Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) the FA, (b) Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and (c) the Football Supporters Association on fan safety at Hillsborough Stadium.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Football Association are investigating reports of overcrowding at the Leppings Lane End at Hillsborough Stadium on 7 January 2023. The ultimate responsibility for the safety of spectators lies at all times with the ground management and the SGSA remains in contact with the club, Sheffield City Council and the Safety Advisory Group as the facts are established and any implications for safety management arrangements at Hillsborough are considered. We are in contact with the SGSA on this matter.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to events at the Leppings Lane End at Hillsborough Stadium involving Newcastle United supporters on 7 January 2023, if her Department will take immediate steps with relevant stakeholders to improve fan safety at that stadium.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Football Association are investigating reports of overcrowding at the Leppings Lane End at Hillsborough Stadium on 7 January 2023.
The SGSA has a statutory responsibility for the issuing of licences to sports grounds for designated football matches in England and Wales, under the Football Spectators Act 1989. Grounds that are issued a licence, including Hillsborough Stadium, are all required to meet the same standards in order to safely admit spectators. The SGSA monitors this closely for all grounds that they licence.
The SGSA will remain in contact with the club, Sheffield City Council and the Safety Advisory Group as the facts are established and any implications for safety management arrangements at Hillsborough are considered. We are in contact with the SGSA on this matter.
The safety of spectators at sporting events is of the highest importance to His Majesty’s Government and we will continue to work closely with all relevant authorities to ensure that football fans can continue to enjoy the sport whilst attending matches safely.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has set a timetable for the development of UK-based exascale supercomputing capabilities.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Future of Compute review, independently led by Professor Zoubin Ghahramani, will produce recommendations on the UKs compute capability over the next decade. It will outline the interventions required, such as investment into an exascale facility, to ensure that UK researchers and businesses can fully exploit world-class compute infrastructure to support science, innovation and growth. The Government will respond to the review after publication later this year.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to provide legal protections to UK citizens personal data that may be intercepted by large, US companies.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Under UK law, all organisations in the UK that process personal information have to ensure that high standards of data protection are maintained when personal data is transferred overseas.
DCMS is working with the US Government to put in place a durable UK-US Data Bridge that upholds the UK’s high standards of data protection.
Earlier this year, the ICO issued the UK’s International Data Transfer Agreement to help organisations safely transfer personal data across borders.
The United States and the UK are also collaborating on a bilateral innovation prize challenge focused on advancing privacy-enhancing technologies to help mature and facilitate adoption of these technologies.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 press release published 13 December 2022 on 5G and 6G technology, when the government expects the new West Midlands Telecom lab to be completed and operational.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government is aiming to establish the initial operating capability of the new UK Telecoms Lab in Spring/Summer 2023.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 press release published 13 December 2022 on 5G and 6G technology, what the criteria were that her Department used to allocate £28 million to the three universities for 5G and 6G R&D.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
DCMS ran a fair and open competition published through GOV.UK - Five consortia submitted bids - with the three highest scoring bids selected for funding. DCMS assessed bids against questions relating to:
Vision and Approach
Organisation(s) Suitability and Management
Outcomes, Engagement and Benefits
Delivery Plan
Financial and Commercial
Full guidance is available here.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of allowing parents to be able to have (a) access to and (b) ownership of their children's digital profiles and posts on social media.
Answered by Paul Scully
Protecting children online is a government priority and the strongest safeguards in the Online Safety Bill are for children. As well as protecting children from illegal content and activity, providers of services which are likely to be accessed by children will be required to assess the risk of harm their service poses for children, put in place proportionate safety measures to protect children, and monitor these for effectiveness. If a child encounters, or is the subject of illegal or harmful content and activity, parents, guardians and children will also be able to report it easily and, where appropriate, receive support.
Ofcom will set out the steps that providers can take to comply with the child safety duties in codes of practice and, where proportionate, this could include the use of parental controls or linked accounts for children of certain age groups. The Information Commissioner’s Age Appropriate Design Code sets out standards on the use of parental controls which providers must follow to safeguard children’s right to privacy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether a (a) procurement process was conducted and (b) contract has been signed for Starlink satellite internet constellation to provide the 3,000 low-Earth orbit small satellites to help very hard to reach places access broadband; and for what reasons OneWeb in which the Government owns an interest has not been included in the trial.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The trials will assess the technological capability of, and end-user response to, new low latency Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite platforms across an expected maximum of 15 locations. The decision to use Starlink equipment for the first four sites, which are located in National Parks, was based on the immediate availability of equipment, user need and the requirement to use unobstructive antenna of a size appropriate to the locations.
All commercial decisions related to these trials have been, and will be, taken in accordance with the Department’s commercial purchasing guidelines, ensuring that the Government does not show undue favour to any single supplier. As previously announced, DCMS remains in discussion with OneWeb on how they might contribute to trials at larger and more complex sites in future, with the expectation that both Starlink and OneWeb systems will be tested as part of this trial.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken in helping to support the development of exascale supercomputing technology.
Answered by Paul Scully
At present, the UK does not have exascale capability. Exascale systems are at an early stage of deployment globally. The US’ first exascale system, Frontier, was brought online earlier this year. As for Japan and the EU, they have not reached exascale capability yet. The first EU’s exascale system, Jupiter, is expected to be deployed in 2023.
In September 2021, DCMS took on responsibility for coordination of activity and policy development for large-scale computing (LSC).
The Future of Compute review, independently led by Professor Zoubin Ghahramani, will build on the 2021 report by the Government Office for Science (Large-scale computing: the case for greater UK coordination) which set out the building blocks to creating a world-class computing ecosystem. The Future of Compute review will produce recommendations on the UKs compute capability over the next decade and the interventions required to ensure that UK researchers and businesses can fully exploit world-class compute infrastructure to support science, innovation and growth.
The Future of Compute review will contain an overview of the international advanced compute landscape. Ahead of the review’s publication, the Top500 list provides an up-to-date assessment of international compute capabilities and a ranking of the most powerful systems globally.
The review will be published in due course.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent estimate her Department has made of the size of the UK's exascale supercomputing technology sector in comparison to that in (a) the United States, (b) Japan and (c) Europe.
Answered by Paul Scully
At present, the UK does not have exascale capability. Exascale systems are at an early stage of deployment globally. The US’ first exascale system, Frontier, was brought online earlier this year. As for Japan and the EU, they have not reached exascale capability yet. The first EU’s exascale system, Jupiter, is expected to be deployed in 2023.
In September 2021, DCMS took on responsibility for coordination of activity and policy development for large-scale computing (LSC).
The Future of Compute review, independently led by Professor Zoubin Ghahramani, will build on the 2021 report by the Government Office for Science (Large-scale computing: the case for greater UK coordination) which set out the building blocks to creating a world-class computing ecosystem. The Future of Compute review will produce recommendations on the UKs compute capability over the next decade and the interventions required to ensure that UK researchers and businesses can fully exploit world-class compute infrastructure to support science, innovation and growth.
The Future of Compute review will contain an overview of the international advanced compute landscape. Ahead of the review’s publication, the Top500 list provides an up-to-date assessment of international compute capabilities and a ranking of the most powerful systems globally.
The review will be published in due course.