Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the role of indoor and covered tennis facilities in the provision of visually impaired tennis in Britain.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to improving access to sports and physical activity for everyone, including disabled people, older people and women and girls. Sport and physical activity is central to achieving our health and opportunity manifesto missions, with the biggest gains coming from supporting those who are inactive to move more.
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Sport England’s work focuses on increasing participation in sport and to boost diversity at a grassroots level to give more and better opportunities to all.
Sport England provides long term investment to The Lawn Tennis Association, which receives up to £10.2 million for 5 years from 2022 to invest in community tennis initiatives that will benefit everyone, including disabled people.
Decisions with regards to future departmental budgets will be made as part of the spending review process.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) tennis and (b) padel on physical activity levels amongst (i) older people, (ii) disabled people and (iii) women and girls.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to improving access to sports and physical activity for everyone, including disabled people, older people and women and girls. Sport and physical activity is central to achieving our health and opportunity manifesto missions, with the biggest gains coming from supporting those who are inactive to move more.
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Sport England’s work focuses on increasing participation in sport and to boost diversity at a grassroots level to give more and better opportunities to all.
Sport England provides long term investment to The Lawn Tennis Association, which receives up to £10.2 million for 5 years from 2022 to invest in community tennis initiatives that will benefit everyone, including disabled people.
Decisions with regards to future departmental budgets will be made as part of the spending review process.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has plans to fund covered tennis facilities for the provision of disability tennis.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to improving access to sports and physical activity for everyone, including disabled people, older people and women and girls. Sport and physical activity is central to achieving our health and opportunity manifesto missions, with the biggest gains coming from supporting those who are inactive to move more.
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Sport England’s work focuses on increasing participation in sport and to boost diversity at a grassroots level to give more and better opportunities to all.
Sport England provides long term investment to The Lawn Tennis Association, which receives up to £10.2 million for 5 years from 2022 to invest in community tennis initiatives that will benefit everyone, including disabled people.
Decisions with regards to future departmental budgets will be made as part of the spending review process.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of funding covered tennis facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to improving access to sports and physical activity for everyone, including disabled people, older people and women and girls. Sport and physical activity is central to achieving our health and opportunity manifesto missions, with the biggest gains coming from supporting those who are inactive to move more.
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Sport England’s work focuses on increasing participation in sport and to boost diversity at a grassroots level to give more and better opportunities to all.
Sport England provides long term investment to The Lawn Tennis Association, which receives up to £10.2 million for 5 years from 2022 to invest in community tennis initiatives that will benefit everyone, including disabled people.
Decisions with regards to future departmental budgets will be made as part of the spending review process.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Egyptian counterpart on the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
HMG Ministers and officials at the British Embassy in Cairo continue to raise Mr Alaa Abd El-Fattah's case with the Egyptian government at the highest levels. They have been consistently clear in calling for his release and continue to press for urgent consular access. The Foreign Secretary raised Mr El-Fattah's case with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on 7 August and the Prime Minister raised Mr El-Fattah's case with President Sisi on 8 August.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 July 2024 to Question 1339 on Accessible Information Standard, for what reason NHS England cannot provide a specific date for publication.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is unable to provide an exact date for the publication of the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), due to their internal assurance and governance process. In addition, the AIS can only be published once the accessible versions are in place, all web content has been produced, and all stakeholders have been informed in advance, all of which can only be considered post-internal assurance and governance.
It should be noted that the current AIS remains in force and therefore, there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure NHS England is complying with the Accessible Information Standard.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England remains committed to implementing the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) effectively, and this remains a priority for the People and Communities division. NHS England has identified a number of ways to support the standard, including through a self-assessment framework, and has committed to reviewing the efficacy of implementation.
When NHS England publishes anything, the item will require approval via their publications approval process. This involves checking the item for compliance with website accessibility guidelines as well as general accessibility, for example complexity of language. In addition, their Equality and Involvement team will, as part of the process, review the proposed content and approach, with a view to ensuring that it is compliant with the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality duty, before giving clearance. The Department has included the AIS within the NHS England mandate, which illustrates the commitment to NHS England implementing the AIS in its work.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data he holds on the number of people accessing NHS services who did not receive information in an accessible format.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not held centrally.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse is of implementing the Accessible Information Standard.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to implementing the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) effectively. NHS England has identified a number of ways to support the standard, including through a self-assessment framework, and has committed to reviewing the efficacy of implementation. This will be achieved through existing staffing and team allocations.
For health and care systems, the AIS is an existing standard which has been in place since 2016, and we would expect systems to implement it within existing budgets, making it a priority where any costs are accrued to implement it. NHS England has invested officer time in developing the standard, and will invest further staff time in the launch and suitable communications as planned.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects NHS England to publish the updated Accessible Information Standard.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) review has been completed, and the updated standard and supporting documents are in the process of being transferred to web copy. NHS England is working on ensuring accessible versions are available for publication, and is making updates to the AIS e-learning modules in line with the new standard. NHS England is ensuring that all stakeholders involved in the review of the AIS have had ample opportunity to feedback on the process. The AIS documentation is going through NHS England's publication approval process. NHS England cannot provide a specific date for publication of the AIS, but aim to publish it soon.