Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to provide funding for association football in Northern Ireland, following the decision to contribute £50 million for the redevelopment of Casement Park.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government wants to see infrastructure in Northern Ireland for all sports. That is why we have invested, between 2021-2025, over £12 million of UK Government funding through the Grassroots Facilities Investment Fund, the Levelling Up Fund, and the Community Ownership Fund to improve and refurbish grassroots football facilities. The Government has also provided £5.1 million to Ulster Rugby for its Club Capital Improvement Project, to upgrade thirty rugby clubs under Ulster Rugby’s remit. And, between 2022-2025, the Government has invested over £30 million through the Levelling Up Fund and the Community Ownership Fund into a range of other sports and leisure facilities, including the redevelopment of Dundonald Ice Bowl in Belfast, the construction of Ballycastle Leisure Centre, and the construction of Canal Boxing Academy Sports Hub in Lisburn.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland recently met with Gerard Lawlor, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Football League, and Patrick Nelson, the Chief Executive of the Irish Football Association, to discuss football funding and other related matters.
The Culture Secretary confirmed on 19 June that work is continuing with the Home Nation football associations and devolved administrations to develop a bid for the UK to host the Women’s FIFA World Cup in 2035.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will support the establishment of an independent governing body for futsal that complies with (a) FIFA and (b) UEFA regulations but operates outside of the control of the Football Association.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Internationally, FIFA and UEFA recognise the Football Association as the recognised National Governing Body (NGB) for football, including futsal, in England.
Domestic recognition of an NGB in England is a matter for Sport England in coordination as appropriate with the other UK Sports Councils (Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Scotland, Sport Wales and UK Sport).
The Sport and NGB Recognition Process is currently closed to all new applications while the UK Sports Councils undertake a review of the recognition policy and process, which is expected to re-open by Spring 2026.
Both processes operate independently of the Government.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps with the Fundraising Regulator to help ensure compliance by social fundraising platforms with its guidance on the prominence of a zero fee or tip option.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Fundraising platforms are commercial organisations that provide an important service to charities and donors. Most platforms are registered with the Fundraising Regulator, which is the independent, non-statutory regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. DCMS meets with the Fundraising Regulator regularly to discuss a range of issues, including fundraising platforms.
The Fundraising Regulator’s new Code of Fundraising Practice, which will come into force on 1 November 2025, includes requirements for fundraising platforms to include information for donors about how fees, including any voluntary tips, are calculated. The information must be easy to find, and include details on how voluntary tips can be amended or removed altogether in a straightforward way. The Fundraising Regulator will engage with fundraising platforms to ensure they are clear on the new transparency requirements for fees and tipping sliders before the new Code comes into effect.
The government has no current plans to bring forward legislation on fundraising platforms. DCMS will continue working with the Fundraising Regulator, charities, and online giving platforms to support best practice across all forms of charitable fundraising.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to require that tipping sliders on online fundraising platforms can be dragged to zero.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Fundraising platforms are commercial organisations that provide an important service to charities and donors. Most platforms are registered with the Fundraising Regulator, which is the independent, non-statutory regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. DCMS meets with the Fundraising Regulator regularly to discuss a range of issues, including fundraising platforms.
The Fundraising Regulator’s new Code of Fundraising Practice, which will come into force on 1 November 2025, includes requirements for fundraising platforms to include information for donors about how fees, including any voluntary tips, are calculated. The information must be easy to find, and include details on how voluntary tips can be amended or removed altogether in a straightforward way. The Fundraising Regulator will engage with fundraising platforms to ensure they are clear on the new transparency requirements for fees and tipping sliders before the new Code comes into effect.
The government has no current plans to bring forward legislation on fundraising platforms. DCMS will continue working with the Fundraising Regulator, charities, and online giving platforms to support best practice across all forms of charitable fundraising.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with the Fundraising Regulator on the transparency of tipping sliders on online fundraising platforms.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Fundraising platforms are commercial organisations that provide an important service to charities and donors. Most platforms are registered with the Fundraising Regulator, which is the independent, non-statutory regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. DCMS meets with the Fundraising Regulator regularly to discuss a range of issues, including fundraising platforms.
