Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision by the Australian software company Atlassian to leave the UK and move to the USA; and what assessment they have made of the impact that this will have on their ambition to cement the UK "as a global tech superpower", as outlined in their Digital Strategy, published on 13 June.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
While Atlassian has been UK-domiciled since 2014, its headquarters have remained in Sydney since its founding in 2002 and it has been listed on the Nasdaq stock market in New York since 2015. Her Majesty’s Government does not comment on individual decisions taken by specific businesses.
The UK’s digital economy continues to outpace rivals across Europe and beyond. Our technology market recently became only the third globally to be valued at US $1 trillion and in 2021 37 technology companies went public on the London Stock Exchange.
The recently published Government digital strategy sets out the UK’s vision for harnessing digital transformation, accelerating growth, and building a more inclusive, competitive and innovative digital economy for the future. This will strengthen the UK’s position as a science and technology superpower.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the introduction of Plan B COVID-19 restrictions, whether they will consider implementing a fourth round of the Culture Recovery Fund to support businesses implementing COVID-19 certification.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The £300 million third round of the Culture Recovery Fund is still open for applications, providing vital ongoing support for the cultural, heritage, and creative sectors.
The unprecedented £2 billion Culture Recovery Fund has been able to support successful applicants with costs associated with operating in a manner compliant with Covid regulations.
Under current plans, the £300 million announced at the 2021 Spring Budget is the final round of the Culture Recovery Fund. We will keep the delivery of the programme under active review and consider how best to adapt it in line with the needs of the sector.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to create a national register of all individuals who (1) have been refused, or (2) had revoked, a license issued under the Gambling Act 2005.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Gambling Commission does not publish a register of individuals or operators which have been refused a licence. However, it does publish a register of companies and individuals who hold, or have applied for, operating licences in Great Britain. It also publishes the names of companies or individuals whose licences have lapsed, expired, or have been revoked, forfeited, suspended, or surrendered in the last three years. The register is available here.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Benson Village Hall in Wiltshire will benefit from their Project Gigabit.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We are backing Project Gigabit with £5 billion of taxpayers’ money, so that hard-to-reach communities are not left out - starting to level up now, not waiting for the end of the commercial rollout, and adding to the 600,000 rural homes and businesses already covered by gigabit connection with our support.
As set out in our latest publication, ‘Project Gigabit Delivery Plan: Autumn update, Wiltshire is included in Phase 2 (Lot 30) of Project Gigabit. This project aims to give all residents and businesses in Wiltshire access to future-proofed very high speed connectivity. Procurement for Lot 30 is planned to launch between August and October 2022, before a contract commencement date of July to September 2023.
In the meantime, Benson Village Hall can investigate the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). As part of Project Gigabit, the Government is investing up to £210 million in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.The scheme provides a micro-grant of up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. It enables households and businesses to club together to increase the total subsidy of a project to cover most or all of the costs for installation to eligible areas.
I am pleased to confirm that, having checked the eligibility of Benson Village Hall in Wiltshire on the GBVS website, it appears that Benson Village Hall is likely to be eligible for the scheme. Further information on how the scheme works is available on our website.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefit of village halls and community centres in rural areas having broadband access.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Building Digital UK (BDUK) has a growing evidence base of the importance of connectivity in rural communities delivered through BDUK programmes, including community Hubs such as village halls and community centres. For instance, our recent research on the impact of gigabit connectivity in rural schools finds there to be time saved and improved pupil experience with high-speed broadband access. BDUK anticipates the benefits to village halls and community centres to follow similar themes in a different context - for example, for local businesses and administration.
Approximately 10% of public sector buildings receiving subsidised connections through our Local Full Fibre Networks Programme (LFFN) are community centres and/or village halls. BDUK has an ongoing programme of evaluating the benefits of its different broadband interventions, and initial outcomes for the LFFN programme should be available in 2023.
Academics at the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) are also currently researching the benefits of digitally connected village halls and the barriers associated. Their research so far suggests that, following the pandemic, more communities would like their village halls to have an internet connection and that it can broaden the scope of activities provided by the halls. The research will be published on the NICRE website once complete.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) why they have convened a new interview panel for the selection of the new chair of Ofcom, (2) why they changed the job specification for this position after the initial inconclusive appointments process, and (3) whether unsuccessful candidates from the previous appointments process are eligible to re-apply.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The previous Secretary of State decided to re-run the first competition to appoint a new Chairman of Ofcom, as he was not presented with a choice of high-quality candidates from a diverse field. This decision was supported by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the Rt. Hon Peter Riddell CBE. The competition that was launched on 1 November 2021 is an entirely new competition and, as such, has a new advisory assessment panel. The essential criteria were amended to ensure they would attract a diverse field of applicants and these have been publicly available on the public appointments website since this process launched. The panel, whose names have also been published, will be responsible for assessing candidates objectively against these criteria.
