Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 engage with the cruise industry; and whether she plans to invite representatives of that industry to join industry groups that her Department convenes.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS recognises the significant role the cruise industry plays in the broader tourism and hospitality sectors. The Department regularly engages with a range of stakeholders across the tourism sector, including the cruise industry, to understand their perspectives and challenges. As part of our ongoing commitment to represent the diverse interests within tourism, DCMS is reviewing opportunities for industry representation in relevant groups and will consider the cruise industry’s inclusion in these forums where appropriate. Further details on stakeholder engagement will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to consider the cruise industry’s role in (a) inbound, (b) outbound and (c) domestic tourism when determining the membership of a re-established Tourism Industry Council.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is reviewing how best it works with industry and local and devolved authorities to drive forward an ambitious plan for UK tourism and the visitor economy. We are committed to ensuring that we work with the whole of the tourism sector, including those who work in inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. We hope to make announcements soon.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how her Department plans to engage with (a) the cruise industry and (b) other tourism sectors in the development of tourism planning.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is committed to working collaboratively with all sectors of the tourism industry to support sustainable growth and resilience across the sector. The Department engages regularly with representatives from the cruise industry, as well as other key tourism stakeholders, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges each sector faces. These consultations will continue to inform our approach to tourism planning.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's consultation on the statutory levy on gambling operators, published on 17 October 2023, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of setting a statutory levy rate of one percent for remote pools betting.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Higher rates of problem gambling are associated with certain products, particularly those online, compared to most land-based products. We want to take this into account in the design of the statutory levy, as well as the higher operating costs in the land-based sector. Public Health England’s evidence review of gambling-related harms, based on Health Survey data, showed football pools to have a 'problem gambling' rate of 5%, which is higher than the population level which has been at or below 1% for the past 20 years.
The consultation on the design of the statutory levy opened on 17 October and has now closed. Our consultation specifically invited views on the question of levy rates so that the Government has the best available evidence to inform our final policy decisions on a structure of the levy. The Government is carefully considering the evidence received, and we will publish our response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the £100 million fund for frontline charities announced at the Spring Budget 2023; how charities will be able to apply for funding; whether there will be deadlines for applications; and whether organisations in the violence against women and girls sector be able to apply for funding.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As announced in the Spring Budget, the Government will provide over £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England.
Around three quarters of the £100 million funding package will be targeted this year towards those frontline organisations most at risk as a result of cost of living pressures, due to increased demand from vulnerable people and higher delivery costs. The other quarter will be used to provide investment in energy efficiency measures to help civil society organisations reduce their future operating costs.
Officials are working at pace to finalise the delivery time frames and eligibility criteria. Further details, including how to apply for funding, eligibility criteria and application deadlines, will be announced as soon as possible.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of her Department's spending on supporting music goes to (a) gospel music and (b) other individual music genres; and what was the cost to the public purse of her Department's support for gospel music in each of the last five years.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Gospel music and other individual musical genres receive public support through a wide variety of sources, including Arts Council England. Decisions made by the Arts Council about the allocation of funding are taken at arm's length from the Government. Its decisions are made in line with the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy, Let’s Create, which sets the direction for all the artforms it supports.
Neither the Department for Culture, Media and Sport nor the Arts Council England holds aggregated data for funding for gospel music as a specific sub-genre. Liverpool Lighthouse is a new inclusion in the Arts Council England National Portfolio and incorporates the National Gospel Music Centre. Liverpool Lighthouse will host the first Liverpool Gospel Music Festival which will take place on 9 September 2023.
Other National Portfolio Organisations, such as Punch and Pegasus Opera engage with the gospel community and have supported several gospel-focused projects through the National Lottery Project Grants programme.
Arts Council England holds data regarding a number of other sub-genres its musical investment supports. Data for Lottery and Grant-in-Aid funding in 2022/23 for these sub-genres was as follows:
Music -Subclassifier | 2022/23 |
Brass bands | £1,729,589 |
Choral | £2,345,593 |
Classical | £96,311,624 |
Experimental | £7,737,713 |
Folk | £1,903,573 |
Jazz | £7,264,868 |
Media Arts | £800,960 |
Opera | £67,730,537 |
Popular | £26,257,424 |
South Asian | £6,764,995 |
World | £7,362,628 |
Total | £226,209,504 |
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has held wth Ofcom on the merger between Vodafone and Three.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Matters related to telecoms are the responsibility of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) following the machinery of government changes announced on 7 February 2023. I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 22 June 2023, in my capacity as a DSIT Minister, to Question UIN 190472.