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 premises in Ceredigion registered for the Broadband Upgrade Fund.
Answered by Matt Warman
1,840 eligible premises in Ceredigion were registered through the Broadband Upgrade Fund website.
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 plans his Department has to review the effectiveness of the Broadband Upgrade Fund.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Broadband Upgrade Fund Pilot provided an opportunity to test an innovative approach to demand stimulation in the broadband market. The final stage of the Broadband Upgrade Fund completed in January 2021, and many suppliers are still in the process of engaging with communities to put together project proposals to submit to BDUK for approval. A full assessment of the effectiveness of the Broadband Upgrade Fund Pilot will be undertaken once there has been sufficient opportunity for proposals to turn into gigabit-capable connections.
This evaluation will look at the effectiveness of campaign elements, and the number of projects and gigabit-capable connections delivered that can be attributed to the Broadband Upgrade Fund.
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 pre-registered packet applications his Department has received under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme for projects located in Ceredigion.
Answered by Matt Warman
We currently have been able to find 5 registered projects submitted in Ceredigion.
The transition from community interest through to final project approval can take a number of months so we are expecting more projects to come through as a result of the Broadband Upgrade Fund pilot scheme.
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 the Gambling Commission's investigation into BetIndex Ltd, the operators of Football Index, was initiated in response to rulings made by the Advertising Standards Authority regarding their breaches of Advertising Codes.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Gambling Commission requires operators to act in a way that meets the licensing objectives to be fair and open. They are also required to present their products in a way that is compliant with Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rules regarding advertising and marketing. Where the ASA determines that an operator has breached these rules, the Commission can also consider whether further regulatory action is required as a result.
Following the rulings from the ASA in August and September 2019, Football Index was required to make clear both in a banner on each webpage and within the text that it was a betting product and should not be considered an investment vehicle. The Gambling Commission’s formal review into the licence under section 116 of the Gambling Act commenced in May 2020, and looked wider than breaches of the advertising codes.
The Gambling Commission suspended the licence of BetIndex Ltd, the operator of Football Index, on 11 March after learning of BetIndex’s plans to restrict customer access to account funds. Further information, including additional background to its regulatory action, is available at: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/News/betindex-update
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 had with the Gambling Commission on the Football Index's presentation of its product as a football stock market.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Gambling Commission has suspended the licence of BetIndex Ltd, the operators of Football Index, and a live investigation is ongoing. Further information, including an update on the status of customer funds, can be found on the Commission’s website: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/news/2021/BetIndex-update.aspx
The government is taking the collapse of Football Index and the concerns of those affected by it very seriously, and the Secretary of State and I have met the Gambling Commission to receive urgent updates. We are particularly keen to understand both how this situation came about and what lessons we can learn from these events.
It is a condition of a gambling operating licence that customers should be able to withdraw funds from their accounts. The Commission acted to suspend BetIndex’s licence on learning that the operator planned to freeze access to funds. Operators who hold customer funds must tell customers whether funds are protected in event of insolvency and the level of the protection offered. Football Index provides a medium level of customer funds protection, which means customer funds are kept in accounts separate from business accounts, and arrangements are made to ensure assets in the customer accounts are distributed to customers in the event of insolvency.
The government has launched a Review of the Gambling Act 2005 and has called for evidence on a range of issues across the sector, including the powers and resources of the Gambling Commission. The call for evidence closes on 31 March, and we will be led by the evidence 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, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2021 to Question 170705 on Football Index, whether his Department received an indication from the Gambling Commission on when that body will (a) conclude its investigation and (b) publish a report of its findings.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Gambling Commission has suspended the licence of BetIndex Ltd, the operators of Football Index, and a live investigation is ongoing. Further information, including an update on the status of customer funds, can be found on the Commission’s website: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/news/2021/BetIndex-update.aspx
The government is taking the collapse of Football Index and the concerns of those affected by it very seriously, and the Secretary of State and I have met the Gambling Commission to receive urgent updates. We are particularly keen to understand both how this situation came about and what lessons we can learn from these events.
