Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will seek information from the BBC on the number of unique visitors to the BBC Food website in each month since May 2010; and if he will place that information in the Library.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Decisions in relation to the BBC's online content are a matter for the BBC which is editorially independent of the Government.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has had discussions with the BBC on levels of accessibility to online archived BBC content.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
As part of the discussions leading to the publication of the White Paper, A BBC for the future: a Broadcaster of Distinction, the government discussed accessibility of the BBC's archive with the BBC. As set out in that White Paper, the government encourages the BBC to do more to open up its archive and ensure that it can be used by the public and as wide a range of institutions and organisations as possible.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
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 his Department's expected DEL underspend in 2015-16; what his Department's current forecast for AME expenditure is in 2015-16; and what that forecast was at the time of the (a) Summer Budget 2015 and (b) March Budget 2015.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Department does not publish full year DEL and AME forecasts. During the year, expenditure to date is published on the government's transparency website (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-transactions-over-25000-2015-16). At the end of the financial year, the Annual Report and Accounts will be published detailing actual expenditure for the year.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many households in (a) England and Wales, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) Barnsley East constituency do not have access to (i) a fibre optic broadband connection, (ii) high speed broadband and (iii) the internet.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom have reported that Internet availability is virtually 100% across the whole United Kingdom.
Ofcom has also published fixed broadband data by local area, for example in its infrastructure report (stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/broadband-speeds/infrastructure-report-2013/) and map (maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/), which included the data for 2013:
Area | Next Generation Access broadband availability 2013 | Broadband take-up (including superfast broadband) 2013 | Superfast broadband take-up 2013 |
England | 76% | 72% | 16% |
Wales | 48% | 70% | 9% |
Barnsley | 70.3% | 66.9% | 17.3% |
Doncaster | 76.1% | 69.3% | 15.9% |
Rotherham | 72.6% | 70.3% | 13.8% |
Sheffield | 81.3% | 68.5% | 17.7% |
Ofcom is likely to publish updated numbers later in 2014. It did not however publish data on a constituency basis.
Broadband take-up may be higher than these numbers suggest, as some households use mobile broadband but not fixed broadband and Internet usage likely to be higher still, as some individuals access the internet away from home.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Arts Council has spent per head of population in (a) Barnsley East constituency, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The total ACE Funding in South Yorkshire in 2013/14 was more than £1 higher than it was in 2009/10. The Barnsley East figure increased by almost four times over the same period.
Barnsley East – Spend per year – per head of population | |
2009/10 | £0.30 |
2010/11 | £0.12 |
2011/12 | £0.71 |
2012/13 | £0.33 |
2013/14 | £1.11 |
South Yorkshire– Spend per year – per head of population | |
2009/10 | £4.68 |
2010/11 | £3.44 |
2011/12 | £4.39 |
2012/13 | £8.07 |
2013/14 | £5.71 |
England and Wales – Spend per year – per head of population | |
2009/10 | £10.05 |
2010/11 | £9.33 |
2011/12 | £9.48 |
2012/13 | £13.49 |
2013/14 | £10.91 |