Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of current access rights to water on paddlesport participation in England.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s sport strategy, Sporting Future, encourages and promotes outdoor recreation. Use of our waterways by all can be a creative and fun way to engage with the natural world and to stay healthy.
Sport England is actively engaged with British Canoeing and the Canal and River Trust to get more people from all backgrounds active. In addition Sport England is providing £6.85m to British Canoeing for the period between 2017 to 2021.
The ‘public rights of navigation’ issue around access to waterways is dealt with by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and they are currently working with British Canoeing to consider solutions to access disputes.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to contribute to events celebrating World Book Day in 2019.
Answered by Michael Ellis
DCMS has no Departmental plans to celebrate World Book Day in 2019 directly. However, around 90% of local authority public library services in England are participating in World Book Day activities. World Book Day has also put a message in the backs of most of the twelve £1 books taking part in the World Book day campaign to encourage children to join their local library.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of access to English waterways for canoeists.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s sport strategy, Sporting Future, encourages and promotes outdoor recreation. Use of our waterways by all can be a creative and fun way to engage with the natural world and to stay healthy.
Sport England is actively engaged with British Canoeing and the Canal and River Trust to get more people from all backgrounds active. In addition Sport England is providing £6.85m to British Canoeing for the period between 2017 to 2021.
The ‘public rights of navigation’ issue around access to waterways is dealt with by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and they are currently working with British Canoeing to consider solutions to access disputes.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation, published in December 2015, what progress his Department has made on establishing a network of employers that will bring together organisations keen to support and encourage their staff to be more physically active.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are working with Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Work and Pensions, Public Health England, the Health and Safety Executive and Sport England to explore the best way of engaging with employers of all sizes on improving health at work, including the promotion of physical activity. We are planning to meet with employers shortly to discuss this in more detail.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 tackle loneliness in the East Midlands.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government’s strategy on tackling loneliness in England was launched last October and included a range of new policies that will benefit people across England, including the East Midlands. This includes improving and expanding social prescribing and a new campaign on social wellbeing.
Successful applicants to the £11.5m Building Connections Fund were announced in December with seven in the East Midlands area, providing up to £1.5m funding to connect individuals and communities better. These included The (Re:)Generation Factory, delivering befriending services to older residents in Bilborough, Greater Nottingham; and Campus Community Hub, which brings young and older people from the local community together at a YMCA café and allotment site in Derbyshire. In addition £1m new funding has been devoted across England to help communities make better use of their spaces to tackle youth loneliness.; East Midlands projects include City Arts in Nottingham, Right Resolution in Northampton, and Reach Learning Disability.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 elderly people learn digital skills in (a) the East Midlands and (b) England.
Answered by Margot James
We are committed to helping elderly people acquire basic digital skills as part of our broader strategy to reduce digital exclusion. The Government’s Digital Strategy, published in March last 2017, sets out the Government’s approach to tackling digital exclusion. It recognises that for the UK to be a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone, it is crucial that everyone has the digital skills they need to fully participate in society.
In September 2018 DCMS launched a £400,000 Innovation Fund to tackle the digital exclusion of older and disabled people. Three pilot projects will address the digital exclusion of these groups with a view to replicating and scaling successful interventions in future.
DCMS are also supporting the development of Local Digital Skills Partnerships to encourage collaboration between key regional stakeholders to design and deliver innovative digital skills provision locally. Working closely with regional LEPs and Combined Authorities, three regions - Lancashire, Heart of the South West and the West Midlands have already launched with a further three regions - South East, Cheshire and Warrington and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly coming on stream over the coming months.
On 18th September 2018, we published plans to improve adult basic digital skills.
We will introduce an entitlement to full funding for basic digital courses from 2020, similar to the entitlements already in place for maths and English. This will provide adults of any age the opportunity to undertake improved qualifications based on new national standards free of charge.
We understand that it is sometimes difficult for elderly people to access services digitally. Through around 3000 libraries across England we provide a trusted network of accessible locations with trained staff and volunteers, free Wi-Fi, computers, and other technology as well as Assisted Digital access to a wide range of digital public services where individuals are unable to access these services independently. There are numerous library device loan schemes across the country, many of which have a high take-up by older people.
