Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the level of racism in cricket in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is clear that racism has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket issued a call for evidence following the Azeem Rafiq incident at Yorkshire County Cricket Club last year. This received over 4000 responses which indicates that the level of racism in cricket is currently far too high.
The Commission also opened a second call for evidence in March 2022 to seek more detailed views on a number of areas and is currently reviewing the evidence to form an independent report with suggested recommendations to tackle racism and discrimination in cricket.
We welcome the steps taken so far by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) but expect to see clear and sustained evidence of cultural change across the sport resulting from these actions. A recent update indicates tangible progress on a number of commitments; including the county cricket network having achieved significant progress to increase Board diversity in line with the targets of 30% female representation and locally representative ethnicity.
It has been made clear to the ECB, who have responded positively and constructively, that public funding is explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans.
The Government and our arm’s length bodies will continue to liaise with the cricket authorities on tackling racism and hold them to account on this.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of tourism from India on the economy of (a) Greater Manchester and (b) United Kingdom in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the expenditure of visitors to the UK from India was steadily increasing. In 2019, the total expenditure of visitors from India was £752.46 million and the average spend per visit was £1,088 - in Greater Manchester the total expenditure was £51.96 million and the average spend was £1,299 per visit. In 2019, there were 692,660 visits from India to the UK; 39,990 of these were to Greater Manchester.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 53% reduction in seat capacity from India to the UK in 2020 and in 2021 was 54% behind pre-COVID levels.
The Government is committed to assisting and accelerating the tourism sector’s recovery from COVID-19 which is why we published the Tourism Recovery Plan (TRP) in June 2021.
The TRP sets out ambitious and stretching targets to recover inbound visitor numbers and spend to 2019 levels by the end of 2023 and recover domestic overnight trip volume and spend by the end of 2022 - at least a year faster than independent forecasts predict.
We are now showing the rest of the world that the UK is open, and ready to welcome visitors from around the world for a blockbuster year of events which began with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last weekend. India has been one of VisitBritain’s key campaign markets for the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games taking place this summer. As well as the Commonwealth Games, we will also be showcasing the breadth of the UK’s culture, creativity and innovation through Unboxed, ‘Creativity in the UK’.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government has plans to return (a) the Benin Bronzes and (b) other historically and culturally significant artifacts to Nigeria.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Museums and galleries in the UK operate independently of the government. Decisions relating to their collections are a matter for the trustees of each museum.
Some national museums are prevented by law from deaccessioning objects in their collections unless, broadly, they are duplicates or unfit for retention. The two exceptions to this are when the objects are human remains that are less than 1000 years old, and objects that were spoliated during the Nazi-era. The Government has no plans to change the law.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the roll out of full fibre to the premises ultrafast broadband in Stockport.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
At present, 93% of premises can access ultrafast broadband (>100Mbps) in the constituency of Stockport, which compares favourably with the UK average of 69.03% (Thinkbroadband).
As announced in our latest Project Gigabit delivery update, the Government is assessing further Regional Supplier procurements for areas such as Stockport, where very extensive commercial delivery continues. We will provide further information for Greater Manchester and Merseyside (Lot 36) in future quarterly updates.
We also continue to subsidise telecoms providers to deliver connections to the hardest-to-reach areas through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. A total of 48 vouchers have been used to support gigabit connections in the Stockport constituency so far, worth £123,083.
Additionally, there is an ongoing partnership between Virgin Media Business and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to deliver a project under the Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme. The project is partly funded by the UK Government and will underpin a wide range of digital transformation and smart city projects aimed at improving the lives of those who live in Greater Manchester.
In its first year alone, the Greater Manchester LFFN project, which is the largest within the programme, has delivered £11.8 million of economic benefit to the region through the programme’s commitment to local employment.
The ongoing delivery through this project will deliver full-fibre connectivity to 1,500 public sites across the city region. Stockport is at the forefront of this project, with 134 of the 138 public sector sites covered by the project within the town having received a full-fibre connection.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish the outcome of the consultation on changes to the Electronic Communications Code.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The response to the consultation on changes to the Electronic Communications Code was published today.
