Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Government (a) has invested and (b) plans to invest in grassroots sports facilities in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and everyone, regardless of their background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.
Since 2019, the department, through Sport England, has invested 24 grants totalling £171,061 into a wide range of grassroots sport projects within the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency. In addition, the Football Foundation, a charity jointly-funded by Sport England, has awarded £944,850 to develop football and multi-use grassroots sports facilities in the same period.
Sport England continues to work with Local Authorities and grassroots sports facilities to ensure that future funding is targeted where it can best improve access to sport and physical activity.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to (a) support and (b) accelerate the roll-out of (i) full-fibre broadband and (ii) 5g in rural communities.
Answered by Julia Lopez
In March 2021 we launched Project Gigabit, our £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Project Gigabit’s objective is to level up the UK by giving hard-to-reach areas access to gigabit-capable internet speeds and, coupled with commercial gigabit delivery, ensuring almost all of the UK has access to gigabit-capable internet as soon as possible.
Our Project Gigabit procurements are prioritising delivery to rural, hard-to-reach premises and to those with the lowest broadband speeds. We have recently signed our first local Project Gigabit contract in North Dorset and expect to award further contracts over the coming months.
Furthermore, up to £210 million is available for Gigabit Broadband Vouchers, which are already helping communities that are not in line for commercial connections right now.
Building Digital UK’s legacy and current programmes have already upgraded over 740,000 hard-to-reach premises to gigabit speeds, and we are continuing to move at pace.
5G network rollout is a matter for industry, but we have seen good progress. Up to half of the properties in the UK are located in an area with outdoor 5G coverage available from at least one mobile network operator according to the latest statistics from communications regulator Ofcom.
We recently made reforms to the planning system to support the deployment of 5G and extend mobile coverage. The changes, which came into force on 4 April 2022, enable operators to upgrade existing sites for 5G and share infrastructure to improve mobile coverage, particularly in more rural areas. We are reducing further barriers to deployment by legislating to reform the Electronic Communications Code through the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill.
The Government is developing a Wireless Infrastructure Strategy to set out a strategic framework for the deployment and adoption of 5G, and within the Strategy we will be establishing a new ambition for 5G.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much financial support the Government has provided to grassroots sport in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and all generations and communities should be able to enjoy the health, wellbeing, social and other benefits of being active. Due to this, the government made sure that people could exercise at least once a day even during the height of the first period of enhanced national restrictions and we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so.
Since April 2018, the Department has invested £218,711 into grassroots sport projects within the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency through Sport England. This sum includes £45,189 from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund to support local sports clubs and community organisations through the coronavirus pandemic, and £18,144 in Return to Play, which are small grants to support a return to sport and physical activity as coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
The investment breakdown per year: 2018/19: £60,000, 2019/20: £33,428, 2020/21: £69,034 and 2021/22 (to June 2021): £56,249.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to reform the Electronic Communications Code to make it easier for companies to install infrastructure to support full fibre gigabit broadband in blocks of flats and rural land.
Answered by Matt Warman
My Department published a consultation in January 2021 asking whether further reforms to the Electronic Communications Code are needed in order to ensure the Code provides the right legislative framework to promote fast, cost effective network provision. The consultation covered a range of issues, including matters relating to negotiations and dispute resolution, rights to upgrade and share apparatus and problems relating to the renewal of expired agreements.
This consultation closed on 24 March 2021. It would not be appropriate for me to comment on the possible outcomes of the consultation at this stage, as responses are being considered. The consultation response will be published in due course and we will bring legislation forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.
The Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act gained Royal Assent in March 2021. This Act aims to address one stated policy barrier: making it easier for telecoms companies to access multi-dwelling buildings (such as blocks of flats) where a tenant has requested a new connection, but the landlord has not responded to requests for access rights.
The Act inserts a new Part 4A to the Electronic Communication Code which provides a process that telecommunications operators could use to gain code rights to multi-dwelling premises for a defined period. This only applies where:
a lessee in occupation in a multi-dwelling building has requested a telecommunications service from an operator
to connect the property the telecoms operator requires an access agreement with another person such as the landlord
the landlord has not responded to the telecoms operator’s request for access
My Department has also recently launched a consultation which seeks views on the terms which will accompany the interim Code rights provided to operators who have successfully applied for an order made under Part 4A of the Electronic Communications Code. This consultation closes on Wednesday 4 August. Responses will be considered and the consultation response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of increasing the allocation of funding for (a) VE and (b) VJ day to be equal to that allocated to Remembrance Sunday.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
As for Remembrance Sunday, VE and VJ Day events are funded and delivered by a wide range of organisations. As well as central Government support for the National commemorations, local communities are delivering projects and events across the nation to commemorate both VE and VJ Day.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the General Data Protection Regulation on small businesses.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The UK worked during negotiations to ensure that the obligations arising from the regulations are greater on an organisation only if the risk their activity poses to an individual is high. Organisations which already operate at the standard set by the Data Protection Act 1998 should be well placed to implement the new data protection framework.
Although businesses will have to make themselves familiar with the new regulation and to what extent it applies to their operations, there are resources on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website (ico.org.uk) to help SMEs and those employing fewer than 250 people to prepare for the data protection regime. In addition, the ICO has launched a dedicated helpline service for organisations employing 250 people or fewer and has updated its SME toolkit to reflect the requirements of GDPR. The ICO continue to develop further guidance on both the Bill and GDPR to support the preparations of organisations.