Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how his Department plans to allow rural communities to table collective requests for broadband connections.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom has been commissioned to provide technical analysis and recommendations to help inform the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation. One of the issues that they have been asked to advise on is how individual consumer requests for a broadband connection can be aggregated so that communities can benefit. Ofcom have published a call for inputs to support this work, which will run until 23rd June and this is available at:- http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/broadband-USO-CFI/ Ofcom has been asked to report on its findings by the end of the year.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of how much people in rural areas will have to contribute to receive a basic 10 Mbit/s broadband connection as a result of his Department's decision not to automatically roll-out broadband to all households and businesses.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
This information is not yet available. Ofcom's call for evidence on the the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) invites views on how a reasonable cost threshold for a broadband connection might be determined. The new broadband USO will give all households and businesses the legal right to request a fast broadband connection. This would work similarly to the telephone USO, where there is a reasonable cost threshold above which the hardest to reach properties are expected to contribute to the cost of the installation.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the Government's targets for participation in grassroots football were for (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15 and (f) 2015-16.
Answered by David Evennett
Through Sport England's Whole Sport Plan process the FA has been challenged each year to demonstrate an increase in the number of people playing grassroots football in this country. In 2010/11 the target number of people aged 16 and over playing football for at least 30 minutes every week was 2,219,700; in 2011/12 it was 2,257,200; in 2012/13 it was 2,294,700; in 2013/14 it was 2,150,050; in 2014/15 it was 2,208,902 and in 2015/16 it is 2,267,386.
As set out in 'Sporting Future', The Government has set out our intention to increase the number of people who engage in all types of sport and physical activity. However, from now on will move away from our historic focus on how many people are playing one sport or another at a particular moment to understanding how active people are overall. As part of this, we will also target funding at groups which have traditionally had lower participation rates, including by extending Sport England’s remit to engage people from as young as five, to help create a much healthier and more active nation.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding his Department allocated to the Football Association in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15 and (f) 2015-16.
Answered by David Evennett
Through Sport England the Government has invested a record £47.5 million in the Football Association (FA) directly since 2010 to help grow and sustain grassroots football participation in this country. That equates to £8,176,302m in 2010/11; £5,550,910m in 2011/12; £5,042,685 in 2012/13; £10,287,050m in 2013/14; £9,175,259m in 2014/15 and £9,345,964m over this last year.
Since 2010 the Government has also provided £10m each year to improving grassroots facilities in partnership with the FA and the Premier League through the Football Foundation, and we will look to invest a further £40m over the next 5 years to the FA's Parklife programme that aims to deliver 150 football hubs in 30 English cities by 2020. Funding for Parklife began in 2015/16.
The Government is also supporting the FA's aim to increase the number of qualified coaches in this country by providing £10m over the next 5 years up to 2020, with a particular emphasis on supporting coaches from under-represented groups. This builds on the £3m The Department for Culture Media and Sport provided to the FA in 2012 for that purpose.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 31 of the White Paper, A BBC for the future: a broadcaster of distinction, published in May 2016, if he will publish the minutes of the roundtable events held with the creative sector as part of the BBC Charter review process.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport will not be publishing minutes of the events held with the creative sector as part of the BBC Charter review process. A list of the attendees of these meetings are however available in Annex 2 of the White Paper.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost to his Department was of commissioning and publishing the report, entitled BBC television, radio and online services: An assessment of market impact and distinctiveness, published in March 2016.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The costs of this piece of independent research was £98,900 excluding VAT.Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost to his Department was of commissioning and publishing the report, entitled Research to explore public views about the BBC, published in May 2016.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The cost for this piece of independent research was £108,085 excluding VAT.Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of staffing levels for Ofcom in each year up to 2028.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom decides resource allocation and staffing levels based on the activities identified in its annual planning process. For 2014/15 the average resource cost was £63.8m and average number of staff was 787. The 2015/16 figures will be published and laid before Parliament in July.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department plans to publish the draft BBC Charter.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The government is in the process of drafting the Royal Charter and we expect to publish a draft version in the coming months.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) households and (b) businesses unable to access broadband speeds of (i) 10 Mbit/s and (ii) two Mbit/s in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2015 report - based on the state of the market in May 2015 - 8% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 10Mbp/s and 2% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 2Mbp/s. These figures are likely to have reduced due to continued commercial and BDUK broadband deployment across the UK - superfast broadband access has increased from 45% in 2010 to 90%, and by the end of next year, 95% of homes and businesses will have access to superfast broadband. In addition, all premises with speeds below 2Mbp/s now have access to speeds greater than this through the Government’s Basic Broadband Scheme, and the Prime Minister has announced the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation, with a minimum speed of 10Mbps, to help ensure no-one is left behind.