Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings this year.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the Hon member to the answer to written question 224816, answered on 28th February.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether departmental guidance on the implementation of the Digital Economy Act 2017 will make it clear that section 106 encompasses all methods of mass online harvesting of tickets.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Section 106 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 provides the power for government to introduce a criminal offence in order to address the purchase of tickets for a recreational, sporting or cultural event in excess of the maximum permitted where this has been undertaken by the use of automated software ('bots'). The precise nature of the regulations is being developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders and they will be tabled in due course.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 effectiveness of the change to eligibility groups in the pilot scheme introduced by the International Federation for Intellectual Impairment Sport (INAS) on encouraging more people with Down's syndrome and autism to enter the 2017 INAS World Swimming Championships.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We welcome the efforts of international bodies, like the International Federation for Intellectual Impairment Sport, to make their events more inclusive. The government supports efforts that aim to encourage disabled people, including those with Down's syndrome and autism, to become active and to fulfil their sporting potential. The government's sport strategy, Sporting Future: A Strategy for an Active Nation (published in Dec 2015), places a focus on encouraging activity amongst those less likely to be active, including disabled people.
Government is not involved in the selection of the British team for the INAS World Swimming Championships - British entries are sanctioned by the UK Sport Association for People with Learning Disability (UKSA). It is for them to liaise with organisations like Down's Syndrome Swimming GB about British entries into the event.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions her Department has had with disability sports organisations on classing Down's syndrome athletes as a separate and discreet class and excluding such athletes from participation opportunities in national disability sports events.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We have not been approached about this issue and no recent discussion has taken place. Sport England is currently in discussions with National Disability Sports Organisations, about the role they can play to support the delivery of Government's strategy for sport and physical activity, Sporting Future, which is focused on tackling inactivity in priority groups, such as disabled people. This includes discussions with Special Olympics GB and Mencap about the work that they do with people with disabilities.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on setting targets for on-demand broadcasters to provide subtitles and audio description for people with sensory loss.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The government is committed to seeing an improvement in the levels of provision of accessibility services for video-on-demand (VoD) services. We have been monitoring progress of the provision of access services for VoD content since 2013 through engagement with the Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD), platform operators and content providers. We will work with them - and use information from the April 2015 paper by Action on Hearing Loss, Sense and RNIB - to define a target that we will expect providers to reach by mid-2016. If ATVOD's 2015 annual survey of VoD services indicates that significant progress has not been made then, as we stated in the Connectivity, Content and Consumers paper (July 2013), we will consider legislation in 2016.