Asked by: Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Droitwich and Evesham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has taken steps to explore hosting the Special Olympics World Summer Games.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to delivering international events with pride, building upon the UK’s global reputation for excellence in staging major sporting events.
We are always keen to work alongside our arm’s-length body UK Sport and other stakeholders to grow and develop our strong pipeline of events. We prioritise support for events based on a range of criteria, which includes how far they help create social and economic benefits for the UK and contribute towards the Government's Plan for Change.
The UK has already secured a strong pipeline of events over the coming years, including the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, the Grand Départ for the Tour De France and the Tour de France Femmes in 2027 and the UEFA 2028 European Championships. The Department is not currently exploring hosting the Special Olympics World Summer Games.
Asked by: Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Droitwich and Evesham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when her Department was first alerted to the possibility of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans being banned from the fixture against Aston Villa on the 6th November.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A range of options are considered for each match and DCMS officials were made aware by the SGSA of the options under consideration on 9 October 2025. A decision had not been made at that time, and was not communicated to the Department until 16 October, when Ministers were made aware.
Asked by: Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Droitwich and Evesham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with Ofcom on (a) allocating additional resources and (b) developing additional measures to monitor accidental interference to programme making and special events services from (i) licence-exempt and (ii) manually configure white space devices.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Government considers Ofcom's existing powers of enforcement sufficient to address interference from unlicensed use at this time. Ofcom is working with the Federation of Communication Services to develop a Code of Practice for the installation of manually configured white space devices. Ofcom also plans to conduct early-phase compliance checks on licensees of manually configured devices.
Asked by: Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Droitwich and Evesham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the £600 million funding allocated for clearing the 700 MHz band of spectrum will be made available to the programme making and special events sector to compensate for the cost of new equipment required as a result of access to that band ending.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In March 2015, Government announced funding of up to £600m to fund the clearance of the 700MHz band and, as part of the programme, we are committed to safeguarding the ongoing benefits of PMSE to the UK economy. Ofcom have published a consultation outlining alternative spectrum bands for PMSE users, and we are currently working with Ofcom to look at how PMSE users can be supported if they need to buy new equipment.
Asked by: Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Droitwich and Evesham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the evidential basis is for clearing the 700 MHz band of spectrum requiring £600 million in funding; and what discussions his Department had with representatives of the programme making and special events sector prior to agreeing that figure.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In March 2015, Government announced funding of up to £600m to fund the clearance of the 700MHz band and, as part of the programme, we are committed to safeguarding the ongoing benefits of PMSE to the UK economy. Ofcom have published a consultation outlining alternative spectrum bands for PMSE users, and we are currently working with Ofcom to look at how PMSE users can be supported if they need to buy new equipment.
Asked by: Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Droitwich and Evesham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of differences in the roll-out of superfast broadband in each county.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Current availability of superfast broadband at county and local authority level is published by Ofcom. The latest data (June 2014) is available here:http://infrastructure.ofcom.org.uk/
A data table listing all local authorities in the UK is available here:http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/infrastructure/2014/Fixed_local_authority.csv
Over 2 million additional premises have been given access to superfast broadband since June 2014. This will be reflected at local and county levels in the next Ofcom figures.