National Museums and Galleries
Debate between Baroness Sater and Baroness Twycross(3 days, 16 hours ago)
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Baroness Twycross (Lab)
We are committed to supporting our national museums and to ensuring that art and culture are accessible, representative and shared across the country. Our £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere package ensures everyone has access to world-class culture. There are no current plans to reduce grant in aid, although I will say that we cannot prejudge spending reviews. We want to enable new income generation for our national museums, and we are going to be working with the museums to explore ideas for how this income could be used.
Baroness Sater (Con)
My Lords, as the co-chair of the Arts and Heritage All-Party Parliamentary Group, I will say that several institutions have expressed to me their many and varied concerns about how the introduction of the charging of international visitors might negatively affect not just them but the wider tourism and hospitality economy. I ask the Minister, what assessment are the Government going to make—or have they made any assessment—to allay the concerns about the wider economic consequences that this might have?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
We are making sure that we work with the museums on this, not in isolation from them. Last week, for example, officials at DCMS sat down with representatives from all the national museums to talk through how the process might work, in terms of having a working group with the national museums. We are clear that it is a complex matter. It is not, “It’s right to, or it’s wrong to, or we should do this as a point of principle”: we just want to work through the issues with the museums. At the moment, we have been working through the terms of reference for what that working group would be looking at, and we are not planning to come to any conclusions before the autumn.
Charity Giving
Debate between Baroness Sater and Baroness Twycross(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Baroness Twycross (Lab)
It is important that we focus on how we can support an already incredibly generous public, without playing down the reasons why people might be reluctant to give. We are putting in place measures to tackle the cost of living issues affecting people currently. As for some of the ways that my noble friend mentions, HMRC is providing over £2.5 billion of relief through gift aid and higher rate relief, and reviewing current gift aid claiming processes to try to help charities gain as much as they can through that route. I know my noble friend is interested in payroll giving, which 4,000 UK businesses offer. We are actively supporting ways to encourage more people to give. We will continue to work with the sector to ensure that we maximise funding through personal, public and corporate giving.
Baroness Sater (Con)
My Lords, according to the Charities Aid Foundation report, nearly one in three non-donors indicated that they were not engaged with or interested in charities, with an even higher figure for young people. Initiatives such as the Family Volunteering Club show how young people can engage in building relationships with charities through volunteering. Does the Minister agree that more needs to be done, particularly in our schools, to encourage and support a culture of engagement with charities among young people?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
The first time I was asked to volunteer was through school, so I know that the noble Baroness makes a valuable point. Volunteers are critical to civil society. We are committed to enabling more people to get involved in working with the voluntary sector and to modernising volunteering through the civil society covenant, which will promote flexible working for modern work-life commitments. The noble Baroness focused on children and young people, and I thought the CAF report made an interesting point. Through our youth strategy, which intersects with this and, helpfully, is led by the same Minister, we are looking at ways to get more young people involved.
National Insurance: Charity Sector
Debate between Baroness Sater and Baroness Twycross(1 year, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Sater (Con)
I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and refer your Lordships to my registered interests.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)
The Government highly value the charity sector and its positive contribution across society. However, as noble Lords are aware, we have had to take a number of difficult decisions on tax, welfare and spending to fix the public finances, fund public services and restore economic stability. The Government publish tax information and impact notes for tax policy changes, which give a clear explanation of the policy objectives and an assessment of the impacts. This was published on 13 November 2024.
Baroness Sater (Con)
I thank the Minister for her Answer. In an open letter to the Chancellor, co-signed by 7,361 charities, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations gave as its initial estimate of the impact of the proposed increase in the employer national insurance contribution on charities an additional annual bill of £1.4 billion. This will have a devastating impact on the sector and the services it provides. Does the Minister agree that we have to protect our valuable charity sector by exempting it from this damaging national insurance increase in the same way that the Government are protecting the public sector from the impact of these increases?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
I have not seen the workings out where the sector arrived at the figure, but I am not trying to play down its concerns about the NICs increase. It is a usual approach for the Government to support the public sector with additional employer NICs costs, as was the case with the previous Government’s health and social care levy. The Government have committed to provide support for departments and other public sector employers only. I know that Ministers have met voluntary sector representatives and are aware of the sector’s concerns. There are other measures within the suite of the tax regime—including exemptions from business rates, for example—that are among the most generous of anywhere in the world.
Olympic and Paralympic Games: Team GB
Debate between Baroness Sater and Baroness Twycross
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
My noble friend makes a good point about changing viewer habits. It is important that sporting events of national importance remain available for people to view for free in years to come. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are rightly group A-listed events, which means that live coverage must be offered to at least one free-to-air broadcaster. I can reassure my noble friend that we will continue to consider the issue that he raises on digital rights; we will look to set out our position on that in due course.
Baroness Sater (Con)
My Lords, we all congratulate the successes of Team GB at both the Olympics and Paralympics. However, we must recognise the importance of supporting grass-roots sport, which helps generate essential participation. Does the Minister agree that it is vital that we have early identification and effective delivery of talent from the grass roots, schools and clubs to ensure that all-important talent pathways thrive?