Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government taking to ensure that people (a) in and (b) out work has the opportunity to have a holiday each year regardless of their income or personal circumstances.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to PQ 143186 on 15th May.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps Government is taking to support social tourism initiatives throughout the UK.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government’s Arms Length Body, VisitEngland supports the work of the Family Holiday Association, a national charity dedicated to helping provide breaks and day trips at the British seaside for families who struggle to financially provide holidays for their family. They are also a member of England’s Inclusive Tourism Group which VisitEngland originally convened in 2015, which aim to provide access for all to tourism destinations and businesses.
VisitScotland have their own accessibility team which develop and support products to increase accessibility for visitors, however they do work in partnership with VisitEngland.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions the Government has had with the tourism industry on helping families with low incomes take a holiday away from home.
Answered by Michael Ellis
VisitEngland work with and support the Family Holiday Association in their work to help make it easier for financially challenged families to take short breaks to the British seaside.
VisitEngland also provide resources for tourism businesses to help make themselves more accessible to all, be it from disability or financial disadvantage.
VisitScotland have their own accessibility team which develop and support products to increase accessibility for visitors, however they do work in partnership with VisitEngland.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the value of social tourism to the UK (a) domestic tourism industry and (b) economy.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The department doesn’t hold information on the value of social tourism to the domestic tourism industry or the economy.
In 2016, as a whole, tourism accounts for £66.2bn of the UK’s GVA and approximately 1.5m jobs across the country. Scotland’s tourism sector accounted for £5.2bn of GVA in 2013 and approximately 280,000 jobs in 2014.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of National Lottery ticket sales revenues was (a) passed to the good causes funds and (b) spent on good causes in Scotland in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The table below sets out the proportion of ticket sales going to Good Causes over the past ten years, and the percentage of total lottery funding allocated to Scottish distributors, as determined by legislation.
Year | Proportion of sales to Good Causes (%) | Proportion of total lottery funding to Scottish Distributors only (%) |
06/07 | 25.4 | 2.8 |
07/08 | 25.3 | 2.8 |
08/09 | 25.2 | 2.8 |
09/10 | 26.8 | 2.8 |
10/11 | 26.7 | 2.8 |
11/12 | 26.2 | 3.1 |
12/13 | 25.3 | 3.4 |
13/14 | 23.4 | 3.4 |
14/15 | 22.9 | 3.4 |
15/16 | 23.5 | 3.4 |
The relationship between ticket sales and income generated for Good Causes depends on the mix of games sold, as each has a different percentage return to Good Causes.
In addition, good causes in Scotland receive funding from the four UK-wide distributors: British Film Institute, UK Sport, Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund. Each distributor takes account of a variety of considerations including geographical spread of funding, deprivation data and participation rates when determining priorities and allocating budget.
For example, up to 10 per cent of the Big Lottery Fund budget is top sliced for UK programmes. Scotland receives 11.5 per cent of the remaining budget. In 2016, the Big Lottery Fund gave grants of between £8,106 - £10,000 to projects in three primary schools in North Lanarkshire, as well a variety of organisations seeking to improve community well-being, including the Love n Light Recovery Organisation, Moira Anderson Foundation, Mornay Social Club, and Newmains Community Trust. Further details are available on the DCMS Lottery Grants Database at http://www.lottery.culture.gov.uk/Search.aspx
The Heritage Lottery Fund’s open programmes are calculated on a per capita basis. Budgets for targeted programmes are not distributed on this basis, instead Scotland bids alongside the rest of the UK for access to those funds.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been returned to his Department by BT following take up beyond 20 per cent under the Broadband Delivery UK contract.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The rollout of superfast broadband is delivering value for customers and for the taxpayer - BT has committed to return up to £129 million to local authorities and devolved administrations to further fund local broadband projects, as take-up of broadband services is likely to exceed the 20 per cent assumed in BT’s initial financial model.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to reimburse the National Lottery Good Causes programme in Scotland for the sum of money used from that programme for use in funding the 2012 London Olympics.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
There is a robust commitment in place to pay back £675m to the National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF). This funding was borrowed from the Fund in addition to the original contribution of £410m.
It is expected that the NLDF will start to receive funds from the early 2020s through land development and sales in the Olympic Park. Scottish good causes will benefit from their portion of this reimbursed funding.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the sum of money received was from the National Lottery Good Causes programme in Scotland for use in funding the 2012 London Olympics.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
All countries of the UK contributed to the funding of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The initial £410m National Lottery contribution, outlined in the Games bid, was supplemented with a further £675m borrowed as part of the increased Olympic budget. The total transfer from the National Lottery Distribution Fund was £1,085m.
An estimated £114m (taken from across both the £410m and £675m amounts) was the share given by Lottery programmes in Scotland. This includes amounts transferred from distributors operating wholly in Scotland, and notional amounts allocated to Scotland by UK-wide distributors.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what is the sum of money that has so far been reimbursed to the National Lottery Good Causes programme in Scotland for money used from that programme for funding the 2012 London Olympics.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Repayment of the additional £675m borrowed from the National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF) will start from the early 2020s.
In addition to this repayment, £69m was transferred to the NLDF from The Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (OLDF) when it closed in January 2015, representing a share of the income from the sale of the Olympic Village. This adds to the £79 million (from savings in the Olympic Programme) which was transferred from the OLDF to the NLDF in July 2014. The OLDF funds are allocated in the usual proportions, as set out in legislation.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the monies from National Lottery ticket sales goes to the National Lottery Good Causes programme in Scotland.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Lottery funding shares are set out in legislation. Currently health, education, environment and charitable causes are apportioned 40%, Sport 20%, Arts 20% and Heritage 20% across the UK. Creative Scotland received 1.78% and sportscotland received 1.62% of overall lottery funding in 2014/15. In addition, Scottish good causes receive funding from the four UK-wide distributors: British Film Institute, UK Sport, Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund.