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18 Jan 2010 : Column 88W—continued
Gambling: Crime
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what estimate he has made of the loss in revenue to the Exchequer consequent on illegal gambling in each of the last five years; [310116]
(2) what his most recent estimate is of the monetary value of the illegal gambling market in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [310149]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I have been asked to reply.
Estimates of the loss in revenue due to illegal gambling are not available.
No estimate is available for the monetary value of the illegal gambling market in the UK.
Parliamentary Questions: Administrative Delays
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he plans to answer Question 307583, on the reorganisation of Arts Council England, tabled on 14 December 2009. [311445]
Margaret Hodge: I answered my hon. Friend's question on 13 January 2010, Official Report, column 1039W.
Radio Services
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to promote the provision of local radio services. [310721]
Mr. Simon: We have proposed a number of regulatory changes in the Draft Digital Economy Bill and the draft Community Radio (Amendment) Order 2010, in particular in the regulation of localness, which will support the local radio sector by providing greater business certainty and the opportunity to reduce costs.
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment his Department has made of the effects on commercial radio stations of community radio advertising and sponsorship. [310724]
Mr. Simon: While no specific assessment has been made of the effects on commercial radio stations of the advertising and sponsorship restrictions placed on community radio stations, it was examined in the context of the regulatory changes proposed in the impact assessment which accompanied the draft Community Radio (Amendment) Order 2010.
Radio: Licensing
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many community radio licences (a) were awarded and (b) ended in each month of the last five years. [310719]
Mr. Simon: This information is not held centrally by the Department.
Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to write direct to the hon. Member. Copies of the reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what service criteria must be met by community radio stations in order to receive a radio licence. [310720]
Mr. Simon: The terms under which Ofcom must assess an application for a community radio licence were set out in the Community Radio Order 2004.
the extent to which the provision of any such proposed service would result in the delivery of social gain to the public or the relevant community;
the provision that each of the applicants proposes to make in order to render himself accountable to the relevant community in respect of the provision of the proposed service;
the provision that each of the applicants proposes to make to allow for access by members of the relevant community to the facilities to be used for the provision of the service and for their training in the use of those facilities.
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether he plans to bring forward proposals to remove the restrictions on community radio licence areas in respect of advertising and sponsorship. [310722]
Mr. Simon: The Government have no plans at this time to remove the current advertising and sponsorship restrictions which were placed on community radio stations in the Community Radio Order 2004.
However, following reviews of the sector by Ofcom and as part of the Digital Britain Review we have introduced a draft Community Radio Order 2010 which seeks to reduce the regulatory burden on community stations. The order would allow stations to take more than 50 per cent. of their funding from a single source and allow stations to apply for a renewal, of up to five years, of their existing licence. Taken together we believe these measures will support the community radio sector in the future without any significant impact on local commercial stations.
Serpentine: Swimming
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for what reasons the Serpentine has been closed to swimmers in January 2009; and if he will make a statement. [R] [310947]
Margaret Hodge: The Royal Parks advise that the swimming area in the Serpentine is open for swimming to the general public daily between June and September. Members of the Serpentine Swimming Club may use the swimming area throughout the year. The Serpentine swimming area was not closed during January 2009.
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on which occasions the Serpentine has been closed to swimmers due to icy conditions in the last 30 years. [310948]
Margaret Hodge: The Royal Parks (TRP) advise that they do not keep records going back 30 years about when and why the Serpentine swimming area was closed. In recent years TRP has never closed the swimming facility due to icy conditions. During the recent cold weather, access to the path immediately adjacent to the swimming area by the general public was restricted, because of safety concerns, after some visitors had walked on to the ice. The Serpentine Swimming Club has been allowed to operate throughout the period and has been issued with keys to the gates to allow the club access.
Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for what reasons the Serpentine in Hyde Park has been closed to swimmers. [311583]
Margaret Hodge: The Royal Parks advise that the Serpentine swimming area is not closed. Members of the Serpentine Swimming Club may use the swimming area throughout the year. The swimming area is open to the general public between June and September.
Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on how many occasions the Serpentine in Hyde Park has been closed to swimmers since 1980. [311643]
Margaret Hodge:
The Royal Parks does not retain full records going back to 1980 about the times the Serpentine has been closed to swimmers. I understand that there was only one short period during the late
1990s when the whole of the Serpentine was closed while remedial treatment was undertaken to deal with serious problems relating to algae.
