Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to replace the BBC licence fee with a subscription service.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has committed to maintain the current licence fee funding model for the duration of this 11-year Charter period, i.e. until 2027.
As the Secretary of State has made clear, we will be reviewing the licence fee funding model well in advance of the next Charter period.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ban gambling adverts in the UK.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is reviewing the Gambling Act to make sure it is fit for the digital age. As part of the broad scope of this review, we called for evidence on the potential benefits or harms caused by allowing licensed gambling operators to advertise and to make promotional offers. The call for evidence received approximately 16,000 submissions from a broad range of interested organisations and individuals. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a White Paper outlining conclusions and any proposals for reform in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to remove the two-year grace period included in the Online Safety Bill before criminal sanctions can be imposed on named technology executives.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Online Safety Bill will enable Ofcom to pursue criminal action against a named senior manager who fails to ensure that his or her company complies with Ofcom’s information requirements. As the Secretary of State made clear to the Joint Committee in December 2021, we are considering how we can bring this forward to commence as quickly as possible after Royal Assent. This will help to encourage strong compliance in the sector, and ensure that technology executives are held to account.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require social media platforms to appoint a senior manager liable for the safety of their users.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The draft Online Safety Bill includes tough powers for Ofcom to take action against companies breaching their online safety duties, including substantial fines and even blocking services in the most serious cases.
The Bill will also provide for Ofcom to pursue criminal action against a named senior manager who fails to ensure that their company complies with Ofcom’s information requirements. This will encourage strong senior engagement and ensure Ofcom has the information it needs to regulate the tech sector effectively and improve user safety.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to replace the BBC licence fee with a grant where viewers pay a voluntary subscription for entertainment and sport.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has committed to maintain the current licence fee funding model for the duration of this 11 year Charter period, until 2027.
We will be reviewing the licence fee funding model well in advance of the next Charter period.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage social media companies to reveal how many underage users are on their platforms.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In May 2021 HM Government published the draft Online Safety Bill. The strongest protections in this legislation are for children. Companies in scope whose sites are likely to be accessed by children will have to ensure that only users who are old enough are able to access services which have age restrictions or which risk causing them harm. The regulator, Ofcom, will be able to take enforcement action against companies that fail to comply.
The largest and most high-risk companies will also be required to publish annual transparency reports about the steps they are taking to tackle online harms. This will include steps they are taking to fulfil their safety duties and provide a higher level of protection for children. Ofcom can take robust enforcement action where companies do not provide the required information.
In addition, the Secretaries of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and for Education, alongside the Children’s Commissioner for England, hosted a roundtable with social media companies on 1 December 2021 at which the companies pledged to identify further information regarding children on their platforms and the nature of harms children may face.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require technology companies to implement mechanisms to deal with harmful anonymous accounts.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Online Safety Bill requires companies to manage effectively the risk of online anonymous abuse on services in scope. Companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content and prevent children from experiencing harmful abuse. Major platforms will also need to set out clearly what legal content is acceptable for adult users on their services and enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently. This applies whether a user is anonymous or not.
Ofcom will have enforcement powers available to use against companies which fail their duties. These powers include fines for companies of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying annual global turnover, and business disruption measures.
The draft Bill has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee which reported its recommendations on 14 December. We are considering the Committee’s recommendations and are committed to introducing the Bill as soon as possible after that.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to introduce age verification for commercial pornography websites.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The strongest protections in the draft Online Safety Bill are for children. Companies in scope of the legislation will need to take steps to prevent children from accessing content which poses the highest risk of harm, including online pornography. Ofcom will set out in its codes of practice the steps companies need to take to comply with their duties under the Bill which we expect will include recommending the use of age verification technologies.
The Government recognises the concerns that have been raised about protecting children from online pornography on services which do not currently fall within the scope of the Bill. The Government is exploring ways to provide wider protections for children from online pornography.
The Joint Committee scrutinising the Bill reported with their recommendations on 14 December. We will consider the Committee’s recommendations and are committed to introducing the Bill as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require all football clubs to have an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan to be assessed as part of the annual club licensing process.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government welcomes the Independent Fan-Led Review of Football Governance and has endorsed in principle the primary recommendation of the review: that football requires a strong, independent regulator to secure the future of our national game.
The Government will work quickly to review the report in full, including the recommendations made on equality, diversity and inclusion.
The Government will continue to engage with interested parties as we work towards issuing a full response to the report in Spring 2022.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce guidelines for social media companies on what counts as journalism in the Online Safety Bil.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The draft Online Safety Bill requires the highest risk, highest reach in-scope service providers (‘Category 1’ services) to safeguard journalistic content. This is defined as UK-linked content that is generated for the purposes of journalism. As part of this duty, Category 1 services must specify in their terms of service the method by which they identify content as being created for the purposes of journalism. In doing so, companies will be expected to consider the ordinary English meaning of journalism, the underlying purpose of protecting freedom of expression and information, and relevant case law. Ofcom, the online safety regulator, will produce codes of practice to assist companies in complying with their duties to protect journalism.