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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department 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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department 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 - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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 - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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 - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
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 assessment has she made of the potential impact of the reintroduction of roaming charges on the UK tourism industry.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Whilst the government has not conducted an assessment of the potential impact of the reintroduction of international mobile roaming charges on the UK tourism industry, we work closely with the tourism industry and wider stakeholders to ensure that the UK tourism offer is as competitive as possible. We await the outcome of Ofcom's policy programme into mobile roaming and continue to follow developments in the market closely.
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 undertake a review of the provisions of the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 on the eligibility criteria for a concessionary TV licence for people over the age of 60 and living in sheltered accommodation with more than one room.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
TV Licence concessions are available to people who are registered blind or severely sight impaired, people living in qualifying residential care who are disabled or over 60 years old, and people aged 75 and over in receipt of Pension Credit.
The Government has committed to maintain the licence fee model for the remainder of this Charter Period. The Government is not considering making any changes to the current concessions regime at this time. Issues around fairness and people’s ability to pay for the Licence Fee are issues we will consider as part of the upcoming review of the Licence Fee, as well as at Charter Review.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, how much the Government has spent on youth services in (a) Birmingham and (b) the West Midlands in each of the last 12 years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We currently do not hold information on the number of youth workers and youth centres in Birmingham, however we are working with the National Youth Agency to conduct the National Youth Sector Census to better understand the spread of services, and number of youth workers in different areas across the country.
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion last year.
DCMS is currently reviewing the statutory duty and its associated guidance to assess the effectiveness after a call for responses from key youth stakeholders. Local authorities are required by section 507B(12) to have regard to the statutory guidance when exercising their functions in relation to the statutory duty.