Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer or other HM Treasury Ministers on the sale of Wembley Football Stadium; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Secretary of State and I were first made aware about the potential sale of Wembley stadium when The FA Chair and Chief Executive came to see us on the 17 April 2018.
It will be for my Department to lead on behalf of Government on further discussions with the FA on any potential sale of the stadium over the course of this month. Together with Sport England and the Greater London Authority we will be seeking reassurances that both the interests of the national team and the grassroots are protected and would benefit from any potential deal.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department was first made aware of an offer to buy Wembley football stadium.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Secretary of State and I were first made aware about the potential sale of Wembley stadium when The FA Chair and Chief Executive came to see us on the 17 April 2018.
It will be for my Department to lead on behalf of Government on further discussions with the FA on any potential sale of the stadium over the course of this month. Together with Sport England and the Greater London Authority we will be seeking reassurances that both the interests of the national team and the grassroots are protected and would benefit from any potential deal.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish any Government reports that assess the suitability of safe standing in the Scottish Premier League.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Sports Grounds Safety Authority, which licenses relevant stadia in England and Wales, has produced a technical report on the Installation of Dual Purpose Seating and Standing Area at Celtic Park, Glasgow, following its introduction at that ground. The report does not consider the case for the introduction of standing accommodation in England and Wales. We will be publishing this report in due course.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department plans to make ticket touting an offence for theatre and musical performances that receive funding from the Arts council England.
Answered by Margot James
We have taken several measures to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online primary and secondary ticketing markets and to improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. In line with Professor Waterson’s independent review into the ticketing market, however, we do not have plans to ban the secondary market.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 already includes rules about tickets offered for sale on the secondary market. The Digital Economy Act 2017 adds an additional requirement for ticket sellers to provide a unique ticket number when re-selling a ticket, and provides the power to create a specific offence, of electronically purchasing more tickets than the maximum permitted. We intend to enact this power via secondary legislation later this year.
We welcome the work of the Competition and Markets Authority and Trading Standards in taking enforcement action against those who are suspected to be in breach of consumer law.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to rectify the 31 per cent mean gender pay gap in the Lawn Tennis Association.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
It is important that women and men are recognised and paid equally for doing the same work. We welcome the positive step that has been taken to ensure that all companies in Great Britain with more than 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gap to the Government Equalities Office.
We know there is some work to do to narrow the gender pay gap across the sport sector. If this is to happen progress must continue to be made in the wider culture of sport to ensure women are treated equally to men at all levels. I know that the LTA are committed to using this opportunity to look at how they can most effectively tackle the gap that exists.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has had discussions with the Gambling Commission on tackling sexual harassment and sexist practices at gambling industry events; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Department has had no specific discussions with the Gambling Commission on sexual harassment or sexist practices at gambling industry events. Legislation relating to sexual harassment and equality applies to all industries and events and we would expect any breaches to be dealt with under such legislation.The Gambling Commission has reminded the industry that more diverse organisations, boards and teams make better decisions and play an important role in good governance to make gambling fairer and safer. The Chief Executive’s recent speech at the ICE Totally Gaming conference is published on http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk .
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what measures are in place to ensure that professional athletes who suffer from hearing impairments and cannot register under the British Paralympic Association are not at a disadvantage when having to compete alongside other athletes who do not have hearing impairments.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We recognise the importance of sport and physical activity for disabled people who take part at both grassroots and the elite level. We would expect national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) to identify hearing impaired athletes through their talent pathway programmes and put a support plan in place. NGBs also work with the relevant International Federation, where necessary, to help ensure that hearing impaired athletes can compete alongside those who do not have hearing impairments.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to regulate the sale of loot boxes to people aged under under 18.
Answered by Margot James
Consumers are protected by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This includes a requirement on businesses not to subject anyone to misleading or aggressive marketing practices, or, for example, direct exhortation to buy products, such as games content, including in-game purchases such as loot boxes. The government is committed to ensuring that consumers are properly protected and that children’s vulnerability and inexperience is not exploited by aggressive commercial practices.
On 11 October we published the Internet Safety Strategy, setting out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Strategy outlines how the government will work with online platforms, game publishers and game developers, and with agencies such as the VSC Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games. This includes promoting further awareness and understanding of PEGI age ratings, parental controls and advice on safe gaming.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent the sale of stolen goods on classified advertising and auctioning websites.
Answered by Margot James
The Home Office is working with the National Police Chief’s Council lead for acquisitive crime and other partners at the national level to look at whether there is more to be done to tackle the markets for stolen goods to make products less attractive to thieves. The work is covering a number of different elements including strengthening identity and due diligence checks carried out by second hand traders and agreeing a national code of conduct, which aims to protect both businesses and the public from inadvertently buying stolen goods.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the Deaflympics is not recognised as an official Olympic sporting event by the Government.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Recognition as an official Olympic partner is a matter for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Government does not therefore set such criteria. Decisions on which sports are on the programmes for the Olympic and Paralympic Games are matters for the IOC and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) respectively. The Deaflympics (previously called World Games for the Deaf and International Games for the Deaf) are an International Olympic Committee (IOC) sanctioned event at which deaf athletes compete at an elite level.