Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to provide funding for the ongoing (a) preservation and (a) repair of listed places of worship.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There is a range of funding available via DCMS and the Department’s Arm’s-Length Bodies that supports places of worship. These include the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have committed to investing around £100m between 2023 and 2026 to support places of worship; the Churches Conservation Trust, which funds repairs and maintenance of over 350 churches in the CCT portfolio; and Historic England's Heritage At Risk grants, funding £9 million worth of repairs to buildings on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register between April 2024 and March 2025.
On the 22nd of January, I was pleased to announce that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme would continue from March 2025 to March 2026 with a budget of £23m. Further details can be found in this Written Statement.
Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the scientific basis is for closing golf courses during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown in England; and when he plans to reopen those courses.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we made sure that people could exercise at least once a day even during the height of the first period of enhanced national restrictions and why we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so.
Nobody wanted to be in the position of having to introduce further National Restrictions. However as the Prime Minister said, with the virus spreading faster than expected we cannot allow our health system to be overwhelmed. The National Restrictions are designed to get the R rate under control through limiting social contact and reducing transmissions. We have not introduced further exemptions because when you unpick at one activity the effectiveness of the whole package is compromised.
However, as the Prime Minister said on 23 November national restrictions will end on Wednesday 2 December and gyms and the wider leisure sector including golf courses can reopen across all tiers.
Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support the tourism sector as it moves from the summer season into autumn.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
We recognise the significant impact of Covid-19 on the tourism sector. We continue to monitor the situation and are taking steps to support the sector as it moves to the autumn season.
The Government has implemented a series of measures that will assist tourism business over the coming months, such as the cut to VAT which will last into January and business rates relief for hospitality, retail and leisure businesses which will last until the end of March.
We are working with VisitBritain on an Autumn and Winter campaign, 'Escape the Everyday', which will help extend the tourism season.
The Government is also encouraging local planning authorities to exercise their discretion in relation to planning conditions for caravan, campsites and holiday parks, in order to help these businesses extend their open season.
And through the Cultural Renewal Taskforce and the Visitor Economy Working Group, we are continuing to engage with stakeholders to assess how we can most effectively support tourism’s recovery across the UK.