 1, free of charge. Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs), introduced alongside the digital entitlement, are based on new national standards which set out the digital skills people need to get on in life and work. We also support the provision of essential digital skills training in community settings through the Adult Education Budget.
DCMS also launched the Digital Skills Council at London Tech Week in June 2022. The Council will bring together industry leaders and training experts from Manchester Digital, Amazon Web Services and Multiverse. Working directly with employers, the council will encourage investment in employer-led training to upskill workforces. The group will also look at ways the industry can inspire the next generation of talent from a wide range of backgrounds to consider a digital career and identify opportunities to accelerate existing good practice within other industry groups.
Public libraries also play an important role in tackling digital exclusion. Around 2,900 public libraries in England provide a trusted network of accessible locations with staff, volunteers, free wifi, public PCs, and assisted digital access to a wide range of digital services. Volunteers and library staff have been trained in digital skills so that they can provide library users with support in using digital applications and services.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department spent on (a) focus groups and (b) polling services in 2021.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department spent £51,455 (excluding VAT) on distinct focus groups commissioned to an external Supplier in 2021. More broadly, the Department spent £403,688.37 (excluding VAT) on research and evaluation services, which encompassed the use of focus groups and polling services to some degree, in 2021.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department received representations in support of Mohamed Amersi's application to be chair of the National Lottery Community Fund.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The appointment of the Chair of the National Lottery Community Fund is made by the Secretary of State. The appointment is made in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments, which is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The process to appoint a new Chair in 2021 was run in line with the Governance Code, through a fair and open competition.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
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 11 January 2021 to Question 98971, if he will place a copy of his Department's minute of the meeting between the Secretary of State and Lord Brownlow regarding the Great Exhibition 2.0 in the Library.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS does not routinely publish minutes of meetings and therefore does not plan to place the minutes from the meeting between the former Secretary of State and Lord Brownlow in the Library.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
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 meeting between the Secretary of State, Lord Brownlow and Royal Festival Hall about the Great Exhibition 2.0 on 18 January 2021, if a minute was taken of the meeting and in what capacity Lord Brownlow attended that meeting.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
My department follows the Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers.
As laid out in his Lords register of interests, Lord Brownlow is a Trustee of the Royal Albert Hall Trust and an Ambassador of the Royal Albert Hall's 150th Anniversary.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of staff employed by his Department are apprentices.
Answered by Nigel Adams
DCMS has 32 apprentices, which is equivalent to 2.5% of the department’s headcount.