Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, steps his Department is taking to support the cultural sector in the north of England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has taken steps to ensure unprecedented levels of support has been provided to the cultural sector in the North of England. In 2020/2021, over £350 million has been invested in over 900 organisations based in the North via Arts Council England and the introduction of the Culture Recovery Fund.
The £300m additional funding for the Culture Recovery Fund announced at Budget 2021 will continue to support key cultural organisations up and down the country to help the sector as audiences begin to return, and to ensure a vibrant future for the culture sector as the nation recovers from the pandemic. This support is in addition to the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and the continued reduction in VAT, which has supported many creatives and organisations across the North of England.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
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 encourage participation in grass roots sports.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. The Chief Medical Officer is clear that being physically active is important to long-term health and crucial for keeping people healthy. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. From 8 March, sport has been able to take place in school for all children, or as part of wraparound activities if children are attending in order to enable their parents to work, seek work, attend education, seek medical care, or attend a support group. Any organised outdoor sport was able to restart on 29 March.
The Government has provided unprecedented support to the sport sector to ensure these facilities are able to open. Beyond elite level sport, £100 million of funding has now been provided to support local authority leisure centres. Sport England are also providing £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. Sport England’s new strategy, ‘Uniting the Movement’, dedicated an additional £50 million to support grassroots sports clubs and organisations.