Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help ensure that every child has access to a library in areas of high disadvantage.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All children should have the opportunity to access books and other resources to support their learning and enjoyment.
Public libraries are delivered by local government in accordance with the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. Local authorities must have regard to encouraging both adults and children to make full use of the library service and keeping adequate stocks sufficient in number, range and quality to meet the needs of their communities.
Public libraries are free to join and there are over 2,500 static statutory libraries in England, found in every type of community, including 30 in Wiltshire. The government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase on 2024-25.
School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. Individual schools will decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils and headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by government. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025-26, meaning that core school funding will total £65.3 billion compared to £61.6 billion in 2024-25. Following the Spending Review announcement, core schools funding, including SEND investment, will increase from £65.3bn in 2025-26 to £69.5bn by 2028-29.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding is available to support the (a) creative and (b) cultural sectors in (i) Chippenham constituency and (ii) other rural market towns.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Arts Council England has invested £539,520 in Chippenham since April 2022 through a combination of regular funding and project funding for individuals and organisations such as Folio, a dynamic, female-led new writing theatre company, which received £122,329 over 2 project grants.
In addition, Arts Council England’s open-access funds are available across England, including in market towns such as Chippenham. This includes:
The Creative Industries Sector Plan will be published shortly, announcing new measures to grow the creative industries across the whole of the UK.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) further regulating gambling companies and (b) creating a Gambling Ombudsman.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government is committed to strengthening protections to ensure that people can continue to enjoy gambling, without the risks that can ensue from harmful gambling.
The previous government published its gambling white paper in April 2023. The white paper set out the future of regulation and legislation in the gambling sector. This included a broad package of evidence-led proposals which aim to prevent harm as early as possible, and we have delivered on the introduction of the statutory levy and online slots stake limits. We will continue to monitor the best available evidence in taking decisions on future gambling reform, and the Minister for Gambling will outline further steps in due course, including on the ombudsman.