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 estimate he has made of the number of people employed in the radio industry in each of the nations and regions of the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Margot James
The number of employees in the radio sector by nation and regions is shown in the table.
Region | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
East | 500 | 700 | 75 | 500 | 400 |
East Midlands | 350 | 450 | 400 | 600 | 600 |
London | 7,000 | 7,000 | 7,000 | 7,000 | 8,000 |
North East | 75 | 150 | 175 | 150 | 175 |
North West | 350 | 700 | 500 | 600 | 1,000 |
Scotland | 450 | 450 | 350 | 1,750 | 500 |
South East | 350 | 600 | 800 | 800 | 800 |
South West | 250 | 300 | 225 | 1,000 | 500 |
Wales | 300 | 175 | 250 | 300 | 225 |
West Midlands | 225 | 600 | 450 | 500 | 350 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 500 | 400 | 400 | 500 | 500 |
Total | 11,000 | 12,000 | 11,000 | 14,000 | 13,000 |
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 his Department undertook an impact assessment of the effect of changes to localness guidelines for commercial radio on jobs in local commercial radio stations.
Answered by Margot James
The changes to the localness guidance were made by Ofcom, the independent regulator, in line with its requirements under section 314 of the Communications Act 2003 to ensure effective and appropriate localness guidance is in place (as required under the 2003 Act).
Ofcom's consultation in 2018 on its proposed changes to the localness guidance and impact assessment covered the potential impacts on radio listeners and the industry.
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 he has had with the BBC on improving their subtitling service.
Answered by Margot James
As the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom is responsible for setting targets and holding broadcasters including the BBC to account for delivering subtitling services.
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 the Government plans to assess the merits of Facebook’s business practices towards other developers as part of the Government review of the UK’s competition powers in April 2019.
Answered by Margot James
Competition investigations are a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority. This is carried out independently of Government. The Government’s statutory review of competition law will assess the extent to which competition powers have been effective in fulfilling their aims.
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 the average in-year bonus was for (a) male and (b) female staff in his Department at each grade in each of the last three years.
Answered by Margot James
The information below details the average in-year bonus by gender and grade for each of the last three financial years. The 2016/17 and 2017/18 tables use information consistent with that used for the respective gender pay gap calculations. The 2015/16 table is based on the same information from that year although this was before the legislative requirement to publish the gender pay gap came into effect.
Grades C and D have been combined as the sample size for grade D is too small to report on alone.
2017/18 | |||
Grade | Gender | Count of in year awards | Average in year bonus |
C and D | M | 23 | £ 278 |
F | 33 | £ 273 | |
B | M | 51 | £ 316 |
F | 71 | £ 309 | |
A | M | 50 | £ 256 |
F | 44 | £ 350 | |
A(U) | M | 6 | £ 312 |
F | 17 | £ 404 | |
2016/17 | |||
Grade | Gender | Count of in year awards | Average in year bonus |
C and D | M | 16 | £ 225 |
F | 19 | £ 248 | |
B | M | 41 | £ 256 |
F | 39 | £ 268 | |
A | M | 34 | £ 241 |
F | 39 | £ 333 | |
A(U) | M | 6 | £ 408 |
F | 10 | £ 257 | |
2015/16 | |||
Grade | Gender | Count of in year awards | Average in year bonus |
C and D | M | 26 | £ 269 |
F | 15 | £ 317 | |
B | M | 30 | £ 350 |
F | 42 | £ 324 | |
A | M | 34 | £ 318 |
F | 31 | £ 356 | |
A(U) | M | 6 | £ 342 |
F | 7 | £ 471 | |
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, with reference to his Department's Gender Pay Gap Report 2018, for what reasons at Grade A 32.26 per cent of men received bonuses compared to 18.75 per cent of women.
Answered by Margot James
To clarify, the figures specified in this question relate to the percentages of men and women at Grade A(U) who received end of year bonuses and does not include data relating to in-year bonuses. At Grade A (which has nearly 5 times as many staff members than grade A(U)), 14.84% of men received end of year bonuses compared to 18.06% of women.
Grade A(U) is the smallest of the delegated grades (other than grade D). A total of 16 individuals, out of 63, within this grade were granted end of year bonuses and so the overall percentage of staff receiving end of year awards at this grade is easily skewed due to the small sample size.
Across the department as a whole, the percentages of men and women receiving end of year awards were very similar (15.1% of men and 15.5% of women).
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 plans to publish the minutes of his meeting of the week commencing 18 February with Mark Zuckerburg.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
We discussed a range of issues with a number of companies in the week beginning 18th February. As with all meetings held in my capacity as Secretary of State, full details, including minutes, are kept confidential, to allow full and frank discussions between parties.
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 Facebook’s role in UK elections in his meeting of the week commencing 18 February with Mark Zuckerburg.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
We discussed a range of issues with a number of companies in the week beginning 18th February. As with all meetings held in my capacity as Secretary of State, full details, including minutes, are kept confidential, to allow full and frank discussions between parties.
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 identity of the new part-owner of the Evening Standard's parent company, Lebedev Holdings.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Neither I nor my Department has had any contact from Lebedev Holding Ltd or its representatives about the transaction. While the Secretary of State has powers under the Enterprise Act 2002 to intervene in certain media mergers raising public interest concerns, there is no requirement under the Enterprise Act 2002 for parties to advise us of the transaction.
My officials will contact Lebedev Holdings Ltd about the transaction, and to obtain further information to determine whether there has been a change of control which would give rise to a merger falling within the jurisdiction of the 2002 Act. However, writing to the party does not necessarily indicate that any transaction raises any public interest concerns.
These decisions are always made in a quasi judicial capacity by the Secretary of State.
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, if he will publish the names of the lead negotiators for the BBC during the last BBC charter renewal process.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Chair of the former BBC Trust and the BBC Director-General were responsible for engaging with government during Charter Review 2015-16.