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Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Social Media
Thursday 28th April 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is enrolled on any trusted flagger programmes with social media companies.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

DCMS engages regularly with a range of social media platforms. As part of our operational work, DCMS has trusted flagger status with major social media platforms to flag harmful content which is in violation of platform terms of service.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Correspondence
Monday 25th October 2021

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve her Department's response times to correspondence from members of the public.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government recognises the importance of responding to members of the public in an effective and timely manner, and the Cabinet Office published an updated Guide to Handling Correspondence for government departments and agencies in July 2021.

The guidance reasserts the standards for handling correspondence, including a 20 working day deadline for departments to respond to members of the public, criteria outlining when a response to a member of the public is required, and when a piece of correspondence from a member of the public should be transferred to another department. Following publication of the updated guidance, all departments have been reminded that they must follow the processes outlined in the guidance.

DCMS has taken a number of steps to improve response times. These include increasing the size of its correspondence team and improving internal reporting measures.


Written Question
Football: Coronavirus
Tuesday 15th June 2021

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the risk of sensitive vaccine data being shared and the risk of discrimination against fans without smartphones, whether a Data Protection Impact Assessment and a Equality Impact Assessment have been completed in relation to the trial of Covid-status certification at the Euro 2020 matches taking place at Wembley Stadium.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

As part of the government’s world leading Events Research Programme, we are trialling the use of negative Lateral Flow Tests as part of test-on-entry protocols and how technology could be used to demonstrate vaccine status via the NHS app through Phase 3 of the Government’s Events Research Programme.

Event organisers only hold the standard data required for ticket purchasing and processing.

Attendees do not need a smartphone to demonstrate their Covid-status. They can have their vaccination status, or negative Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test emailed to their email address. This can be printed out from a PDF, and the printed copy brought with attendees to an event.

Any positive tests are reported through NHS Test and Trace, with contact tracing undertaken to ascertain details of activity during the day of the event, including travel, seating, and activity at the venue. All testing data is held by NHS Test and Trace, details on their privacy notice can be found here: https://contact-tracing.phe.gov.uk/help/privacy-notice.

A Data Protection Impact Assessment and Public Sector Equality Duty Assessment have been completed for the EURO matches being played at Wembley as part of the Events Research Programme. As DCMS will not be collecting any personal data at these events, GDPR does not apply in this instance.


Written Question
Illegal Broadcasting: Sports
Monday 8th June 2020

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answers of 19 May 2020 o Questions 45015, 45016 and 45017, whether illegal streaming of premium UK sports content and UK broadcasters by via beoutQ boxes has ceased in addition to beoutQ’s satellite piracy being stopped; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Together with FCO, DIT and IPO colleagues, we continue to monitor and protect the intellectual property rights of UK rights holders, including UK sports institutions, in international markets. We also continue to maintain a dialogue with them and secondary rights holders, whenever we are requested to do so. We have received reports of continuing infringements of intellectual property rights in the Middle East. Where we do so, we will continue to pursue those with the relevant authorities.


Written Question
Illegal Broadcasting: Sports
Monday 8th June 2020

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answers of 19 May 2020 to Questions 45015, 45016 and 45017, what discussions he has had with representatives from UK sporting institutions on the effect of (a) beoutQ‘s IPTV piracy via beoutQ boxes and (b) illegal streaming of live UK sport across Saudi Arabia generally on broadcast revenue.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Together with FCO, DIT and IPO colleagues, we continue to monitor and protect the intellectual property rights of UK rights holders, including UK sports institutions, in international markets. We also continue to maintain a dialogue with them and secondary rights holders, whenever we are requested to do so. We have received reports of continuing infringements of intellectual property rights in the Middle East. Where we do so, we will continue to pursue those with the relevant authorities.


Written Question
Illegal Broadcasting: Sports
Monday 8th June 2020

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answers of 18 May 2020 to Questions 45015, 45016 and 45017, what assessment he has made of the effect on the value of UK sports’ broadcasting rights of beoutQ boxes and the illegal streaming of live sport through those boxes in (a) Saudi Arabia and (b) throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Together with FCO, DIT and IPO colleagues, we continue to monitor and protect the intellectual property rights of UK rights holders, including UK sports institutions, in international markets. We also continue to maintain a dialogue with them and secondary rights holders, whenever we are requested to do so. We have received reports of continuing infringements of intellectual property rights in the Middle East. Where we do so, we will continue to pursue those with the relevant authorities.


Written Question
Football Association Premier League: Intellectual Property
Friday 5th June 2020

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

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 made to the Government of Saudi Arabia on the blocking of law suits attempted by the Premier League to protect its intellectual property in that country; and if he can make a statement.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

My officials are working closely with their counterparts in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Trade to ensure the international interests of the Premier League and other UK sports bodies are protected and promoted around the world. We know that the Premier League is a great soft power asset for the UK, and we will continue to encourage relevant national governments to ensure it receives parity of treatment in all international markets.


Written Question
5G: Rural Areas
Wednesday 8th May 2019

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

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 Ofcom on helping to ensure that the next auction of 5G spectrum promotes coverage of rural communities which might sit beyond mobile operators' roll-out plans.

Answered by Margot James

Ministers and officials have regular discussions with Ofcom on a range of subjects.

We welcome the proposals for coverage obligations within Ofcom’s latest consultation on the auction of 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum and remain committed to working with Ofcom and the mobile industry to ensure that the manifesto commitment to provide 95% geographic mobile coverage across the UK is met.


Written Question
Mobile Phones: Foreign Companies
Monday 18th February 2019

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential risk to national security of state-owned mobile network providers operating in UK markets.

Answered by Margot James

The security of our telecoms is of paramount importance and Government will take appropriate action to address any national security risk arising in the telecoms sector.

There are currently no state-owned mobile network providers in the UK market.


Written Question
Facebook: Data Protection
Tuesday 3rd April 2018

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in the US administration on the role of (a) Cambridge Analytica, (b) Strategic Communications Laboratories, (c) Global Science Research and (d) Aleksandr Kogan in obtaining personal data from Facebook.

Answered by Margot James

We have not had any such discussions.