Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on what date he plans to publish the response to the Telecoms Supply Chain Review.
Answered by Margot James
A statement will be made to the House to communicate the decision at the appropriate time.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what representations he has received on Essex county council's proposed closure of its libraries.
Answered by Michael Ellis
DCMS has received a number of representations from local people and bodies about Essex County Council’s proposed Future Library Services Strategy for 2019 to 2024. The Council consulted on this from 29 November 2018 to 21 February 2019.
DCMS officials are in regular contact with Essex County Council officers to discuss its libraries proposals and the importance of it meeting its statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. We understand that the Council is currently analysing the responses to the consultation and their aim is to finalise the strategy and present to their Cabinet in Summer 2019.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions (a) he and (b) his departmental officials have had with Essex county council on its (i) proposed closure of libraries and (b) statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.
Answered by Michael Ellis
DCMS has received a number of representations from local people and bodies about Essex County Council’s proposed Future Library Services Strategy for 2019 to 2024. The Council consulted on this from 29 November 2018 to 21 February 2019.
DCMS officials are in regular contact with Essex County Council officers to discuss its libraries proposals and the importance of it meeting its statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. We understand that the Council is currently analysing the responses to the consultation and their aim is to finalise the strategy and present to their Cabinet in Summer 2019.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has sought guarantees from telecommunications companies that they will not increase charges on UK consumers to (a) use their mobile phone in the EU and (b) call or text an EU country in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
In the event of a deal, surcharge-free roaming for UK consumers in the EU would continue to be guaranteed during the Implementation Period. In the event that we leave the EU without a deal, the costs that EU mobile operators would be able to charge UK operators for providing roaming services would no longer be regulated. Four mobile operators - O2, EE, Three and Vodafone - have all stated they have no current plans to change their approach to mobile roaming for their customers roaming in the EU.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many UK-based organisations or companies have a .eu domain name.
Answered by Margot James
The number of UK-based registrations of a .eu domain name is reported in the annual accounts of the .eu registry, EURid. As of Q4 2018, there were 241,000 UK registrations of .eu.
Some registrants may have more than one registration, therefore the actual number of registrants is likely to be lower than the figures reported for the UK.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what actions his Department will take in response to the emergence of new high-stakes roulette-style games in betting shops following the stake reduction for Category B2 gaming machines.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The roulette-style products launched on 1 April by two high-street bookmakers were withdrawn the following day after a warning from the Gambling Commission. The Commission is continuing to investigate the circumstances and the operators could still face regulatory action. The Commission may also investigate key senior staff at bookmakers who are responsible for bringing those products to market.
The Government and the Gambling Commission expect industry to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the new regulations to ensure that consumers continue to be protected from harm.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has made to undertake an impact assessment of (a) gambling behaviour, (b) product displacement and (c) harm reduction following the stake reduction for Category B2 gaming machines.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government published an Impact Assessment, together with its response to the Consultation on proposals for changes to Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures, in May 2018, including assumptions regarding behaviour change, displacement and harm reduction following the implementation of the sub-category B2 gaming machine maximum stake cut. The Impact Assessment can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures
We are committed to robustly monitoring and evaluating the impact of the regulatory change.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he discussed with Mark Zuckerberg at their meeting in week commencing 18 February 2019 the January 2019 Facebook data breach in which the passwords of up to 600 million users were made available to Facebook employees.
Answered by Margot James
I refer the Hon Member to the Secretary of State’s answer to PQ 225432 on 28th February.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he was notified of the Facebook data breach reported on 21 March 2019 where the passwords of up to 600 million users were made available to Facebook employees.
Answered by Margot James
We take the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) made our data protection laws fit for the digital age and empowered people to take control of their data.
The DPA and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced a duty on all organisations including social media companies to notify certain types of personal data breaches to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Under the GDPR, a company may designate one national regulator in the European Union as its “lead supervisory authority”, so that it does not have to deal with 28 separate regulators. In the case of Facebook, the Irish Data Protection authority takes that role and is therefore leading on this breach.
The ICO is working with its Irish counterpart to ensure that it fulfils its role to protect UK citizens data. This includes establishing the number of UK users affected.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on the number of UK users affected by the Facebook data breach reported on 21 March 2019 where the passwords of up to 600 million users were made available to Facebook employees.
Answered by Margot James
We take the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) made our data protection laws fit for the digital age and empowered people to take control of their data.
The DPA and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced a duty on all organisations including social media companies to notify certain types of personal data breaches to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Under the GDPR, a company may designate one national regulator in the European Union as its “lead supervisory authority”, so that it does not have to deal with 28 separate regulators. In the case of Facebook, the Irish Data Protection authority takes that role and is therefore leading on this breach.
The ICO is working with its Irish counterpart to ensure that it fulfils its role to protect UK citizens data. This includes establishing the number of UK users affected.