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.