Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department spent in total on social media advertising in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022 as of 28 February 2022; and on which platforms that money was spent.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Social media and digital communications are an essential part of government communications, helping to inform the public directly about matters which may affect their lives or interests. To reliably reach key audiences, DCMS commits a modest amount of budget to social media advertising each year. All DCMS communications spend is compliant with the communications spend control, which ensures any money spent on government communications is cost-effective and reflects best practices.
a) 2019: £4,912.00 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
b) 2020: £61,671.00 on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn advertising
c) 2021: £9,250 on Facebook and Twitter advertising
d) 2022 (up to 28 February): £42,706.34 on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube advertising
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 implications for her policies on the protection of vulnerable people and others in (a) entertainment and hospitality venues and (b) cultural institutions of the findings of the study entitled The removal of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and other bioaerosols by air filtration on COVID-19 surge units published by Andrew Conway Morris PhD et al.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government continues to closely monitor the risks posed by COVID-19 and the Omicron variant based on scientific advice, and will respond accordingly to help keep our most vulnerable communities safe. We are committed to working alongside all of our sectors to ensure maximum safety and we continue to share the COVID-19: ventilation of indoor spaces to stop the spread of coronavirus guidance during our sector engagements, to help minimise the risk of transmission in public settings.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the correlation between regular exercise in childhood and levels of exercise of those same people in adulthood.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Levels of physical activity for children and young people are captured through the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey which was launched in schools in September 2017. Levels of physical activity for adults 16+ are captured through the Active Lives Survey. Reports and data tables for both surveys are available on Sport England’s website. Data is collected through national randomised samples, so individual results cannot be tracked, and the surveys use different methodologies so data cannot be directly compared.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to increase digital connectivity and training to allow people to work from home.
Answered by Matt Warman
On March 29th, the Government and Ofcom agreed a set of voluntary commitments with the UK’s major telecommunications providers to support and protect vulnerable consumers and those who might become vulnerable due to circumstances arising from Covid-19. These included commitments to lift data allowance caps on all current fixed broadband services, and to offer new, generous mobile and landline packages to vulnerable consumers. A further set of smaller providers signed up to the same commitments in mid-May.
The sector has also provided reassurances that, to date, the UK’s broadband network has been able to handle home working alongside the other demands being placed on it such as gaming, using streaming services and home learning, as well as other leisure usage.
DCMS continues to work closely with the key telecommunications providers who are monitoring traffic levels on an ongoing basis. Similarly, the mobile network operators are managing network performance including a shift from typical inner city demand to suburban home working.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report of the all-party group on air pollution entitled, Air Quality Strategy to Reduce Coronavirus Infection, published on 29 May 2020.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Secretary of State for DCMS welcomes the all-party group’s report and has noted its recommendations with interest. Improving air quality is a top priority for the Government and, especially during these unprecedented times, we will continue to take robust and comprehensive action to improve air quality in the UK and minimise public health impacts. DEFRA recently launched a rapid Call for Evidence to understand more fully the impact that coronavirus is having on air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure and DEFRA’s Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) are currently analysing the responses.