It is a condition of a gambling operating licence that customers should be able to withdraw funds from their accounts. The Commission acted to suspend BetIndex’s licence on learning that the operator planned to freeze access to funds. Operators who hold customer funds must tell customers whether funds are protected in event of insolvency and the level of the protection offered. Football Index provides a medium level of customer funds protection, which means customer funds are kept in accounts separate from business accounts, and arrangements are made to ensure assets in the customer accounts are distributed to customers in the event of insolvency.
The government has launched a Review of the Gambling Act 2005 and has called for evidence on a range of issues across the sector, including the powers and resources of the Gambling Commission. The call for evidence closes on 31 March, and we will be led by the evidence 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 his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the recommendations of the Senedd’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee’s report, Exploring the devolution of broadcasting.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government responded to the recommendations made by the Senedd Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee report on 6 April.
In the response, the government reaffirmed its manifesto commitments to continue to support S4C and support the Welsh Government’s ambition for one million Welsh speakers by 2050.
However, the response made clear that broadcasting policy will remain a reserved matter and that there are no plans to establish an independent funding commission for the TV licence.
In addition, the government continues to consider carefully the future of the public service broadcasting landscape, including the regional Channel 3 licences, and the appropriate regulatory structure for commercial radio.
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 he has had with the Gambling Commission on the gambling platform Football Index.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Gambling Commission has suspended the licence of BetIndex Ltd, the operators of Football Index, while it carries out an investigation.
The Secretary of State and I have met the Gambling Commission twice to discuss this issue, and have requested and received urgent reports.
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 steps his Department is taking to (a) support consumer choice and (b) protect against overcharging during the rollout of gigabit capable broadband to rural properties in Wales.
Answered by Matt Warman
In its Statement of Strategic Priorities, the department set out a clear strategy to deliver the rapid rollout of gigabit capable broadband by promoting network competition. We expect that - in time - consumers in up to 80% of the country will be able to choose between two or more gigabit capable networks. Competition will protect consumers against overcharging.
In addition, during the next market review period from April 2021 to March 2026, Ofcom is proposing to continue to regulate BT Openreach’s network across the whole of the UK to ensure that retail Internet Service Providers like Sky and TalkTalk can continue to access their network at a regulated price to provide retail choice to consumers using this network.
Around 20% of the country is harder to reach and only likely to be able to support one gigabit capable network, which is why the government is proposing to invest £5 billion to ensure that these areas get gigabit capable broadband. The department’s proposed contracts require the successful bidders to make their government subsidised network available to retail Internet Service Providers on a similar basis to that required by Ofcom in relation to BT Openreach.
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 (a) key dates by which key milestones will be met and (b) other metrics his Department has developed to measure progress of the UK Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme in Wales.
Answered by Matt Warman
In relation to gigabit coverage, at UK level key milestones and metrics include:
One in three UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband (38%), up from 12% in 2019.
By the end of 2021 more than half of the country will be connected to gigabit-capable networks.
We are on track to build up to an annual build rate of 4.5 million premises or more, higher than build rates in comparable countries.
As part of the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, the government has funded the following projects which are delivering gigabit connections to public sector sites in Wales:
Projects with the Welsh Government (i) in the Cardiff Capital Region covering approximately 180 public sector sites and (ii) across ten local authorities covering approximately 100 rural public sector sites;
A project with Denbighshire across the six local authorities in North Wales covering approximately 350 public sector sites;
A project with Pembrokeshire to cover approximately 70 public sector sites.
This totals approximately 700 public sector sites to be delivered between 2019-2021.
In addition, residents and businesses in rural areas of Wales have been able to apply for vouchers under the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. As at February 2021, in Wales there are 351 connected premises worth £646,000 and a further 932 premises in the pipeline worth £1.79m. This scheme is closing on 31 March 2021 and it is proposed that a replacement scheme will continue from April 2021 as part of the UK Gigabit Programme
The government is now taking forward further work with industry to target a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage by 2025, as part of our £5 billion Gigabit programme and our 100% target. Within this, the UK government is working with the Welsh Government to develop gigabit-capable interventions in Wales. This includes exploring opportunities to utilise the current Superfast Cymru (Wales) project to extend gigabit capable coverage to premises which do not currently have superfast broadband capability, in addition to the 39,000 premises in Wales which will get gigabit capable coverage under this programme by the end of 2022.