Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has plans to introduce a mandatory battery back up requirements for mobile network operators.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which identified a particular impact on rural communities. They published an update on their work in February and announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government will consider this analysis carefully. The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to improve the resilience of mobile networks in rural areas.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Residents in rural areas, as well as other areas of the country, rightly expect to have reliable mobile connectivity to participate in the modern digital economy. The Government recognises that events like storms and power outages can have a particular impact on rural communities.
Mobile network operators have legal obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the resilience of their networks and services. This is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, who have powers to monitor compliance, conduct investigations, issue penalties and enforce remedial actions.
Ofcom have completed a public consultation on power back-up for mobile services across the UK, which identified a particular impact on rural communities. They published an update on their work in February and announced they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures required to ensure adequate resilience for consumers. The Government will consider this analysis carefully. The Government is also supporting collaboration between the electricity and telecommunications sectors to deliver measures so that when power cuts occur the likelihood of disruption to telecommunications services is as low as possible, and where disruption does occur it should affect as few people for the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with industry representatives on the impact of data protection requirements on SMEs.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Yes, my department has regularly engaged with businesses, trade associations and other interest groups during passage of the Data (Use and Access) Act. Many of the provisions in the Act are designed to simplify the data protection legislation for organisations, while promoting innovation and economic growth, and maintaining high data protection standards.
My officials and I will continue to engage with stakeholders in the months ahead as we implement the Act. An impact assessment can be found here.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to support the Government's shareholding in Eutelsat OneWeb.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Government engages with OneWeb through government’s non-executive directors and with Eutelsat Group through UK Government Investments officials who are accountable to the Secretary of State and advise the department on commercial matters. Government works with OneWeb to facilitate its commercial rollout, such as supporting international engagement with key sovereign customers. Substantial Government R&D grant schemes will help UK businesses compete for large-scale contracts, including from OneWeb. We also collaborate with OneWeb to see how its services could deliver for citizens. For example, OneWeb equipment is employed in trials for high speed broadband in very hard to reach locations in the UK.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to further the UK's strategic interest in low earth orbit satellite constellations.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Low Earth Orbit is significant for many space use-cases, including Earth Observation, In-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacture, and Communications. There are a range of programmes and initiatives underway across Government to support UK objectives in these. For example, the UK Space Agency's Active Debris Removal mission seeks to develop the technologies needed to rendezvous, approach, hold and manoeuvre objects in orbit which are critical for many other In-Orbit use-cases such as servicing satellites.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department offers paternity leave to its staff from their first working day.
Answered by Feryal Clark
To be eligible for 3 weeks paid paternity leave in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, an employee must have worked continuously for the Civil Service for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the baby is due, or for at least 26 weeks up to the week their spouse, civil partner or partner was matched with a child for adoption. Employees who have already completed continuous service in another Civil Service organisation at the point of joining the Department could qualify for paternity leave on their first day of service.
In addition to paternity leave, fathers, civil partners or partners have a statutory right to time off to attend up to two ante-natal or pre-adoption appointments from their first day of employment.
As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill 2024 comes into effect.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will publish a breakdown of (a) average download speeds in megabits per second, (b) the level of availability of superfast broadband and (c) the level of availability of gigabit-capable broadband in each constituency in (i) England and (ii) Wales as of 21 October 2024.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information on connectivity on a constituency-by-constituency basis across the UK is available from the local broadband tracker on ThinkBroadband: https://labs.thinkbroadband.com
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what his Department's budget for technical support services is for this financial year.
Answered by Feryal Clark
We have interpreted this as Digital technical support services, which are in the order of £0.8m for DSIT.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to his Department’s Commercial Pipeline for October 2024, published on 22 October 2024, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate technical support during the life of the Service Desk contract.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The re-procurement of the Service Desk has been included in the Department’s Commercial Pipeline as potential activity. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology makes no commitment that the requirement will be procured. Activity to assess value for money and merits of providing the service in-house will be carried out through a Delivery Model Assessment, in accordance with Government Sourcing Playbook and Department’s Commercial Assurance Process. This activity has recently commenced, and the assessments have not been completed. Any resulting contract would be supported by contractual performance mechanisms to ensure adequate technical support throughout the life of the contract.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to his Department’s Commercial Pipeline for October 2024, published on 22 October 2024, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of providing the Service Desk contract in-house.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The re-procurement of the Service Desk has been included in the Department’s Commercial Pipeline as potential activity. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology makes no commitment that the requirement will be procured. Activity to assess value for money and merits of providing the service in-house will be carried out through a Delivery Model Assessment, in accordance with Government Sourcing Playbook and Department’s Commercial Assurance Process. This activity has recently commenced, and the assessments have not been completed. Any resulting contract would be supported by contractual performance mechanisms to ensure adequate technical support throughout the life of the contract.