Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to increase participation in sport for (a) adolescent girls and (b) all adolescents.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government believes that opportunities to play sport and get physically active should be available to everyone and we recognise that there are barriers which prevent some people from getting active, with women and girls less likely to be active than other groups.
The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our arm’s length body, Sport England, which invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. One of the key pillars in their “Uniting the Movement” strategy is to focus on positive experiences for children and young people. Their “This Girl Can” campaign, which recently celebrated its ten year anniversary, has promoted women’s sport, challenged prejudice and made clear that sport is for everyone.
The Government is committed to ensuring as many people as possible have access to high quality grassroots sports facilities, with a particular focus on providing for under-represented groups, such as women and girls.
That is why we are investing £100 million through the Multi Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme to build and upgrade high-quality grassroots sports pitches and facilities in the communities across the UK that need it most, including children and young people.
On 20 June 2025, the Culture Secretary announced that following Spending Review, at least £400 million is going to be invested into new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities in communities right across the UK, supporting the Government's Plan for Change. We will work closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what each community needs and then set out further plans. I also attended a roundtable in Parliament this week on getting girls active.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to promote the use of redundant churches for (a) cultural, (b) community and (c) educational purposes.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Arms-Length body the Churches Conservation Trust is the national charity that saves redundant historic churches at risk, and has a portfolio of over 350 churches that have been kept open and now used to serve the local communities. These are now enjoyed as cultural, social, tourism and educational resources with over 4000 community, arts and educational events taking place within them per year.
Additionally, redundant churches may be eligible for wider DCMS Heritage funding to support their use by the community. In February my Department announced new funding worth almost £20 million for 2025/26. The Heritage at Risk fund will restore local heritage and is targeted towards areas of higher deprivation. The Heritage Revival Fund empowers local people to take control of and look after their local heritage, supporting community organisations to own neglected heritage buildings and bring them back into good use.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February to Question 29771 on Churches, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to the Listed Places of Worship scheme on Cathedrals.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Based on the Department’s analysis of previous data, 94% of applications between 2022-2024 have been under £25,000, and most of these claims were for under £5,000. We believe that the modifications were necessary and adequate given the tight fiscal challenges we face.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recent trends in the level of funding for the Listed Places of Worship Scheme on the VAT rebate threshold for large church restoration projects.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
On the 22nd of January, I was pleased to announce that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme would continue from March 2025 to March 2026 with a budget of £23m.
Further details can be found here in the Written Statement.
As I said in his Westminster Hall debate on the subject, based on previous scheme data, we expect 94% of claims to be unaffected by the change.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support local museums.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Local museums animate towns, high streets and rural communities across the country. Their programmes and activities promote education, entertainment and wellbeing, and play an important role in delivering the government’s agenda.
The Government, with Arts Council England (ACE), supports local museums through the ACE 2023-26 National Portfolio supporting 80 museum organisations with £37m annually, and a further £3m annually is invested in the Museum Development Network. The Government also funds regional museums maintenance through the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), with £86.6 million committed to date, and provides tax incentives through both the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief, and the VAT Refund Scheme for museums. We hope to announce more soon.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps with voluntary organisations to help increase the number of adult volunteers in (a) uniformed youth activity groups and (b) Scouts.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
To date, the DCMS Uniformed Youth Fund has enabled Uniformed Youth organisations to recruit over 4,200 adult volunteers in hundreds of new or expanded units across England, and created over 20,500 new places for young people. This includes over 1,000 new volunteers who have been recruited by the Scouts.
In line with the National Youth Strategy announcement in November 2024, the Government has committed to continue funding Uniformed Youth organisations in 2025/26 to ensure young people can continue to access opportunities outside of school in all parts of the country. More details will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to increase youth services provision in Bromsgrove constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Local Authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people in their area.We will be launching the Local Youth Transformation pilot this year, which will support local authorities to build back capability to ensure a youth offer which addresses the needs of young people and delivers on government priorities.
This government has also committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy. As part of the Strategy, we will be consulting closely with young people and the youth sector. The Strategy will be published this summer.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of mandating the flying of the Union Flag on all (a) schools and (b) public buildings.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Flag flying guidance is issued each year for Government buildings. However we currently have no further plans to consider the requirement for schools or other public buildings to fly the Union Flag.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) herself and (c) her ministerial team have not yet received a substantive response in each month since August 2024 .
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
An annual correspondence report, across all departments, will be published in due course.