Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Chris Green

Thursday 1st July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to open up the cultural and sporting sectors as covid-19 restrictions are eased.

[The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Oliver Dowden)]

We have provided unprecedented support for arts and sports and have only just opened up applications for the latest round of the £2 billion culture recovery fund. That will focus specifically on helping sectors to reopen fully. Our aim is, of course, to get everything—sports, live music and cultural events—back at full capacity from 19 July, and we are making good progress towards that goal.

[Chris Green]

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said that, if the direction of travel in respect of covid data is maintained, we will be able to have our terminus day on 19 July. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that terminus day means an end to social distancing, an end to compulsory mask wearing and a full return to normal, not just for the end of July but permanently?

[Oliver Dowden]

As my hon. Friend rightly says, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has said, we are making very good progress towards 19 July. We are hopeful and, indeed, confident that we will be able to remove, as planned at stage 4, all the remaining legal limits on social contact, reopen the remaining closed settings and remove all limits on weddings and other life events. That is very much what I am working towards.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Chris Green

Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Oliver Dowden)]

The hon. Lady raises a very important point. The infected blood inquiry is a priority for the Government, and it is extremely important that all those who have suffered so terribly can get the answers that they have spent decades waiting for. On the point of compensation, the Government have always made it clear that we will wait for the determination of legal liability, to which the inquiry’s deliberations relate, and then make our determination off the back of that.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

T5.   The Mayor of Greater Manchester is the police and crime commissioner and has responsibility for the Greater Manchester spatial framework and for health and social care devolution. London has an Assembly to challenge the Mayor. What mechanism is there in Greater Manchester?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Chris Green

Wednesday 6th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to encourage the use of innovative technologies to improve the delivery of public services.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Oliver Dowden)]

Last month I announced five new public sector challenges, to be funded from the £20 million GovTech innovation fund. In the spring we will publish a strategy for the use of innovation in public services.

[Chris Green]

Can my hon. Friend confirm that the GovTech fund is being used to identify technologies with the potential to improve medical care and deliver better services at a lower cost?

[Oliver Dowden]

I am delighted to confirm that to my hon. Friend. There is huge potential here for improvement in public services. So far the GovTech Catalyst has funded two health-related challenges: the first seeks to improve the medication pathway for people entering custody, and the second will assess how machine learning could improve prediction and provision in relation to adult social care.