Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 support the arts and cultural sector in Coventry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises the huge contribution the arts and culture sector makes, not only to the economy and international reputation of the United Kingdom, but also to the wellbeing and enrichment of its people. It is for this reason that we have invested an unprecedented £1.57 billion, the biggest ever one-off cash injection, into UK culture to tackle the crisis facing our most loved arts organisations and heritage sites across the country including Coventry, which is to be our next City of Culture.
The Arts Council has allocated over £500k from its Emergency Response Fund to the city including £68k to individuals. The Culture Recovery Fund has awarded over £2.7 million in recovery grant funding (as of 11 Nov) to arts and heritage organisations in Coventry to help support them through the current Covid-19 outbreak.
In addition ACE allocated £3.4m, to Coventry City of Culture Trust (delivery body) to ensure Coventry’s success as City of Culture. The arts and cultural sector is instrumental to Coventry’s success and the Trust have; employed local art/cultural freelancers, invested in cultural infrastructure and during the first lockdown initiated a resilience fund for the local arts community. Coventry will be one of the first to host major events post Covid and, whilst challenges have been posed by the pandemic, their activity and programming has provided a much needed injection of cash into the sector and supported artists in the region, nationally and internationally.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 support the events and exhibition sector in Coventry during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are aware that the events and exhibition sector, as well as other sectors, has been severely impacted by Government measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
Events businesses have been able to access a number of the Government’s support measures throughout this period. In the context of new national restrictions, events businesses and individuals can seek support in the form of various government-backed loans, new business grants and the extended furlough and self-employed support schemes. The recently announced discretionary Additional Restrictions Grant guidance for Local Authorities specifically refers to businesses in the events sector.
We are engaging with stakeholders, including through the Tourism Industry Council and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to assess how we can best support the sector’s safe reopening. The business events pilots we carried out in September will ensure that the correct advice and guidance is put in place to help larger events reopen when it is safe to do so.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make it his policy to increase funding for arts and culture in England over the next five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS is committed to supporting work in arts and culture across the country. Culture and heritage are at the heart of communities, enriching the lives of millions, and the recent £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund is a testament to the role this sector plays in our lives. We are saving nearly 1400 cultural organisations with £257 million from our unprecedented support package.
Future funding decisions will be set out as part of the CSR. This government is aware of the significant contribution arts and culture makes to the country, both financially and socially and we continue to work with the sector to put forward a robust case for its support.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 provide financial support to professional (a) football, (b) rugby and (c) cricket clubs during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the impact that Covid-19 is having on the sporting sector, and has supported elite sports to return to "behind closed doors" competition, which enabled vital broadcast revenue, retained competitive integrity and brought joy to millions of sports fans. The government also ensured Project Restart was shared with everyone by getting Premier League football on the BBC for the first time ever.
The safety and security of players and spectators remains of paramount importance.
The government recognises that fans will be disappointed that sports pilot events were paused and that spectators were not able to be admitted to stadia from 1 October. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what can be done to provide further support. The Department will also continue to work with colleagues across Whitehall to support the sector.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 (a) amateur and (b) semi-professional sports clubs during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund has also provided £210 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic
We have also supported elite sports to return to "behind closed doors" competition, which enabled vital broadcast revenue, retained competitive integrity and brought joy to millions of sports fans. The government also ensured Project Restart was shared with everyone by getting Premier League football on the BBC for the first time ever.
The government recognises the implications for sports clubs of not being able to admit spectators to stadia from 1 October, and are working urgently on what we can do now to support them. The Department will continue to work with colleagues across Whitehall to support the sector.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 support volunteers in the third sector during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Volunteers have been an incredible force for good during the COVID-19 crisis. The Government is taking steps to ensure that volunteers are supported during these unprecedented times by providing up-to-date public guidance to enable volunteers to safely and effectively respond to the crisis, and working closely with voluntary and community organisations to ensure volunteers are deployed where they are most needed.
DCMS has provided a £4.8million grant to the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership, to support its work to improve coordination in the voluntary sector, and match the country’s strong base of volunteers with demands. It has enabled initiatives such as Journey Makers: so far, over 600 Journey Maker volunteers have been deployed at 64 bus and rail stations nationwide to support people to safely use the public transport network.
The Government has also extended its support for the NHS Volunteer Responders programme, and is recruiting additional volunteers in areas where demand for services is high.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 number of workers who have left the theatre, arts and creative sectors as a result of the effects of the covid-19 outbreak on those sectors; and what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate future skills and labour shortages in those sectors.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises the massive impact that the current pandemic is having on those working in the arts and cultural sectors. As a result of the grants and loans being made available through the £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund, organisations will be more able to resume cultural activity, albeit in a socially distanced way, which will increase employment opportunities. Each organisation that receives money will know how best to support their workforce.
To complement the Cultural Recovery Fund funding for organisations made available by Government, Arts Council England have announced £95m of additional support for individuals, including freelancers. This includes an additional £75m in project grants which will be focused on applications that maximise employment opportunities including those from under-represented groups.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 allocated to projects to support grassroots sports facilities in Coventry in each of the last two years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. It is important that grassroots sports facilities remain accessible for people from all backgrounds as we make efforts to return to normality after the Covid lockdown period.
The Government, through Sport England, has invested £932,069 Lottery and Exchequer funding in Coventry for community sports programmes and sport facilities since January 2018.
Sport England has announced an additional £210 million package of financial support to help community sports clubs across the country through the current pandemic. Of this, £126,707 has been invested in Coventry via the Community Emergency Fund.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has assessed the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on levels of loneliness and social isolation.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government has been closely monitoring loneliness and social isolation during the Covid-19 outbreak, working with a range of sectors to hear their experiences and learn from their evidence through the government’s new Tackling Loneliness Network.
The impacts of Covid-19 on loneliness are still to be fully seen and the evidence base is still developing. Emerging indications suggest that prevalence of chronic loneliness across the UK population as a whole appears to have remained stable throughout the lockdown period and may have decreased since social distancing measures eased in early June. However, initial analysis of the UCL Covid-19 Social Study has shown that some vulnerable groups (e.g. young people, adults living alone) appeared to be at a heightened risk of chronic loneliness during lockdown.
The Government will continue to monitor the effects of Covid-19 on loneliness and social isolation.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 tackle loneliness and social isolation resulting from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government launched a major effort to tackle loneliness and social isolation in April 2020. The plan aimed to ensure that staying at home does not need to lead to loneliness.
As part of the plan, the latest #Let’sTalkLoneliness public campaign was rolled out to get people talking openly about loneliness, including new public guidance offering useful tips and advice on how people can look after themselves and others safely.
In addition, Government launched a £5 million fund to support national loneliness organisations supporting those at risk of loneliness. We also announced a £4m microgrants fund which will support small, grassroots organisations addressing loneliness, due to open in the early new year.
The Office for Civil Society has also established the Tackling Loneliness Network, a group of over 60 high-profile charities, businesses and public sector organisations, which is now working to find and implement innovative solutions to loneliness, drawing on their diverse expertise.