Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to ensure that second tier professional rugby union clubs are able to continue to operate when Covid-19 loans become repayable.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Rugby Union has a vital role to play in our national identity. I recently met with the Rugby Football Union to discuss the future of the sport. My department continues to work with the RFU, representatives of Premiership clubs and Championship clubs, and the wider sport sector to support the ongoing sustainability of elite and community level rugby union.
The RFU is independent of the Government and is responsible for the regulation of rugby union, and for protecting and promoting the financial sustainability of the sport at all levels.
Loan financing of around £5 million was provided to Championship clubs as part of the Sport Survival Package (SSP). The loans were provided on favourable terms, tailored to meet the unique legal and financial circumstances of clubs. DCMS remains in close contact with our loan agents, Sport England, to ensure loans are repaid and borrowers comply with the terms of their loans.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has received representations about the funding of small rugby union clubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Rugby Union has a vital role to play in our national identity. My department continues to work with the RFU, representatives of Premiership clubs and Championship clubs, and the wider sport sector to support the ongoing sustainability of elite and community level rugby union.
We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s length body, Sport England – which annually invests over £250 million of National Lottery and government money. Sport England has awarded the RFU £13,859,000 for the period 2022-27 as one of Sport England’s long-term system partners to support grassroots rugby union.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will have discussions with representatives of (a) deaf and (b) disabled people’s organisations on long-term funding for such organisations.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
On 17 October, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport publicly announced our ambition to reset the relationship between Government and civil society. We want to reset this relationship so that civil society can play a role as an equal partner alongside the Government in delivering a shared vision of national renewal.
As a first step, we have committed to developing a Civil Society Covenant in collaboration with civil society that will set out the terms of a new relationship between government and civil society. Over the autumn, DCMS ran an extensive engagement exercise to gather views on what the new relationship should look like as well as the enabling factors and barriers to achieving it.
We heard from hundreds of people representing the rich diversity of the civil society sector from across the country including disability and hearing loss organisations. We are now considering the responses to inform development of the final Covenant which we aim to publish in 2025.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will support the preservation of a coal-fired power station cooling tower.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar was previously assessed for protection as a Listed Building in 2017 but deemed not to possess the requisite special architectural or historic interest. A new listing application is currently being assessed by Historic England, which administers the listing process on the Secretary of State’s behalf. The application will be determined by DCMS in line with the Secretary of State’s Principles of Selection for Listed Buildings.