Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which listed places of worship have received grants under the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme in in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency since the inception of that scheme.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Reliable data from before 2022 is not available, but since August 2022, 8 listed places of worship have received awards to a total value of £46,074.27 through the grant scheme in the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency. These were St Germain’s Church receiving £35,316.97; St Augustine’s of Hippo Church receiving £2,922.10; St Peter’s Church receiving £2,513.00; St George’s Church receiving £2,057.68; Oasis Church receiving £1,283.18; Saint Bartholomew receiving £1,133.00; Methodist Church South Street receiving £698.34; and St Faith & St Laurence Church receiving £150.00.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many public libraries across England and Wales were open in the most recent 10 years for which data is available.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS has policy responsibility for public libraries in England only.
The following table shows the number of open static libraries in England in the most recent 10 years for which data is available. The data is taken from the Arts Council England Basic Dataset for Libraries 2023 which consolidated and validated previous datasets.
| 1/7/2016 | 31/12/2019 | 31/12/2021 | 31/12/2022 | 31/12/2023 |
Number of open static libraries included in the dataset | 3,010 | 2,938 | 2,914 | 2,894 | 2,8771 |
Number of open static libraries within the statutory provision | 2,727 | 2,585 | 2,550 | 2,576 | 2,5781 |
1. Figures do not include 10 static libraries for which the operating model is unknown
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the contribution of the creative sectors in (a) Birmingham, Edgbaston, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands to the UK economy.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The creative industries sector is one of eight growth-driving sectors identified in the government’s Industrial Strategy. We will publish a Creative Industries Sector Plan to drive growth in the late spring. The creative industries can be found in clusters throughout the UK, with the Creative Policy and Evidence Centre noting 55 clusters making a strong contribution to the sector’s contribution of £124bn to the UK’s GVA.
In 2023, the West Midlands was one of the top three regions in terms of median annual earnings for the creative industries (£40,650). The West Midlands’ Creative Industries contributed £4 billion to the UK economy and there were 138,000 filled jobs in the sector in the region. This includes a strong presence in video games, film and television as well as in the wider culture and creative industries.
Government support for the sector has included £520,000 to the West Midlands region to provide creative industries specific business support and develop regional investor readiness through the Create Growth Programme. This is delivered in combination with the West Midlands Combined Authority, Creative UK, Create Central and Innovate UK with funding from DCMS. A further £425,000 will be provided by DCMS via the Integrated Settlement during the 2025/26 Financial Year.
In November at the Beyond Conference, we announced £6.74m to deliver the CreaTech Futures Creative Industries Cluster with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This will drive research and development, business innovation and skills within the creative industries ecosystem across the West Midlands. This will be led by Birmingham City University with Coventry University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Cluster will create a network of four complementary, interconnected R&D labs in immersive audio and video technologies, virtual production, applied AI for createch and gaming, esports, and animation.
At the Creative Industries Growth Moment in January, we announced additional funding, to be agreed as part of the Spending Review to six Mayoral Combined Authorities including the West Midlands Combined Authority to drive business growth.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislative proposals to ensure that football clubs donate a proportion of their profits to help ex-professional football players suffering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy with their health and social care.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. I welcome work by the football industry to protect players from harm and provide practical support to former players who develop neurodegenerative conditions. One example of this is the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Football Brain Health Fund, supported by the Premier League and announced in September 2023, which aims to assist former players and their families who have been impacted by dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions.
The Government has no plans to legislate in this area, but will continue to liaise with the football authorities about their work to protect players and provide support, including funding initiatives.
The Government continues to take the issue of head injuries very seriously. In December 2021 DCMS published its Command Paper report on concussion in sport, outlining the steps the Government is undertaking to help reduce risks associated with head injuries by improving understanding, awareness, prevention and treatment of concussion in sport. As part of this, in April 2023 the Government announced the first UK concussion guidelines for grassroots sport, in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation Alliance. This guidance is intended to be a helpful tool in reducing the risks associated with concussion and marks an important step in making sport safer for thousands of people who enjoy sport at a grassroots level, as well as an aid to professional sports.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the football industry on (a) the scale of and (b) tackling Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy suffered by ex-professional football players.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. I welcome work by the football industry to protect players from harm and provide practical support to former players who develop neurodegenerative conditions. One example of this is the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Football Brain Health Fund, supported by the Premier League and announced in September 2023, which aims to assist former players and their families who have been impacted by dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions.
The Government has no plans to legislate in this area, but will continue to liaise with the football authorities about their work to protect players and provide support, including funding initiatives.
The Government continues to take the issue of head injuries very seriously. In December 2021 DCMS published its Command Paper report on concussion in sport, outlining the steps the Government is undertaking to help reduce risks associated with head injuries by improving understanding, awareness, prevention and treatment of concussion in sport. As part of this, in April 2023 the Government announced the first UK concussion guidelines for grassroots sport, in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation Alliance. This guidance is intended to be a helpful tool in reducing the risks associated with concussion and marks an important step in making sport safer for thousands of people who enjoy sport at a grassroots level, as well as an aid to professional sports.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her policies to regulate the online order and delivery of age-restricted products or bladed items to self-service lockers.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is not responsible for the general regulation of online sales, or age-restricted products.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement of regulations on online sales of age-restricted products.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is not responsible for the general regulation of online sales, or age-restricted products.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to improve the protection of listed buildings.
Answered by John Whittingdale
It is a criminal offence to demolish a listed building, or to alter or extend it in a manner that would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, without obtaining listed building consent from the relevant local planning authority. In addition to this protection, HM Government is taking steps through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to improve the protection that can be afforded to vulnerable buildings while they are being considered for listing by simplifying the process for the service of building preservation notices by local planning authorities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of regulations on follow-on formula milk advertising in the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising across traditional forms of media (print, radio, TV) through its Broadcast (BCAP) and online advertising through its Non-broadcast (CAP) Codes. Overall responsibility for enforcement of the legislation governing follow-on formula beyond ASA’s advertising remit rests with Local Authorities in England.
In line with statutory restrictions, infant formula advertising is prohibited. Follow-on formula may be legitimately advertised but adverts must comply with the general provisions of the Code, which ensure advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful.
The ASA’s rules on formula advertising are backstopped by Trading Standards. This means that the ASA can refer cases if necessary for Trading Standards to take a view on whether there are breaches of the law and apply tougher sanctions as appropriate.
The Government therefore believes that existing rules related to the advertising of follow-on formula are sufficient.
In addition, through the Online Advertising Programme, the Government is examining the regulatory model for online advertising to ensure it protects consumers and minimises harm. The consultation closed last year, and we will be publishing a Government response in due course.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 adequacy of resilience plans for emergency services during a (a) widespread internet outage and (b) cyber attack.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Government and Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, work closely with the telecoms sector to assess and promote the resilience of the sector and to identify and prevent the risk of a wide range of compromises. The Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 established a new telecoms security framework to improve the security and resilience of public telecoms networks and services. The framework includes New Electronic Communications (Security Measures) Regulations 2022 and an accompanying Telecommunications Security Code of Practice. These are intended to address risks to the security of the UK’s public telecoms networks and services, including cyber attacks and outages.
DCMS does not have responsibility for the provision of emergency services themselves. It is for the relevant Emergency Authority (EA) to make an assessment of their resilience plans and ensure they have comprehensive business continuity plans and for the relevant inspectorate and lead government department to review the efficacy of these plans.