The proposed reforms set out in the response have today been brought forward in the Product Security and Telecommunication Infrastructure Bill, which was introduced in the House of Commons earlier.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to take steps to reduce gambling advertising during school run hours, in the context of analysis from Nielsen which found that approximately 1,200 hours of such advertisements aired during those times over the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All gambling advertising, wherever it appears, is subject to strict controls on content and placement. Adverts must never be targeted at children or vulnerable people, and the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) has recently announced changes to further restrict content that may appeal to vulnerable people, with a further announcement on measures to protect children expected shortly. Radio adverts are subject to a pre-clearance regime through RadioCentre and radio advertising receives a very low volume of complaints, accounting for only 2% of all cases investigated by the ASA in 2020.
Children’s exposure to gambling adverts through radio remains very low, with research from Ipsos Mori for GambleAware in 2020 finding that radio advertising accounted for only 1% of children and young people’s reported exposure to gambling adverts. However, it is our understanding that at least one major gambling operator has committed not to run radio adverts during ‘school run’ periods in response to Nielsen’s findings.
As part of our wide-ranging Review of the Gambling Act 2005 we are looking closely at the rules around gambling advertising and carefully considering the evidence of its impacts. A White Paper setting out future direction of travel will be published in the coming months.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to tackle racism and discrimination in cricket following the report into allegations of racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Racism has no place in cricket, sport, or society at large. The government welcomes the firm action taken so far by the England Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in stripping Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) of its ability to host international matches and commissioning a full review of the governance structures in place at the YCCC. We urge the ECB to continue to look at this with the utmost scrutiny and take further action where needed to stamp out racism in the game.
The government has already made clear its commitment to tackling racism and all forms of discrimination in sport, as set out in the sport and physical activity strategy ‘Sporting Future’.
We continue to work closely with our arm’s length bodies, national governing bodies of sport and sector partners to tackle racism and discrimination in sport. Sport England, UK Sport and the other home nations’ sports councils recently published the results of a detailed, independent review into tackling racism and racial inequality in sport. Each Council is working at pace to develop their own specific action plans to further deliver on diversity and inclusion commitments and address the recommendations from the review.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 15 October 2020 to Question HL8910 on Public Libraries: Coronavirus, what the outcome was of the joint letter with the Local Government Association to local authorities in England requesting detail of restoration of their library services.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The joint letter was issued on 16 July 2020 and followed physical library buildings being permitted to reopen at that time. The purpose of the letter was to remind local authorities in England of the Secretary of State’s statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 and asked them to share their plans for the restoration of their library service from July 2020 onwards to assist this function. Of the 150 local authorities in England, 149 responded to this request, including a detailed reply from Stockport.
Since that time further restrictions and lockdowns were introduced which restricted the services libraries were able to deliver and included physical library locations having to close during the lockdown earlier this year. DCMS worked closely with library sector stakeholders to identify and achieve important exceptions to restrictions on physical services and although library locations were closed they were enabled to provide limited specific services including order and collect services or providing access to public PCs for essential services and home library services. Whether services were provided was for each local authority to determine after appropriate risk assessments around safety of both users and people working in libraries.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish an assessment of the effectiveness of the Digital Lifeline project in respect of (a) older people and (b) people with a learning disability.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
During the pandemic, the ability to connect online has supported many people to maintain vital social connections. However some people, including those with learning disabilities, have faced digital inclusion barriers such as access to mobile technology and the internet, or a lack of digital skills and confidence.
The Digital Lifeline fund is aimed at supporting those with learning disabilities. The £2.5 million fund is providing tablets, data and free digital support to over 5,000 people with learning disabilities who would otherwise find it difficult to get online. The fund is enabling people to connect with friends, family and essential services. We are aiming to publish a full evaluation of the Digital Lifeline fund towards the end of the year.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 takes to work with the Department for Education to promote cricket in state-funded schools.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
My department works closely with the Department for Education on school sport provision. Schools are free to organise and deliver a flexible, diverse and challenging Physical Education curriculum that suits the needs of all their pupils, which can include cricket. Both departments regularly engage with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
The ECB is actively engaged with 5,500 state schools, working with a quarter of all primary schools and 15,000 teachers. The ECB engages over half a million school children every year, including work through their charity partner Chance to Shine.
The ECB were represented at a school sport roundtable in March, jointly hosted by the Secretary of State for Education and the Culture Secretary. This roundtable launched our ongoing work to bring together a sports sector offer to support schools through an active summer recovery term, and on into the summer holidays, in order to get children and young people active again.