The Fundraising Regulator’s new Code of Fundraising Practice, which will come into force on 1 November 2025, includes requirements for fundraising platforms to include information for donors about how fees, including any voluntary tips, are calculated. The information must be easy to find, and include details on how voluntary tips can be amended or removed altogether in a straightforward way. The Fundraising Regulator will engage with fundraising platforms to ensure they are clear on the new transparency requirements for fees and tipping sliders before the new Code comes into effect.
The government has no current plans to bring forward legislation on fundraising platforms. DCMS will continue working with the Fundraising Regulator, charities, and online giving platforms to support best practice across all forms of charitable fundraising.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of administrative data and data intermediaries in improving understanding of employment patterns in the cultural and creative sectors.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
DCMS publishes official statistics on Culture and Creative Industries employment. These include statistics on the number of filled jobs using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey and Labour Force Survey, both household surveys, and skills gaps and shortages from the Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey.
The department also supports research into the creative industries and jointly with the Creative Industries Council has funded the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre to undertake the creative employers skills survey. This is a new survey of 1,300 businesses across the creative industries in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland that aims to add to our understanding of the skills challenges of today and the talent and skills that will be crucial to the success of the industry in the future.
The understanding that we gain from this data is important for informing our policy work on workforce practice, job quality, careers and training pathways in the creative industries. The main data sources that DCMS currently draw on in these areas are survey based and are not based on administrative data. However, DCMS keeps its statistics and research requirements under review to ensure decision making is based on the best available evidence, including exploring administrative and other data sources where relevant.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the case for requiring publicly funded arts councils in each of the four UK nations to publish per-organisation data on staffing costs, freelance volumes, and artistic expenditure on a consistent and comparable basis.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Arts Councils of each of the four UK nations are devolved responsibilities.
Ministers have not made an assessment of the case raised in the question. However, we are aware of the need for data collection to be consistent, proportionate, and manageable for publicly-funded arts organisations. Baroness Hodge of Barking has been appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to conduct a Review of Arts Council England. This includes in its terms of reference to consider how effective the relationships between ACE and the organisations it funds are; and how far ACE cooperates and shares knowledge with the United Kingdom’s Arts Councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Arts Council England publishes an Annual Data survey of its National Portfolio Organisations, which provides a breakdown of expenditure for those organisations. Data from this survey is available on line from the year 2016-17 onwards. ACE also publishes data on its own staff and expenditure in its Annual Report - the latest of which covering 2023-24 can be found on their website.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of online fundraising platforms' use of tipping sliders.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS has not made an assessment at this time on the potential impact of online fundraising platforms' use of tipping sliders. DCMS will continue working with the Fundraising Regulator, charities, and online giving platforms to support best practice across all forms of charitable fundraising.
Fundraising platforms are commercial organisations that provide an important service to charities and donors. Most platforms are registered with the Fundraising Regulator, which is the independent, non-statutory regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Fundraising Regulator’s new Code of Fundraising Practice, which will come into force on 1 November 2025, includes requirements for fundraising platforms to include information for donors about how fees, including any voluntary tips, are calculated. The information must be easy to find, and include details on how voluntary tips can be amended or removed altogether in a straightforward way.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the findings of the Northern Ireland Executive Department for Communities' Prevalence of gambling in Northern Ireland 2024 survey, published on 30 April 2025, on (a) attitudes to and (b) frequency of gambling.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk of gambling related harm, particularly children and young people. While gambling is a devolved matter for Northern Ireland and regulation is thus a consideration for the Northern Ireland Executive, the department has noted the findings on prevalence and consequences of gambling from the Department for Communities' 2024 Northern Ireland Gambling Prevalence Survey.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the prevalence of gambling among children and young people in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk of gambling related harm, particularly children and young people. While gambling is a devolved matter for Northern Ireland and regulation is thus a consideration for the Northern Ireland Executive, the department has noted the findings on prevalence and consequences of gambling from the Department for Communities' 2024 Northern Ireland Gambling Prevalence Survey.