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 - Shadow Secretary of State 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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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 - Shadow Secretary of State 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.
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, if she will make it her policy to introduce an individual right of redress for consumers who suffer harm under social responsibility obligations on gambling operators.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government’s Gambling Act Review is taking a close look at the effectiveness of the regulatory framework and whether further protections are needed to ensure that all those who choose to gamble can do so safely. As part of its broad scope, the Review is looking at the suitability of existing consumer redress arrangements and we called for evidence on whether changes are needed to better support individuals who feel they have been treated unfairly or harmed by gambling operators in breach of their social responsibility obligations. We will publish a White Paper outlining our conclusions and proposals for reform in the coming months.
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, when he plans to launch the application process for tourism zones.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The UK Government will publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in the Spring. Given the significant impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, we now face different challenges to when the Tourism Sector Deal was published. The Recovery Plan will build on the foundations of the Sector Deal and will assess where its strategic priorities - including those linked to Tourism Zones - fit within these plans.
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 recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) staffed and (b) unstaffed tourist information centres in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
My Department has made no recent estimate of the number of staffed and unstaffed tourism information centres in England.
Both my Department and VisitEngland remain in regular contact with regional tourism stakeholders around the country, for example through forums such as the Tourism Industry Council, which meets regularly.
There are an estimated 150 Destination Management Organisations in England, though there are a number of other organisations that may manage tourist information centres.