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2 May 2007 : Column 1700W—continued
Unemployment Benefits
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people were on unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland in each year since 1997. [135046]
Mr. Hanson: Jobseeker's allowance replaced unemployment benefit in October 1996. The average number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance between 1997 and 2006 is shown in the following table.
| Average number of claimants | |
Culture, Media and Sport
Departments: Disciplinary Proceedings
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many grievance procedures have been initiated in her Department in the last 12 months. [135167]
Mr. Lammy: There were no reports of the grievance procedures being initiated formally in DCMS in the last year. The Department’s policy is to seek to resolve any problems or concerns raised by staff informally through contact with line management, staff counsellors, trade union representatives or HR as appropriate. Only those cases where the matter cannot be resolved quickly or to the complainant’s satisfaction, are recorded and dealt with under the formal grievance procedures.
Departments: EU Council
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many EU Council meetings she has attended since taking up her post; and who represents her if she is unable to attend. [133752]
Tessa Jowell [holding answer 30 April 2007]: Ministers and civil servants attend many meetings as part of the process of policy development and advice. It is not usual practice to disclose details or attendance at such meetings. However, I can confirm that the British Government are always represented at EU Council meetings.
Digital Broadcasting: Broadcasting Programmes
Lynda Waltho: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment her Department has made of the public interest in ensuring plurality in (a) the broadcasting of sports rights and (b) the supply of digital multi-channel television. [134483]
Mr. Woodward: The information is as follows:
(a) It is Government policy to ensure that key sporting events can be made available to all television viewers. Therefore some events are protected by law as “listed events”. Beyond these arrangements, sports bodies are free to sell their rights to whomever they please, subject to competition law.
(b) The Government believe there is a strong public interest in securing a dynamic and competitive market for broadcasting—including digital TV—in the UK. This was one of the key policy objectives underpinning the Communications Act 2003.
Digital Switchover
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 28 March 2007, Official Report, columns 1551-52W, on digital switchover, whether persons registered as blind or partially sighted but not included in the Department for Work and Pensions records were included in her estimate of eligible persons for the targeted assistance scheme. [135229]
Mr. Woodward: The estimates take account of people who are registered as blind and partially sighted but who are not on DWP records and so cannot be allocated to any particular parliamentary constituency or ITV region.
Equality: Grants
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what grants have been made to institutions in (a) the UK and (b) the North East for events marking the bicentenary of the first Act to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. [134772]
Mr. Lammy: The Heritage Lottery Fund has made 115 awards totalling over £11 million to projects related to the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade and the slave trade generally.
Five of these have been in the North East (one completed project and four approved projects). They are:
£40,300 to Durham University Archives for Learning for a larger project which includes an element on the slave trade. (Completed)
£50,000 to Tyne and Wear Museums for Remembering Slavery; an exhibition showcasing objects, photographs, paintings and documents from the Museum’s collections related to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Approved)
£49,400 to Stockton Museums Service for ‘Manacles and Money’. (Approved)
£49,000 to the Black History Consortium for their Commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery in 2007. (Approved)
£17,500 to Identity on Tyne for ‘Mapped Roots’. (Approved). This project was funded in collaboration with Arts Council England, which has awarded a further £20,000.
So far, Arts Council England has made a total of 40 grants to bicentenary projects totalling £1,282,354. Two of these projects are in the North East: the Mapped Roots project and Changing Perspectives, a two year study of Black families and their stories of migration into the North East, which has received £5,000 for its first stage.
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) have so far made 17 grants totalling £81,900 across the UK. These include two MLA North East
Strategic Commissioning Grants. The first for £10,000 to the Literary and Philosophical Society to conduct a mapping exercise to identify and list slavery related archives and documents held by four key record offices and libraries in the region. The second for £10,000 to the Northumberland Museum Archives and Country Park and Durham University Library Archives Special Collections to create a number of e-learning packages focusing on slavery for use in schools across the North East region.
The Awards for All grants programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund with the Arts Council, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England have so far made 23 grants totalling £151,641 to projects to mark the bicentenary across England and Wales. None of these have been in the North East.
Film
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps the Government (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to foster and develop the growth of the British film industry. [134576]
Mr. Woodward: The Government are fostering the growth of the British film industry through their strategic agency the UK Film Council. This was set up in 2000 to create a sustainable film industry and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the nations and regions of the UK. The Government have also introduced generous new fiscal incentives to support the production of British films by delivering benefit directly to producers and by stimulating inward investment into the UK film industry from overseas.
Following extensive consultation, the UK Film Council has recently submitted its next three year plan to my Department. This sets out the Council’s future strategic and funding priorities and details the initiatives it will be running to deliver these objectives.
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what the investment returns were for the Film Council from National Lottery funding in August 2006; [134836]
(2) how much the Film Council received from the National Lottery in August 2006. [134837]
Mr. Woodward: The following table shows the UK’s Film Council income from the National Lottery Distribution Fund in August 2006, and in the entire financial year 2006-07.
| Period | Operator -related i ncome to nearest £1,000 | Investment i ncome to nearest £1,000 | Total to nearest £1,000 |
Gambling: Licensing
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps her Department plans to take to make more effective the delivery networks identified in its Capability Review. [134855]
Mr. Lammy: My Department is fully committed to improving the effectiveness of the delivery networks identified in its Capability Review. Details of how this will be achieved are outlined in the Permanent Secretary's response to the Capability Review (pages 5-8) and in “Transforming DCMS”, the transformation action plan. Both are published on the DCMS website:
Internet: Regulation
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) Ofcom on the introduction of the new regulatory system for internet sites referred to by the Chancellor in a speech on 7 March; and when these discussions took place. [135218]
Mr. Lammy: There have been no discussions between my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and the Chancellor on the regulation of internet sites.
The independent regulator, Ofcom, does not regulate content on the internet, but does have a statutory duty to promote media literacy under the Communications Act 2003. In pursuit of that duty, Ofcom has been working to raise people’s awareness of how to use web browsers, electronic programme guides and other tools in order to navigate safely and effectively. It is currently developing proposals for the management of audio and visual content using content labelling and tools such as internet filtering and firewalls. DCMS and Ofcom officials have had periodic discussions about Ofcom’s plans in this area.
Joint Creative Economy Programme
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what invitations she has issued to her Department’s Fashion Summit to inform the Joint Creative Economy Programme; and to whom. [135011]
Mr. Woodward: To inform the further development of the joint DCMS/DTI Creative Economy Programme we have held a number of industry summits, including one for the fashion industry.
For each summit, we invited members of the relevant industry giving them an opportunity to comment on the analysis underpinning our work and on the areas we had identified for further action.
Invitations to the fashion summit—held on 16 April at the London College of Fashion—were issued to the following people.
| Name | Organisation |
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