Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 9 July (HC Deb, col 1099), what plans they have to ensure that the universal rollout of gigabit-capable broadband is completed by 2025.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government is committed to delivering nationwide coverage of gigabit capable broadband as soon as possible. The latest Ofcom figures demonstrate full fibre coverage has increased to 3.5 million premises (or 12% of the UK), and by 1.5 million premises in the past year. Estimates of gigabit coverage are even higher at over 20% of UK premises, as a result of Virgin Media’s upgrades of its existing network.
To help the private sector deploy gigabit capable broadband more quickly and easily, we are removing barriers to deployment. For example, the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill will make it easier to connect properties with an unresponsive landlord. For harder to reach areas of the UK, we have committed to invest £5 billion in subsidising the deployment of gigabit capable broadband.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to commission an independent review of the BBC’s funding needs to ensure that it receives the resources needed to meet the responsibilities set out in its Charter.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The BBC’s funding model is agreed with the Corporation as part of the Royal Charter. It was last considered as part of Charter Review 2015-16, during which process the Government committed to maintain the licence fee funding model for the BBC for the duration of the current Charter period, lasting until the end of 2027.
The current licence fee settlement is agreed until April 2022. Negotiations between the Government and the BBC for the next licence fee period, 2022-27, will begin in due course. The Government will set out more detail on the process to be followed ahead of negotiations.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the prevalence of the deliberate sharing of material capable of causing an epileptic seizure on social media platforms, and (2) the case for including measures against such behaviour in their forthcoming online harms legislation.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Online Harms White Paper sets out the government’s plans for world leading legislation to make the UK the safest place to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users which will be overseen by an independent regulator. The ‘duty of care’ will ensure companies take risk-based and proportionate steps to keep their users safe. The regulator will also have the power to require companies to publish transparency reports, which will improve users’ understanding about the prevalence of harmful content and the countermeasures companies are taking. We will publish a full response to the white paper consultation later this year, which will set out final details regarding the scope of the duty of care and the obligations on companies. We will follow this with legislation.
In addition to this new legislation, it is important to make sure that the criminal law is fit for purpose to deal with online harms. DCMS and the Ministry of Justice have engaged the Law Commission on a second phase of their review of abusive and offensive online communications. This will include considering whether co-ordinated harassment by groups of people online could be more effectively dealt with by the criminal law, whether it is targeted at individuals with epilepsy or others. The Law Commission will review existing communications offences and make specific recommendations about options for reform, to ensure that criminal law provides consistent and effective protection against such behaviour.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports of possible human rights, modern slavery, and security concerns relating to exports from China, what plans they have to establish a trade agreement with the government of China; what sectors any such agreement would cover; and what assessment they have made of whether any such agreement would meet the Government's environmental, food, and animal welfare standards.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
HM Government is clear that trade does not have to come at the expense of our values.
Our focus at the current time is negotiating Free Trade Agreements with the United States of America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand; alongside considering accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
We do not currently have plans to negotiate a free trade agreement with China.
China is – and remains – an important trading partner for the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what involvement they have in Community Fibre Partnerships; and what assessment they have made of the impact of that scheme on the cost to consumers of better broadband connections.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Community-led schemes, including Community Fibre Partnerships, allow a group of premises to work together to upgrade their broadband connection through a joint funding arrangement with any broadband supplier who offers it. Community Fibre Partnerships can be successful in lowering the cost of improving broadband connections across a community, such schemes are not government run or administered. A Community Fibre Partnership is specifically only offered by Openreach and is but one example of a community-led broadband scheme. Such community-led schemes can take a variety of different forms to help suit the needs of the individual community. Further details of such schemes can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-led-broadband-schemes/introduction-to-community-led-schemes.
There are a variety of funding sources to help communities commence a community-led scheme. The Government has set out a number of alternative schemes to help businesses and residents upgrade their broadband connection through a community partnership.
A rural component of the Scheme launched in May 2019 with funding provided through the Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme. Up to £3,500 is available to rural SMEs and up to £1,500 for rural premises is available to support the installation of gigabit-capable broadband when part of a group scheme. These vouchers can be used in community broadband projects to offset the cost of installing gigabit-capable connectivity that communities would otherwise wholly fund themselves.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals have enquired about the availability of higher speed broadband under the Universal Service Obligation launched on 20 March.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) provides every household with the legal right to request a broadband connection that provides download speeds of at least 10Mbps and an upload speed of at least 1Mbps, where this is not already available commercially.
Performance monitoring of the Universal Service Obligation is the responsibility of Ofcom. Chapter 9 of the Universal Service Statement by Ofcom sets out the reporting requirements for Universal Service Providers (BT and KCOM) who will be required to report at least every six months on the number of USO requests received, the number of requests accepted, the number of Confirmed Orders received that involved a customer agreeing to pay excess costs and the number of requests rejected by the Universal Service Provider including an explanation of the reason why.
As the Universal Service Obligation launched on 20 March 2020, no statistics on its progress have yet been published by Ofcom.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average cost quoted to individuals who have sought a better broadband connection under the Universal Service Obligation launched on 20 March.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) provides every household with the legal right to request a broadband connection that provides download speeds of at least 10Mbps and an upload speed of at least 1Mbps, where this is not already available commercially.
Performance monitoring of the Universal Service Obligation is the responsibility of Ofcom. Chapter 9 of the Universal Service Statement by Ofcom sets out the reporting requirements for Universal Service Providers (BT and KCOM) who will be required to report at least every six months on the number of USO requests received, the number of requests accepted, the number of Confirmed Orders received that involved a customer agreeing to pay excess costs and the number of requests rejected by the Universal Service Provider including an explanation of the reason why.
As the Universal Service Obligation launched on 20 March 2020, no statistics on its progress have yet been published by Ofcom.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) personal confidentiality agreements, and (2) non-disclosure agreements the Department for International Trade has signed with (a) businesses, (b) individuals, and (c) third parties advising, the department on its response to COVID 19.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The Department for International Trade has not signed any personal confidentiality agreements, nor non-disclosure agreements with businesses, individuals nor third parties advising HM Government on its response to COVID-19.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants in the Department for International Trade are dedicated to trade negotiations with (1) the United States, (2) Japan, and (3) Australia. [T]
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The Department for International Trade’s Trade Policy Group (TPG) has a strong core of trade policy officials which has significantly grown from 45 to 723 (excluding the Export Control Joint Unit and Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate) since 2016. In TPG, we have dedicated teams in charge of coordinating each of our new free trade agreement negotiations, including the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. We have 3 Chief Negotiators and 3 Deputy Chief Negotiators currently, as well as the Government’s Chief Trade Negotiation Advisor.
Trade negotiations will be progressed by teams of differing sizes depending on their complexity and the Department also works closely with experts in other Departments.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, as part of their preparations for exiting the transition period, of the economic viability of UK venues booking acts from EU member states for live music events and studio performances.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
DCMS has engaged extensively with union bodies, artists and cultural organisations to help understand the needs of the creative and cultural sector on their preparations for the ending of the transition period. We understand the diverse circumstances of companies, organisations and individual practitioners and how they may need to adapt as the transition period ends.
We will continue to work with these stakeholders in the coming months and we will continue to keep Parliament informed with analysis at appropriate times in a way that does not impede our ability to strike the best deal for the UK.