Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on establishing an ombudsman for the gambling sector since publication of the Gambling Review in April 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are working at pace with industry and all stakeholders in the sector, including the Ombudsman Association, to ensure customers have access to an ombudsman that is fully operationally independent in line with Ombudsman Association standards, and is fully credible in the eyes of customers. As set out in the white paper, it is important that the body adjudicates fairly and transparently all complaints regarding social responsibility or gambling harm issues where an operator is not able to resolve these.
We remain clear that if this approach does not deliver as we expect, or shortcomings emerge regarding the ombudsman’s remit, powers or relationship with industry, the government will actively explore the full range of options to legislate to create a statutory ombudsman.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing deaf athletes to access funding allocated to Olympic and Paralympic sport through UK Sport.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
UK Sport uses funding provided by the Government to support athletes with potential to achieve success in Olympic and Paralympic sports. As the Deaflympics falls outside of Olympic and Paralympic sport, UK Sport are therefore unable to fund athletes targeting this event.
This is in line with the Government’s approach to other Paralympic sports where competition is not offered in an athlete's particular classification or discipline.
Sport England has committed £1.2 million between 2022 and 2027 to UK Deaf Sport to boost deaf sport at the grassroots level and build wider participation. They have also agreed to explore a series of small-scale talent pilots for d/Deaf athletes. These pilots will see Sport England, National Governing Bodies, and UK Deaf Sport working together to explore these issues and suggest potential solutions.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to section four of the White Paper entitled High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age, what progress her Department has made on establishing an ombudsman to rule on social responsibility complaints.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As set out in the Gambling White Paper, the Government is working with industry and all stakeholders to establish an appropriate ombudsman that can adjudicate complaints relating to social responsibility or gambling harm where an operator is not able to resolve these.
We expect the ombudsman to be operational and accepting cases by summer 2024.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the White Paper entitled High stakes: gambling reform for a digital age, what her planned timescale is for publishing a consultation on a stake limit for online slots.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We will publish a consultation this summer on the level at which the maximum stake limit for online slot games should be set, and on other details necessary for secondary legislation.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2022 to Question 107201, if he will list the value of the loans made to each of those 15 sports.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Sport Survival Package distributed a total of £264.8 million funding (loan and grant funding) to over 1,685 organisations across 15 sports to ensure their survival throughout the pandemic.
£218,271,393 was provided through loans to the sports listed below:
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the BBC’s revised proposals for local radio services in England on (a) listeners and (b) BBC employees.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the strength of feeling about the importance of BBC Local Radio. These services help bring communities together, and play a vital role in delivering news, sports coverage and other content that is locally relevant.
While it is up to the BBC to decide how it delivers its services, the Government is clear that the BBC must make sure it continues to provide distinctive and genuinely local radio services, with content that reflects and represents people and communities from all corners of the UK.
The Government remains disappointed that the BBC is planning to reduce parts of its local radio output, and Ministers expressed their concerns to the Chairman of the BBC Board and the Director General when they met towards the end of last year.
The Government understands that the BBC have made a recent announcement adjusting their previous proposal, and we will seek to understand what this means in practice for its audiences.
The Government expects Ofcom to ensure the BBC is robustly held to account in delivering its public service duties.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2022 to Question 87999, if he will provide a breakdown listing (a) the 15 sports that received loans and (b) the total number of loans allocated to each.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Sport Survival Package distributed a total of £264.8 million funding (loan and grant funding) across 15 sports to ensure their survival throughout the pandemic.
The number of loans issued to sports and their organisations is as follows: one loan was issued to athletics, 10 loans were issued to basketball, 35 loans were issued to football, one loan was issued to horse racing, five loans were issued to ice hockey, five loans were issued to motorsport, five loans were issued to netball, one loan was issued for non-ticketed events, 27 loans were issued to rugby league, 103 loans were issued to rugby union and one loan was issued to tennis.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the repayment terms are for loans made to football clubs under the Sport Winter Survival package.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Sport Survival Package operated a standard repayable loan facility on a 10-year term with a two-year holiday and repayments over eight years at an interest rate of 2%, with the ability to offer 20 year-terms with up to a four-year repayment holiday subject to the individual circumstances of the borrower.
We are unable to comment on individual cases given their commercial sensitivity. Disclosing sensitive financial information to the open market puts the clubs at a competitive disadvantage.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what was the (a) total value of loans made to football clubs, (b) number of loans made and (c) amount of the highest loan made as part of the Sport Winter Survival Package.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Throughout the pandemic the government went above and beyond through the Sports Survival Package to provide all sports clubs with generous financial support to ensure their survival throughout the difficult period. Many clubs would have failed without that support.
The Sport Survival Package distributed a total of £264.8 million funding (loan and grant funding) to over 1,685 organisations across 15 sports. The Government issued £13.3 million in loans to 34 non-league football clubs.
The value of individual loans are commercially sensitive. Each loan was tailored to the specific needs of the loanee.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which locations in North West Norfolk constituency will experience improved mobile coverage under the Shared Rural Network.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
At this stage, we are not able to confirm which specific locations will benefit from the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme. In England, the majority of coverage improvements from the SRN will come from the industry funded and managed element of the programme, which will close the majority of partial not-spots - areas where there is currently coverage from at least one, but not all mobile network operators (MNOs).
The four MNOs have already commenced work on this element of the SRN, with more than 800 sites already announced, and work to improve coverage in other areas in progress. This aspect of the programme is on track to be delivered by June 2024.
In the East of England, 4G coverage from all four MNOs will rise to a minimum of 93% (up from 90% today) by the end of the programme.
The SRN is not the only focus for infrastructure investment in expanding mobile connectivity. MNOs independently invest around £2 billion annually in enhancing and improving their networks.