Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the development of the esports industry.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the potential of the UK esports industry and its impact on the economy, with major tournaments hosted across the UK this year, including in Manchester, Birmingham and London.
Kickstarting economic growth, and breaking down barriers to opportunity are two of this government's core missions. We are supporting the esports sector to grow, building on the success of our world-class creative industries. This includes support for the sector in looking at how to strengthen pathways into the esports workforce.
The Government has identified the creative industries, which includes video games and esports, as a growth-driving sector within the Industrial Strategy. My department will produce an ambitious and targeted Sector Plan for the creative industries to be published alongside the Spending Review in spring 2025.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to (a) safeguard and (b) promote mining heritage.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our mining past has shaped the lives of people, communities and landscapes across the country. It is essential we record mining heritage, and crucially share it with future generations, in order not to forget its fundamental impact on our society, country and indeed the world. My department, working with our arm's length bodies and the heritage sector, promotes and safeguards our rich mining heritage in a variety of ways.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded more than £39 million to projects focused on the history of mining across the UK since 1999. This includes investing in internationally important heritage sites such as the Mining Institute in Newcastle, restoring landscapes impacted by mining, and funding grassroot community projects to collect oral histories of those involved in mining. In Cannock Chase Staffordshire, the Heritage Fund has invested more than £120,000 in projects focused on the area’s important coal mining history.
As the Government’s expert advisor on the historic environment, Historic England has also advised on and instigated a range of projects to record and preserve the history of mining. For example, the former mining village of Elsecar in South Yorkshire was one of the first places in England to be awarded Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) status by Historic England. Working with the community and the local authority, Historic England looked to document the tangible and intangible aspects of this area's rich mining heritage. Between 2016 and 2018, Historic England also funded The Chase Through Time project which explored the history and landscape of Cannock Chase, including its important mining and industrial heritage.
The National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield receives funding via the Science Museum Group, an arm's length body of DCMS. The museum is a centre of mining heritage for England, preserving and promoting the history of mining heritage and the stories of the people and communities affected by mining across the country.
Through our designation and planning system we will continue to protect the mining heritage of national and international importance. This includes the Cornwall & West Devon Mining Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which spreads across 20,000 hectares in the South West. The region used to produce most of the world's copper, tin and arsenic, and the World Heritage Site looks to preserve aspects of this history for local communities and visitors.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to promote cultural education in Cannock Chase constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is supporting this Government’s mission to extend opportunities for children and young people.
As part of this, DCMS will support the Department for Education led Curriculum and Assessment Review to develop a broader curriculum so that children and young people have access to creative education such as music, the arts and drama and the enormous range of benefits they bring to a child's development from improved language development to confidence building.
Arts Council England has supported the development of cultural partnerships in Cannock Chase to help grow audiences, opportunities and cultural infrastructure. This has included funding of £10,000 to launch a cultural compact in the borough, led by the local Cultural Education Partnership.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a single national martial arts training centre for elite athletes.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are fully committed to enabling our athletes to excel on the world stage. Decisions relating to training centres for elite athletes are a matter for the relevant martial arts governing bodies. We welcome sports working together to share expertise and resources where they feel there is mutual benefit for their sports and athletes.