Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to reply to the correspondence of 13 March 2024 from the hon. Member for Rhondda on correcting the record on Creative Tax Reliefs.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport will respond to this correspondence as soon as possible.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish her Department's transparency returns for ministers' gifts, hospitality, meetings and travel for April to June and July to September.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The timing for the publication of Ministerial Gifts & Hospitality Transparency data is set by the Cabinet Office. The data for Q1 April - June 23 was published on gov.uk on 19 October 2023 and can be found here. The timing for publication of the Q2 July - September 23 data has not yet been confirmed, but it is expected to be published from mid December.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is taking steps to establish how many performing venues have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Individual building owners and managers are responsible for health and safety, including responding to safety alerts such as the one issued by the Standing Committee on Structural Safety on 1 May 2019 on the failure of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) planks.
As buildings are identified as having suspected or confirmed instances of RAAC, building owners and managers should follow the guidance to put appropriate mitigation in place.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which SMEs have received funding via the Create Growth Programme since its inception.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Create Growth Programme provides finance, business support and investor capacity building to turn creative businesses into high growth firms. So far, the finance strand of the programme has awarded more than £3m to over 100 businesses. The business support and investor capacity strands do not provide direct grant funding to businesses.
In the Creative Industries Sector Vision, we announced new funding of £10.9m to expand the programme to £28.4m, providing support to another six English regions, to make 12 in total. As part of this, we are working with our national delivery partner, Innovate UK, to deliver a further two grant-funding competitions over the next 18 months. These will benefit even more high-potential creative businesses.
An initial list of funded SMEs can be accessed from the "Innovate UK's funded projects since 2004" dataset (filtered for "DCMS Create Growth Programme"), accessible here. The remainder of funded SMEs will be added in due course.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the evidence behind the Government's decision to allow aquaria and galleries that sell art to open as early as April 2021, but not museums and galleries.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.
The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.
Under the roadmap, we seek to reopen outdoor elements of museums and galleries and aquariums in Step 2 (no earlier than 12th April), with indoor elements at these attractions opening at Step 3 (no earlier than 17th May).
Commercial art galleries can reopen in Step 2, when restrictions on non-essential retail are lifted.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she last met an editor or proprietor of a national newspaper.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly here on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=&publication_filter_option=transparency-data&topics%5B%5D=all&departments%5B%5D=department-for-culture-media-sport&official_document_status=all&world_locations%5B%5D=all&from_date=&to_date=)
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the population of the Rhondda has (a) 2G, (b) 3G and (c) 4G mobile coverage.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Data on the proportion of the population of the Rhondda that has (a) 2G, (b) 3G and (c) 4G is not held centrally. Ofcom have published data at the local authority level on the percentage of premises where there is likely to be a 4G signal from all four operators. They will be publishing similar data for 2G and 3G shortly.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish his correspondence with the Scottish Government on BBC Charter renewal.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Correspondence from the Secretary of State to the Scottish Government on BBC Charter Review has been published and can be foundon the Gov.uk website at the following link:
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of diversity in the boards and executives of publicly-funded cultural bodies.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Government is committed to improving the diversity on it public boards and is working hard to increase the representation of women on them. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has held a number of outreach events and targeted the advertising of its Public Board vacancies to help improve its record on diversity. The latest figures show that 48% of of all new Board appointments went to female applicants, which is an increase from 38% in 2012-13.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether it is his policy to retain the BBC Licence fee (a) until 2020 and (b) for the entirety of the next Charter period.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
I am aware of the range of opinions that have been expressed over the future of the licence fee. This is one of many issues which will need to be looked at as part of the Charter Review. I will make an announcement on the process for Charter Review in due course.