Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the complaint made to the Charity Commission about GambleAware by the Good Law Project.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Charity Commission is an independent, non-ministerial government department. As such, it is not appropriate for the government to comment on the Commission’s approach to handling complaints it receives in its regulatory capacity.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
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 ending the furnished holiday let tax regime on the tourism industry.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS is working closely with other Government departments to ensure that different measures being considered across Government that apply to short-term lets are proportionate, complementary and easy to understand.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Sport England about ensuring Parkrun collects sufficient sex data to monitor female activity and therefore evaluate the impact of its £5 million grant.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Tackling disparities in levels of participation in sport and physical activity is central to Sport England’s ten-year ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy and the Government’s ‘Get Active’ strategy, through which we have set a target of having 1.25 million more active women by 2030.
Sport England’s strategy is clear that all funding partners must work towards delivering its strategic priorities. Sport England previously awarded Parkrun £3 million between December 2018 and December 2021. The strategic purpose of this award was to start 200 new runs, with specific participation targets for women and people from lower socio-economic groups.
In 2022 Parkrun became a Sport England system partner receiving £5 million of public investment with a view to making sport and physical activity more accessible to all over the next five years. Sport England monitors this investment, ensuring that Parkrun delivers against the range of priorities in Sport England’s strategy. The Department works closely with Sport England to monitor the delivery of this strategy, including key ambitions to increase participation of women and girls.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the appropriateness of Electronic Arts remaining a member of the Technical Working Group on Loot Boxes, following the ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority that it breached the CAP Code by failing to disclose the presence of in-game purchases in some of its products.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to ensuring that video games can be enjoyed safely and responsibly by everyone.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Electronic Arts had breached the Committee of Advertising Practice guidance on two of its adverts by failing to disclose the presence of in-game purchases including random items. We understand that Electronic Arts has responded that the error has been resolved and the adverts removed, which the Advertising Standards Authority has acknowledged.
In July 2023, video games trade body Ukie published new, industry-led guidance on loot boxes to improve player protections. The guidance was developed by a DCMS-convened Technical Working Group which brought together knowledge and expertise from major games companies and platforms operating in the UK, including Electronic Arts. The group met eight times and engaged with academics, the Games Rating Authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and the Competition and Markets Authority.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have issued guidance to public institutions and universities concerning security arrangements for the protection of historic portraits of past statesmen.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The vandalism against the portrait of A.J. Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge, last month is rightly being investigated as a criminal act by Cambridgeshire Police. The shoddy sense of history by those who perpetrated and promoted it is also a reminder of the importance of historic portraits in improving our awareness and understanding of the past.
The famous declaration made by Balfour as Foreign Secretary in November 1917 made clear that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country’. At the time Balfour issued it, the man who had painted his portrait three years earlier, Philip de László, was (despite having become a British citizen, with the former Prime Minister as one of his sponsors) interned, having been arrested on suspicion of treason on account of letters he had written to family members in Austria. As the historian Giles MacDonogh has noted, it appears ‘the fact that de László was born of Jewish parents had some bearing on the case’; his interrogation by Special Branch dwelt on his Jewish ancestry, and an unsympathetic biography included in the recommendation from MI5 to the Home Secretary that he be interned noted that de László was the ‘son of a Jew tailor’. In May 1919, his case was raised in a debate in Your Lordships’ House; the following month, it was brought before the Certificates of Naturalisation (Revocation) Committee, which took just fifteen minutes to throw it out and exonerate him.
It is thanks to portraits like this that such fascinating insights into our past can be gleaned.
I have spoken to the Vice-Master of Trinity College following the attack, and hope that this magnificent portrait can be swiftly repaired and shared with students and visitors to the college for many years to come.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their policy paper High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age, published on 27 April, when they will publish the cross-sport Code of Conduct outlined in that paper; and whether they will include an implementation timeline.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All domestic sports governing bodies have agreed to four core principles underpinning the cross-sport Code of Conduct on gambling sponsorship: (i) protecting children and young people; (ii) socially responsible promotion; (iii) reinvestment in sport; and (iv) maintaining sporting integrity. These principles put in place a robust minimum standard for sponsorship across all sports. Through the code, a proportion of in-stadium advertising will be dedicated to safer gambling, and replica kits for adults will be made available without gambling logos, alongside the existing requirements for children’s replica kits.
We want sports governing bodies to have sufficient flexibility to implement these principles in a way which maximises impact for the sports and their fans. Bespoke, sport-specific codes are currently being designed by individual governing bodies, and will be published and implemented in due course. The Premier League and English Football League plan to have their codes in place by next season. DCMS will continue to work closely with sports bodies to ensure that implementation and enforcement processes are robust.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
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 new advertising codes to address emerging challenges presented by (a) social media and (b) online marketing activities.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for the enforcement of the advertising codes while its sister organisation, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), codifies advertising standards. Both organisations operate independently of the government and monitor developments in technology and advertising techniques to ensure the codes are enforced and remain fit for purpose.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the joint report by the University of Bristol and Channel 5 New Season, More Self-Regulation, More Marketing, published in September 2023, which found that 92 per cent of social content marketing ads sent by major gambling brands in the opening weekend of the Premier League were not clearly identifiable as advertising.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government recognises that, while millions of people gamble online without experiencing problems, for some it becomes an addiction with serious consequences. In our approach to gambling advertising, we have struck a balanced and evidence-led approach which tackles aggressive advertising that is most likely to appeal to children, while recognising that advertising is an entirely legitimate commercial practice for responsible firms.
There are robust rules in place to ensure that gambling advertising is socially responsible and cannot be targeted at or strongly appeal to children. The Government welcomed the voluntary whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting advertisements during live sports programmes, agreed by industry. According to figures from the Betting and Gaming Council, the ban reduced the number of views of gambling advertisements by children (aged 4–17) by 70 per cent over the duration of live sporting programmes. We also welcomed the Premier League’s announcement that it will ban gambling sponsors from the front of shirts, and are working with a wider group of sports governing bodies to introduce a code of conduct on responsible gambling sponsorship.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the BBC over its plans to launch four new spin-off radio stations and over whether the introduction of these stations risks being anti-competitive.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Ministers at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regularly meet the BBC’s leadership to discuss a range of issues.
The BBC has responsibilities, set out in its Royal Charter, to avoid unnecessary adverse impacts on the market. In delivering these responsibilities, the BBC is required to undertake a public interest test, carrying out an assessment of the impact of new services and justifying the resulting market impacts. The BBC is currently consulting on the impact of its radio station plans.
As the BBC’s independent regulator, it is for Ofcom to ensure that any adverse impact on the market is necessary for the effective fulfilment of the BBC’s Mission and Public Purposes, and robustly to hold the BBC to account in meeting its obligations both to its audiences and to the market. Ofcom will therefore review the evidence provided by the BBC with regard to its radio station plans and determine the materiality and impact of the changes.
The Government was clear in the Mid-Term Review about the importance of the BBC meaningfully engaging with its competitors when it is considering changes to its services. Given the number of new services proposed, it will be important that the BBC consults widely on the detail of the proposals – and for Ofcom to rigorously assess them before granting any approval.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for strengthening current advertising codes, including the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP) code 2.1.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Advertising Standards Authority is responsible for the enforcement of the advertising codes while its sister organisation, the Committee of Advertising Practice, codifies advertising standards. Both organisations operate independently of the Government and monitor developments in technology and advertising techniques to ensure that the codes are enforced and remain fit for purpose.