Sports and Culture: Job Creation
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many of the planned 10,000 additional jobs in the sport and cultural sectors have been created; how much the Government has contributed to the creation of such jobs; and what timetable he has set for creating the remainder. [310977]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the Future Jobs Fund is not currently available but will be made available from spring 2010 through a statistical release that is planned to cover the whole of the Young Persons Guarantee.
This is normal practice for Department for Work and Pensions employment programmes and it allows time for input from the UK Statistics Authority and for the information to be collected, understood, verified and reported. The scheme runs until 2011.
A major step on the way to the target was the announcement of 624 cultural jobs in December 2009.
Television: Advertising
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations he has received on the likely effect on health of the relaxation of product placement rules in the context of broadcast television programmes. [310970]
Mr. Simon: Our consultation on product placement on television closed on 8 January. We had approximately 1,400 responses and plan to make an announcement as soon as possible on how we intend to proceed. A summary of responses will be published by the end of January.
Televisions: Licensing
Hazel Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the cost to the public purse is of the provision of a free television licence. [312013]
Mr. Simon: The provision of free television licences for people aged 75 or over is undertaken by TV Licensing as agents for the BBC. According to the BBC's Annual Report and Accounts, licences to the value of £532.9 million were issued to those aged 75 or over in 2008-09.
Tourism
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many tourists had a holiday in (a) the Vale of York, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) England in each of the last three years. [309496]
Margaret Hodge: VisitEngland has supplied the following information. They are unable to disaggregate the information down to the Vale of York constituency level.
The number of holiday visits to North Yorkshire and England by visitors from outside the United Kingdom for the last three years is:
| Visits | |||
| Thousand | |||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
The United Kingdom Tourism Survey records the number of holiday visits taken in North Yorkshire and England by United Kingdom residents as:
| Visits | |||
| Million | |||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what his latest estimate is of the number of (a) non-UK residents who took one or more holidays in the UK and (b) UK residents who took one or more holidays abroad in 2009. [309614]
Margaret Hodge: The Office for National Statistics has published provisional monthly holiday figures up to October 2009. The complete 2009 statistics will be available in July 2010. The estimated number of holidays to the UK by overseas residents in the 10-month period January to October 2009 is 9,920,000. The estimated number of holidays abroad by UK residents in that period is 35,000,000. However, the number of holidays taken by UK residents in the UK from January to September 2009 has risen to 49.9 million from 42.6 million in the equivalent nine months of 2008.
Tourism: Local Government
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps his Department is taking to encourage best practice among local authorities on the promotion of tourism. [310273]
Margaret Hodge: Working with local authorities will be a central part of the tourism strategy for England currently being developed by VisitEngland, which is expected to be launched shortly. My Department also supports an initiative called the Charter for Placemaking and Destination Management. This provides guidance to local authorities on the promotion, development and measurement of the impact of tourism within their localities, and on working with the industry and public sector partners.
The Department continues to engage with the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Local Government Association, and other partners (for example, Destination Performance UK and the British Resorts and Destinations Association) to promote these initiatives and the local visitor economy in general.
VisitBritain: Expenditure
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the percentage change in VisitBritain's total budget in real terms was in each of the last five years. [310122]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 11 January 2010]: The following table details the grant in aid expenditure by VisitBritain from 2004-05 through to 2008-09 and the percentage change on a year on year basis. In 2003-04 there was a merger between the British Tourist Authority and the English Tourist Council and an additional one-off amount of £2.0 million was allocated to the new body VisitBritain, to assist with the merger. This one-off payment is reflected in the figures for 2003-04 and explains the difference between 2003-04 and 2004-05.
| VisitBritain grant in aid funding | |||
| £000 | |||
| Grant in aid as per resource account | Real terms grant in aid at 2008-09 prices | Percentage change in real terms | |
The figures are derived from the grant in aid data in the Department's Resource Account and converted to 2008-09 prices.
Following the three year comprehensive spending review (CSR) settlement for VisitBritain from 2008-09 to 2010-11, we carried out a strategic review of British tourism in order to ensure better co-ordination of the estimated £2 billion public funding invested in tourism during the current CSR period, from local, regional and national sources, and to identify ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of that support. As a result, there has been a fundamental restructuring of VisitBritain and a strengthened role for VisitEngland. The Government are confident that these new arrangements will provide a more robust and responsive vehicle to grow and sustain the tourism and hospitality industry.
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