Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
What steps her Department is taking to support the provision of youth services.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This Government knows the importance of youth services.
We have guaranteed that by 2025, every young person in England will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities.
This is supported by over £500 million of investment in youth services.
The National Youth Guarantee has already supported over 100,000 young people to develop skills for life and work and support their mental and physical wellbeing.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effect on her policies of trends in the level of population growth in the East of England; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Julia Lopez
DCMS has not made an assessment of the effect on policies of trends in the level of population growth in the East of England.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her timetable is for the introduction of the Online Safety Bill to Parliament.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
In May we published the Online Safety Bill in draft for pre-legislative scrutiny. Pre-legislative scrutiny finished on 14 December, when the Joint Committee reported with its recommendations. The DCMS sub-Committee and the Petitions Committee have both since also published reports relating to the Bill. Our intention remains to introduce the Bill as soon as possible, subject to the parliamentary timetable.
We have listened to stakeholders’ and parliamentarians’ views and have already announced several major policy changes to the Bill as a result. These include strengthening and clarifying the approach to illegal content, and widening the scope of the Bill to ensure that all pornography websites will have a duty to protect children from accessing their sites. We expect companies to take steps now to improve safety, and not wait for the legislation to come into force before acting.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a bespoke financial support package for bingo clubs.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be very challenging for businesses, including in the bingo sector. In recognition of the impact of requiring some businesses to remain closed for a longer period, an enhanced package of support was introduced, including Restart Grants of up to £18,000 per premises, specifically for those which were required to remain closed beyond Step 2. The package also included extensions to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, with further discretionary funding for allocation by Local Authorities.
Bingo clubs have accessed £44m of government support via the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme (£26.8m), Eat Out to Help Out (£600k), Business Rates Relief (£15.9m) and Grant funding (£1.6m). We are continuing to work with organisations in the land-based gambling sector to understand the impacts now that they are open.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has plans to introduce additional financial support for bingo clubs in England.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be very challenging for businesses, including in the bingo sector. In recognition of the impact of requiring some businesses to remain closed for a longer period, an enhanced package of support was introduced, including Restart Grants of up to £18,000 per premises, specifically for those which were required to remain closed beyond Step 2. The package also included extensions to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, with further discretionary funding for allocation by Local Authorities.
Bingo clubs have accessed £44m of government support via the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme (£26.8m), Eat Out to Help Out (£600k), Business Rates Relief (£15.9m) and Grant funding (£1.6m). We are continuing to work with organisations in the land-based gambling sector to understand the impacts now that they are open.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what his timescale is for publication of the Tourism Recovery Plan; and if he will include measures to develop rather than maintain the domestic tourism industry in that Plan.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Government intends to publish the Tourism Recovery Plan shortly. Alongside addressing short and medium term challenges, the plan will set out a long-term framework for how the Government will work with the sector to build back better from the pandemic - and ultimately develop a more sustainable, innovative, and data-driven tourism industry.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of press regulation by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
Answered by Nigel Adams
Since the report of the Leveson Inquiry was published in 2012, we have seen a fundamental reform of the self-regulatory landscape for the press, including the establishment of two new regulators, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and IMPRESS.
IPSO has established strong regulatory standards and codes for its members, and offers individuals a means of redress where these standards are not met.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her policy is on encouraging organisations offering grants, contracts or project funding to charities to include funding for capacity building.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
A wide range of voluntary and community sector funders are already offering capacity building support in addition to frontline project funding. Government has no specific policy of encouraging this practice. However, officials regularly work with independent funders and share knowledge on capacity building offers.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the finding of the website stammeringlaw.org.uk on voice recognition systems and duties on companies to make reasonable adjustments, published on 25 September 2012, what statutory requirements there are for companies that use computer answering systems to ensure that those with stammering and other communication needs are able to speak to a real person.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The use of an automated answering service is a commercial decision. However many companies offer alternative methods of contact to assist callers who encounter difficulties when using an automated answering service.