Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many adult gaming centres are currently in operation in the UK; and how many such centres were in operation in (1) June 2017, and (2) June 2018.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The latest figures for the number of Adult Gaming Centre premises are from September 2018. The figures for each year are given in the table below.
Number of Adult Gaming Centre Premises | ||||||||
At 31 March 2011 | At 31 March 2012 | At 31 March 2013 | At 31 March 2014 | At 31 March 2015 | At 31 March 2016 | At 31 March 2017 | At 31 March 2018 | At 30 Sept 2018 |
2,103 | 2,247 | 1,671 | 1,642 | 1,610 | 1,549 | 1,546 | 1,511 | 1,436 |
More information can be found in the Gambling Commission’s industry statistics at https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Statistics/Industry-statistics.aspx
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, for the future regulation of television content royalty payments.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government has no plans. Following the government’s decision to repeal Section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) conducted a technical consultation which looked at the broadcast rights market, the position of rights holders and whether new regulations would need to be introduced following the repeal. The consultation concluded that there was no need for new regulations as there are already extensive commercial rights agreements in place between relevant parties, which would be capable of factoring in new rights.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help people protect their personal data online.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government takes the protection of individuals’ personal data online as well as offline, seriously. The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent authority responsible for administering and enforcing information rights and provides guidance and advice to individuals and organisations on, among other things, the protection of personal data online. The Information Commissioner’s Office has a number of tools at its disposal to take action against those that breach the legislation. These powers include the ability to conduct audits, serve enforcement notices and impose civil monetary penalties of up to £500,000.
The Government recently announced it would be implementing the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by May 2018. Amongst other protections offered, the GDPR provides individuals with increased control over how their personal data is collected and used online.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure the improvement of the mobile phone network infrastructure to cover existing gaps in coverage on main transport routes.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government recognises the importance of fitting out trains with new Wi-Fi equipment and improving mobile on rail networks in England and Wales. The Government is encouraging Train Operating Companies to develop innovative approaches to ensure good mobile coverage on their lines, and to see how best to eliminate not spots on their routes. The Department for Transport (DfT) have also introduced obligations for free Wi-Fi across all our rail passenger franchises, and this is now secured in 10 (out of 15) franchises. DfT forecast that 90% of passenger journeys will have access to free Wi-Fi by the end of 2018, with nearly 100% by 2020.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect members of the public from unsolicited telephone calls.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government is determined to tackle the problem of nuisance calls, and is considering implementing a number of legislative measures to provide better consumer protection, from unsolicited telephone calls. These measures include; extending the Information Commissioner's powers of compulsory audit to organisations that generate nuisance calls and holding company directors to account for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The Government introduced a new requirement for all direct marketing callers to provide caller line identification, which came into effect on 16 May. More recently we introduced a measure in the Digital Economy Bill, making it a requirement for the Information Commissioner to issue a statutory code of practice on direct marketing, which will support a reduction in the number of unwanted direct marketing calls.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect organisations and businesses in the UK from cybercrime and large-scale cyber-attacks, and what steps they are taking particularly to assist SMEs with cybersecurity.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is investing £860m in a comprehensive National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) to protect the UK from cyber attacks, tackle cyber crime and make the UK one of the safest places in the world to do business online.
Ministers have been looking at the whole of the government's cyber security programme in the light of recent problems at Talk Talk and elsewhere and a further statement will be made next week as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Jolly on 4 March 2014 (HL Deb, col 1316) that the Gambling Commission was aiming to make "significant progress within six months towards the establishment of a national remote gambling exclusion scheme", what progress was made in that six-month period; what progress was made in the subsequent six-month period; and when the national remote gambling exclusion scheme will commence.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Following a public consultation from August to October 2014, the Gambling Commission introduced a new licence condition which will require online gambling operators, other than society lottery operators who do not offer instant win games, to participate in a national online self-exclusion scheme once it is developed and available.
The Commission and the Remote Gambling Association have established a Working Group, which is working through the technical, operational and legal issues that need to be resolved in order to create a robust scheme.
The Commission will be publishing a briefing note shortly. A consultation will be issued this summer seeking views on the draft architecture of the scheme, its estimated cost and how the scheme should be managed and funded. Following the consultation there will be a competitive tender process for the development and running of the scheme.
As previously indicated the Commission aims to have the scheme operational by 2017.