Asked by: Alasdair McDonnell (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will discuss with the BBC Trust what steps it plans to take to support people with visual impairments to register for the BBC iPlayer service ahead of the new registration requirement expected to be introduced in 2017.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The BBC published their Diversity Strategy in April of this year. In the White Paper; A BBC for the Future: a broadcaster for distinction, the Government welcomed the proposals set out in the Diversity Strategy. The Government is confident that the BBC will fulfil its remit to serve all audiences and ensure that it will make suitable provisions to ensure that everyone can access their services.
Asked by: Alasdair McDonnell (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government takes to monitor how BT complies with Ofcom regulations in maintaining public telephone boxes and ensuring that those telephone boxes remain operational.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Under its Universal Service obligations, BT must provide public call boxes in order to meet the reasonable needs of users in terms of geographical coverage, the number of public call boxes and the quality of call box services. The Government provides the powers for Ofcom to set such conditions under section 45 of the Communications Act 2003.
Compliance with Ofcom regulations is a matter for Ofcom and any evidence that BT is not complying with its published criteria should be presented to Ofcom to investigate.
Asked by: Alasdair McDonnell (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the report by the British Infrastructure Group, Mobile Coverage: a good call for Britain, published in October 2016, what assessment she has made of the role public telephones can play in (a) emergency situations, (b) those situations in areas with poor signal coverage and (c) those situations for people unable to afford mobile telephones.
Answered by Matt Hancock
This is a matter for local authorities to take based on the value of retaining a phone box to the local community.
We recognise the importance of public call boxes as a means of calling the emergency services. Ofcom requires that there is a period of consultation before a public call box is removed and that one of the factors to be considered by the relevant public body is the potential importance of the call box to contact the emergency services.
Improving mobile connectivity across the UK, including in rural and hard to reach areas is a priority for the Government, and the December 2014 agreement with industry guarantees that each mobile network operator will provide voice and SMS text coverage to 90% of the UK's landmass by end-2017. Additionally, Telefonica has a licence obligation to deliver indoor 4G coverage to 98% of UK premises over the same period. Taken together these obligations will cut complete not spots further, and improve mobile coverage across the UK.
The Code of Practice for the Public Emergency Call Service requires that a caller from a mobile phone is able to roam onto another mobile network to make an emergency call if they have no signal from their own provider. The improvements in mobile connectivity arising from the December 2014 agreement will support this.
Asked by: Alasdair McDonnell (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many public telephones (a) are currently in operation and (b) have been removed in Northern Ireland in the last five years.
Answered by Matt Hancock
BT currently operates 1612 payphones in Northern Ireland.
We do not hold have historic data on removals for Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Alasdair McDonnell (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of trends in the levels of employment in the local newspaper industry since 2010; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Employment levels in the local newspaper industry have been discussed at a number of summits and meetings my department has held with the local newspaper industry. These discussions have indicated there has been a steady decline in employment figures in the local newspaper industry since 2010.