Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to support (a) the Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services and (b) other voluntary organisations with providing (i) training and (ii) other development opportunities for young people.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Local Authorities have a statutory duty to allocate funding to youth services in line with local need. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion last year. DCMS officials are currently reviewing the statutory duty and its associated guidance to assess its effectiveness after a call for responses from key youth stakeholders. We will publish the outcomes of the review in due course.
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities, including of the type supported by the Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services, play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. The Government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities. This is supported by a three year £560 million investment in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing the inconsistencies in regional youth spending, with a firm focus on levelling up, including the £368 million Youth Investment Fund, for which over 20 wards in Staffordshire are eligible to apply.
To support the youth sector workforce, DCMS funds the National Youth Agency to set professional standards, qualifications and a curriculum for youth work, including a new youth work apprenticeship and free-to-access training, all of which are available to young people. DCMS has delivered a Youth Worker Bursary Fund with the NYA since 2019, distributing approximately £1.9 million facilitating over 1,700 individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford it to undertake training in Level 2 and 3 Youth Work qualifications. A further £1 million has been committed for FY 22/23.
Additionally, through the £7.4 million Volunteering Futures Fund, DCMS has created thousands more volunteering opportunities to improve accessibility of volunteering in the arts, culture, sports, civil society, youth and heritage sectors. The fund is helping a diverse range of people to access the benefits volunteering can bring. There is a strong focus on young people, those experiencing loneliness, those with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds.
From 2023 onwards, the reformed NCS programme will offer a year-round choice of opportunities to young people, with a focus on skill development and volunteering. NCS will work with and fund a range of partners, including grassroots volunteering organisations, to deliver the programme across the country.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the rollout of gigabit broadband to (a) Croxden, (b) Marchington, (c) Denstone and (d) other rural areas of Burton constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit so people in hard-to-reach areas can get gigabit broadband. As part of Project Gigabit, we will be launching a regional supplier procurement in Staffordshire, covering Croxden, Marchington, Denstone, and other rural areas in Burton. The procurement will target premises that would not otherwise get gigabit broadband through suppliers’ commercial plans.
In preparation, we have conducted an Open Market Review and a Public Review across Staffordshire to survey suppliers’ delivery plans and shape the areas that require intervention. The procurement is scheduled to begin between September and November 2022, with a contract expected to be awarded between July and September 2023.
Eligible premises that are not included in the chosen supplier’s plans will be able to apply for subsidy via the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which provides a micro-grant of up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband.
Constituents in Burton have made good use of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme; to date, approximately 80 premises in the constituency have claimed and received payment for a voucher through the scheme, with approximately 200 further premises awaiting completion, for a combined value of over £550,000.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on ensuring developers provide new homes with gigabit broadband.
Answered by Matt Warman
Ensuring that every new home is built with fast, reliable and resilient broadband is a priority for my Department. The Government announced in March 2020 that we will amend Building Regulations 2010 to require housing developers to:
Provide a gigabit-capable connection unless the cost exceeds £2,000, or the network operator declines to provide a connection;
Install the next fastest broadband connection which can be installed below a cost of £2,000, where a gigabit-capable connection cannot be installed below a cost of £2,000; and
Install the physical infrastructure necessary for gigabit-capable connections even where a gigabit-capable connection exceeds the cost cap.
We are working closely with stakeholders to develop the regulations and statutory guidance and will publish a technical consultation this winter, laying the amendments to regulations in spring 2021.
The Government has also secured commitments from the CEOs of Openreach, Virgin and Gigaclear to work with housing developers to provide gigabit-capable connectivity to all new build developments across the UK, including contributing to the costs of connection.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has held discussions with representatives from the (a) Football Association (FA) and (b) Premier League on using the FA's facilities at St Georges Park in Burton constituency to complete the Premier League season.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has been liaising closely with the football authorities as their plans to restart the season have developed, however, there have been no discussions with them about confirmed plans for using the facilities at St George’s Park.
Football and local authorities will continue discussions on the most appropriate venue for each remaining fixture.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals on online harms in respect of (a) people working from home and (b) children being educated at home during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government is committed to making the UK the safest place to be online. The next step for our online harms proposals is to publish the full government response, which we will do later this year. We will follow that with legislation, once Parliamentary time allows.
We recognise that the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted everyone’s daily lives and it is likely that more people will be spending more time online. The government has published new guidance which outlines steps that people can take to stay connected and safe online during this time. The guidance also provides more detailed information for parents and carers to manage children’s safety online.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to take steps to accelerate the roll-out of ultrafast broadband in (a) Burton constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government is committed to delivering nationwide gigabit capable broadband as soon as possible, including in the Burton constituency. Gigabit broadband will provide consumers with faster download speeds of 1Gbps compared to ultrafast broadband, which provides download speeds of at least 300 Mbps. Much progress has already been made across the UK, with full fibre coverage doubling in the past year to reach 10% of UK premises, according to the latest Ofcom figures.
This Government will continue to take action to remove barriers to network rollout and to ensure that those in the hardest to reach areas are not left behind. We have introduced legislation to make it easier for operators to deploy broadband in blocks of flats, will be legislating to mandate gigabit connectivity in new builds and will invest £5 billion of funding to support gigabit rollout in hard to reach areas.
In the Burton constituency, there is 97% superfast coverage, up from 57% in 2012 and compared to the current UK average of 96%. Full fibre coverage in Burton is 21.8%, according to the latest Ofcom figures, more than double the UK average.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of properties in Burton constituency have access to superfast broadband.
Answered by Matt Warman
According to Thinkbroadband. currently, 97% of premises have access to superfast broadband, up from 57% in 2012.
Around 21.8% of premises have full-fibre connections which is above 12% the national average.
Burton, constituency falls under our Superfast Staffordshire project, which has received £9.6m of funding from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) towards the rollout of Superfast broadband.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the roll-out of superfast broadband in areas where it is unavailable.
Answered by Matt Warman
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is currently working across the UK with local authorities to ensure delivery of superfast broadband is delivered effectively, where it is currently unavailable. As of September 2019, over 5 million premises have been connected due to the superfast rollout alone.
RGC, launched in May 2019, has been allocated £200 million to trial a model to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to premises in rural and remote locations, combining demand-side and supply-side interventions. The Rural Voucher Scheme is a component of RGC. Rural premises can use vouchers worth up to £3,500 for each Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SMEs), and up to £1,500 per residential premises to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.
In addition to this, the government has pledged £5 billion to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to the most difficult to reach areas of the UK.