The process to appoint the new Chairman of Ofcom will be run in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments, which means it must be a fair and open process. It would not be permitted under the code to prevent previous candidates from applying.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their broadband strategy includes ensuring that customers in rural areas have a choice of broadband providers that are not dependent on the BT network.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government wants to encourage competition and investment in the UK broadband market, as we have set out in our Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom. As a result, there are now over 80 providers delivering gigabit broadband in the UK, providing real choice to consumers at both the wholesale and retail level.
Ofcom is responsible for regulating the level of competition in the market and has the power to intervene where necessary to reduce the barriers for entry to new providers. In the case of Openreach, Ofcom has designated that it holds Significant Market Power status, and has therefore introduced a number of remedies such as requiring Openreach to allow other providers to use its network of ducts and poles. These remedies are designed to enable competing providers to build their networks at a lower cost, which makes competition more likely.
The Government is investing £5 billion in Project Gigabit to ensure hard-to-reach areas where providers are not expected to deploy broadband commercially are not left behind. There is already significant interest in Project Gigabit: for example, Gigabit Vouchers have been extremely successful with over 70 telecoms providers currently actively building in challenging rural areas. Moreover, procurements funded by Project Gigabit will require network infrastructure to be open and accessible to third parties, such as communication providers, to provide competing retail offers to the consumer.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards providing superfast broadband to rural areas of (1) Gloucestershire, (2) Wiltshire, (3) Oxfordshire, and (4) Berkshire.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has made significant strides in helping to provide superfast broadband to people in rural areas. 97% of the UK now has access to at least 30 Mbps download speeds and this figure continues to rise. We are now investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit at the same time as commercial rollout so that rural communities are not left behind, prioritising areas with a relatively high proportion of premises without access to superfast speeds.
In Gloucestershire, 96% of premises can access superfast broadband (> 30Mbps), compared with 89% in November 2019. Gloucestershire has also made good use of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), which helps communities and businesses living in rural areas not in line for commercial rollout or Government-funded projects to get more immediate help with the costs of installing gigabit. They have had 322 vouchers connected so far, with a further 190 awaiting connection with a combined total of £1.2 million.
In Oxfordshire, superfast is currently above the national average at 98%. The Better Broadband for Oxfordshire project, which ran from 2015 to 2018, helped to increase superfast coverage significantly during this period from 69% to 96%.
Superfast coverage in Berkshire is also above the national average at 98%, compared with 97% in November 2019. There are currently two live superfast contracts across Berkshire, which have so far delivered to over 36,000 premises.
In Wiltshire, 96% of premises can access superfast broadband, up from 94% in November 2019. One of two contracts delivering superfast broadband across Wiltshire has been completed, while the other has so far delivered to more than 2,000 premises. This brings the total number of premises delivered to over 77,000
A total of 594 vouchers have been provided to connect rural premises in Wiltshire as part of the GBVS, with 240 vouchers awaiting connection for a total value of £1.6 million.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by UK Music, This is Music 2021, published on 20 October, which showed that live music revenues reduced by 90 per cent in 2020.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We have noted the publication of UK Music’s ‘This Is Music’ report with interest, and the Secretary of State contributed the foreword to it. We have previously responded to a written Parliamentary Question regarding our response to the publication of this report (UIN HL3203).
The Government notes the significant challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the music sector and the impact of the reduction in revenues that the report discusses. This is why our unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund has awarded funding to more than 800 music-based organisations, totalling over £200 million, including more than £21 million alone having been awarded to music festivals and £3.36 million to grassroots music venues.
Many organisations in the music industry have also benefited from the significant cross-economy and sector-specific support the Government has made available throughout this pandemic, including the generous employment schemes, grants, loans, a reduction in VAT to 5%, and the extension of the moratorium on commercial evictions for business tenants. At the budget the Government also announced a temporary cut to business rates, up to £110,000, for a further year which can include grassroots music venues.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK Music report This is Music 2021, published 19 October; and what steps they intend to take to (1) support the music industry, and (2) compensate those who were ineligible for financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We have noted the publication of UK Music’s ‘This Is Music’ report with interest, and the Secretary of State’s contribute the foreword to it. We note the significant challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the music sector and recognise that this report proposes a possible path towards recovery. DCMS works closely with UK Music and officials regularly engage with the team there across a number of areas.
Many organisations in the music industry have benefitted from the significant cross-economy and sector-specific support, the government has made available throughout this pandemic, including the generous employment schemes, grants, loans, a reduction in VAT to 5%, business rates relief, and the extension of the moratorium on commercial evictions for business tenants.
The unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund, of almost £2 billion, has been the biggest arts funding package in our history. Awards have been made to over 800 music-based organisations, totalling over £200 million, including more than £21 million alone having been awarded to music festivals and £3.36 million to grassroots music venues. 52,000 full time staff and almost 100,000 freelancers were supported until the end of June 2021 as part of the second round of the Fund (as reported by applicants).
The Live Events Reinsurance Scheme was also launched on 22 September, which will continue to support live events across the country - such as music festivals, conferences and business events - which are at risk of being halted or delayed due to an inability to obtain COVID-19 cancellation insurance. The scheme will support the UK’s economic recovery from COVID-19 by giving events the confidence they need to plan for the future, whilst also ensuring that we deliver value for money for taxpayers.