Government is also tackling digital exclusion via the ‘Future Digital Inclusion’ programme funded by DfE, managed by the Good Things Foundation and delivered through the 5,000 strong national Online Centres network based out of libraries and other community spaces. There is provision across the East Midlands. To date, this programme has supported 1 million adult learners to develop their basic digital skills, many adults aged over 65 have benefited from “Future Digital Inclusion” programme (approx. 170,000). Further, the NHS Digital ‘Widening Digital Participation’ programme develops projects that enable people in England to improve their digital health skills and to increase their access to digital services and tools that support their health and care. A large percentage of those who have benefited from this service are elderly people.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support young people from deprived backgrounds to progress in the creative industries.
Answered by Margot James
We recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that the workforce of the Creative Industries better reflects the diversity of UK society. The need to broaden access was highlighted in the 2018 Creative Industries sector deal.
Amongst other measures, we are providing £2 million seed funding for an industry-led Creative Careers Programme over the next 4 years to improve the supply of talent and open up opportunities to a broader audience.
Additionally, the British Film Institute (BFI) leads on a number of initiatives to encourage people from all backgrounds to pursue careers in the screen sector, from the BFI diversity standards to the BFI Film Academy. We will also continue to work with industry through the joint government-industry Creative Industry Council to open up employment opportunities in the sector. The CIC have identified this issue as a priority, setting out a set of actions to improve diversity across the industry in its “Create Together” growth strategy.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what funding his Department has allocated to arts and culture projects in Nottinghamshire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As outlined in the table, since April 2013, Arts Council England has invested almost £8.5 million in arts and culture projects in Nottinghamshire including regular funding to their National Portfolio Organisations, National Lottery Grants for the Arts, Project Grants and Strategic funding.
Nottinghamshire | 2013/2014 | 2014/2015 | 2015/2016 | 2016/2017 | 2017/2018 | 2018/2019 |
National Portfolio Organisations | £126,218 | £126,729 | - | - | - | £300,000 |
Music Education Hubs* | £830,974 | £832,731 | £1,073,643 | £1,067,598 | £1,065,575 | £1,066,848 |
Grants For The Arts/Project Grants | £234,983 | £287,044 | £239,118 | £399,050 | £375,755 | £141,270 |
Strategic/Other | £ - | £79,850 | £20,486 | £137,598 | £5,000 | £32,942 |
Total | £ 1,192,175 | £ 1,326,354 | £ 1,333,247 | £ 1,604,246 | £ 1,446,330 | £ 1,541,060 |
Alongside ACE funding, the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvements Fund provided £75,000 in 2017/18 for 'Accessible Exhibition at Newstead Abbey', Nottingham City Museums and Galleries.
In addition, First Art (Creswell Heritage Trust) recently became one of six successful arts projects across England to receive a share of £5.5 million in the latest round of the Arts Council’s Creative People and Places funding programme. This funding will support First Art to continue its work taking arts and culture to local communities across Nottinghamshire.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 proportion of children who engage in the Chief Medical Officer’s national recommended level of activity.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
According to the Health Survey for England, in 2015 22% of children (23% of boys and 20% of girls) aged 5-15 met the physical activity guidelines of being at least moderately active for at least 60 minutes every day. This is higher than in 2012, when 21% of boys and 16% of girls met the guidelines. However this excludes school-based activities and active travel. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-physical-activity-guidelines.
As part of the government’s Sporting Future strategy, Sport England’s remit was extended to cover children from age 5+. Government departments including DCMS, DfE and DHSC have worked with Sport England to develop the new Active Lives: Children and Young People survey. This survey launched in schools in September 2017 and will measure in much more detail how children and young people engage in sport and physical activity, and how many are meeting the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines, both in and out of school. The first set of data will be available on 6 December.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to encourage children under the age of 16 to participate in extracurricular sport.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government’s Sporting Future strategy set out how important it is for all children to have a good experience of sport and physical activity while they are young.
Sport England supports children and young people in England by ensuring there is a good sports and activity offer before and after the school day. Sport England has committed up to £194 million of investment into children and young people over the next four years, which includes the Families Fund: up to £40 million invested in projects that offer new opportunities for families with children to be active together. Sport England will also provide specialist training to at least two teachers in every secondary school in England by 2020, and will invest £28m into Satellite Clubs between 2017-2021.
DCMS are working closely with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care on a new School Sport and Activity Action plan, which will be published in Spring 2019. The plan will consider ways to ensure that all children have access to quality, protected PE and sport sessions during the school week and opportunities to be physically active throughout the school day.