Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions his Department has held with charity lottery operators on the positive impacts of the charity lottery reforms which came into effect in July 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government legislated to increase society lottery sales and prize limits in March 2020, and these reforms came into effect in July 2020. The changes were:
to increase the individual per draw sales limit from £4 million to £5 million;
to increase the individual per draw prize limit from £400,000 to £500,000 (retaining the rule that the maximum prize is the greater of £25,000 or 10% of proceeds);
to increase the annual sales limit from £10 million to £50 million.
The aim of these changes was to allow both society lotteries and the National Lottery to thrive, by enabling society lotteries to continue to grow, whilst ensuring the unique position of the National Lottery is maintained.
We are currently reviewing the impact of these changes, and have engaged with a range of stakeholders, including society lotteries, to gain an understanding of how they have benefited from the new limits.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the impact of the freeze in the licence fee on the funding allocated to S4C through partnership agreements with the BBC.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The UK Government has a strong record of demonstrating its commitment to minority language broadcasting to ensure that our broadcasting sector services all audiences of the UK nations and regions. This has been reflected in the strong settlement for S4C, providing £88.8 million per annum for the first two years, then rising in line with inflation thereafter, which includes a new commitment of £7.5 million per annum to support S4C’s digital development, ensuring S4C’s offering remains sustainable in the digital age.
The licence fee settlement will also provide the BBC with billions in annual public funding, allowing it to deliver its mission and public purposes and to continue doing what it does best.
As the BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, how the BBC uses their funding is therefore a question for them, including any partnerships with minority language broadcasters. However, the Secretary of State has been clear she wants to see the BBC deliver the best quality services and output possible with the public funding they receive.
The BBC’s Royal Charter also contains a general duty to "support the regional and minority languages of the United Kingdom through its output and services and through partnerships with other organisations".
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether any of the planned Extended Area Services masts in Ceredigion will be made available for use by the Shared Rural Network.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
As part of the government funded element of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme £185m in funding will be made available to the Home Office and the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to upgrade Extended Area Service (EAS) masts being built as part of the Emergency Services Network (ESN). This will help eliminate ‘total not-spots’ - the hard to reach areas where there is currently no coverage from any operator. The Home Office will make sites available, where possible, for the MNOs to deploy on them although we recognise that, in some cases, upgrades may not be possible due to technical, financial or other reasons.
There are 12 EAS sites in Ceredigion and these are all being considered for commercial connectivity via the SRN. We are currently working with the Home Office and MNOs to facilitate sharing as quickly as possible and the majority of the procurements have now been completed. In addition I am pleased to update that the Home Office and DCMS are exploring the possibility of the site in Llanafan being part of a EAS/SRN pilot scheme which will test the processes we, the Home Office and the MNOs have put in place to allow sharing on these sites to begin.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many properties connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network are not included in any fibre broadband network plans that will be implemented before 2025 in (a) Wales and (b) Ceredigion.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The upgrade of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is an industry-led initiative which is regulated by Ofcom. Providers are moving from the old PSTN to new digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.
VoIP landlines do not require fibre broadband to function but simply a stable connection speed of 0.5Mbps. For current landline-only customers it will be possible to order a VoIP landline without purchasing a general internet connection.
According to Ofcom there are over 16 million lines on the Openreach network which are being upgraded to VoIP services. For more specific information relating to Wales and your constituency, I would advise you to contact Openreach or Virgin Media O2, who are leading the migration process of their networks.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of properties connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network that do not have access to a fixed or wireless internet connection in (a) Wales and (b) Ceredigion.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The upgrade of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is an industry-led initiative which is regulated by Ofcom. Providers are moving from the old PSTN to new digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.
VoIP landlines do not require fibre broadband to function but simply a stable connection speed of 0.5Mbps. For current landline-only customers it will be possible to order a VoIP landline without purchasing a general internet connection.
According to Ofcom there are over 16 million lines on the Openreach network which are being upgraded to VoIP services. For more specific information relating to Wales and your constituency, I would advise you to contact Openreach or Virgin Media O2, who are leading the migration process of their networks.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to make a decision on whether to close, continue or expand the Young Audience Content Fund.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Young Audiences Content Fund is a three-year pilot project due to end on 31 March 2022. As part of the pilot Contestable Fund programme, a full evaluation will determine its impact on the provision and plurality of public service content. A decision on its future will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on increasing the Public Lending Right.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
There has been no recent discussion with the Welsh Government on increasing the Public Lending Right (PLR). My department will shortly consult with sector stakeholders, including the Welsh Government, on a revised PLR rate per loan for the PLR Scheme year 2020/21. It is intended that the revised PLR rate per loan be introduced in January 2022.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how her Department defines a rural area when determining the eligibility of premises for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Project Gigabit, and therefore the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, is designed to be responsive to the market so that we focus taxpayers' money on places that are too expensive to build on a commercial basis.
The voucher scheme is designed to target government subsidy towards those living and working in the hard to reach, commercially unavailable areas of the country and we are reliant upon independent sources of reference. In terms of the rural classification, this is defined using agreed standard measures according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) or equivalent.
For premises in England and Wales, rural is defined as those premises with the classifications D1-F2 inclusive as defined within the Office for National Statistics publication "The 2011 Rural-Urban Classification For Small Area Geographies”.
Ruralility for premises in Northern Ireland are based on classifications E-H inclusive as defined by the “Review of the Statistical Classification and Delineation of Settlements”, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
For premises in Scotland, rurality is determined by classifications 3-8 inclusive, as defined within Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2013-2014.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact that the privatisation of Channel 4 TV Corporation will have on its aim of promoting cultural identity in the UK nations and regions.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Channel 4’s network of relationships across the whole of the UK, and its strong representation of the entire nation on screen are attributes to be celebrated and maintained into its future, and that is not at odds with private investment. In fact, Channel 4’s access to networks out of London and its ability to speak to such a diverse range of audiences are likely to be an attractive asset to nurture and develop for any potential buyer. Whatever decision is made about Channel 4’s ownership, we are clear that any changes will not compromise our commitment to the independent production sector or the wider creative economy, including our creative powerhouses across the UK. The government has also been clear that, whatever decision is made about Channel 4, we want it to remain a public service broadcaster, with public service obligations.
Channel 4 is one of this country’s greatest assets but we must think long-term about the challenges ahead and make sure it has the capital it needs to continue to contribute to the UK’s success in public service broadcasting for years to come.
We have consulted on the best ownership model to support this aim, and we are in the process of examining all the evidence we have received.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact that the privatisation of Channel 4 TV Corporation will have on its investment in training schemes, including the Factual Fast Track scheme and the Production Training Scheme.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Channel 4’s network of relationships across the whole of the UK, and its strong representation of the entire nation on screen are attributes to be celebrated and maintained into its future, and that is not at odds with private investment. In fact, Channel 4’s access to networks out of London and its ability to speak to such a diverse range of audiences are likely to be an attractive asset to nurture and develop for any potential buyer. Whatever decision is made about Channel 4’s ownership, we are clear that any changes will not compromise our commitment to the independent production sector or the wider creative economy, including our creative powerhouses across the UK. The government has also been clear that, whatever decision is made about Channel 4, we want it to remain a public service broadcaster, with public service obligations.
Channel 4 is one of this country’s greatest assets but we must think long-term about the challenges ahead and make sure it has the capital it needs to continue to contribute to the UK’s success in public service broadcasting for years to come.
We have consulted on the best ownership model to support this aim, and we are in the process of examining all the evidence we have received.