Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's press release, New UK initiative to shape global standards for Artificial Intelligence, published on 12 January 2022, what ethical considerations her Department plans to include in the new artificial intelligence standards.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The AI Standards Hub pilot aims to grow UK contributions to global AI standards development. As outlined in the National AI Strategy, the UK is taking a global approach to shaping technical standards for AI trustworthiness, seeking to embed accuracy, reliability, security, and other facets of trust in AI technologies from the outset.
The pilot follows the launch of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation’s (CDEI) ‘roadmap to an effective AI assurance ecosystem’, which is also part of the National AI Strategy. The roadmap sets out the steps needed to develop world-leading products and services to verify AI systems and accelerate AI adoption. Technical standards are important for enabling effective AI assurance because they give organisations a common basis for verifying AI.
Alongside the AI Standards hub pilot and AI assurance roadmap, the government, via the National AI Strategy, has committed to undertake a review of the UK’s AI governance landscape, and publish an AI governance white paper. AI Standards, assurance, and regulation can be mutually complementary drivers of ethical and responsible AI.
The Alan Turing Institute is leading the AI Standards Hub Pilot, supported by the British Standards Institution and National Physical Laboratory. The pilot is expected to complete its initial activities by the end of 2022.
The AI Standards Hub pilot will involve engagement and collaboration with industry and academics. This includes a series of stakeholder roundtables being led by The Alan Turing Institute.
Once the Hub pilot finishes, there will be a process to evaluate and review its impact and determine the appropriate next steps.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to (a) regulate Facebook Metaverse, (b) counter potential misinformation and abuse and (c) help ensure safeguarding for vulnerable people on that platform.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to driving forward a future-facing and nimble approach to regulating digital technologies which unlocks innovation while also tackling its most serious downsides. As part of this commitment, we will bring forward the Online Safety Bill, which aims to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online.
The Online Safety Bill will apply to all services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other, regardless of whether users can interact through online forums or as avatars in a digital environment. This includes the Metaverse.
The Government takes the issues of misinformation and abuse extremely seriously. The Bill will require services in scope to tackle illegal misinformation, disinformation and abuse, and to protect children from harmful content. The biggest platforms will also need to address legal content that may cause significant physical or psychological harm to adults, including some types of misinformation and disinformation such as anti-vaccination content and falsehoods about COVID-19, as well as abuse. Users will also be better able to report abuse, and should expect to receive an appropriate response from the platform. When abuse crosses a criminal threshold, the police have the power to identify anonymous trolls and hold them to account. Ofcom will also be required to establish an expert advisory committee on misinformation and disinformation.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 help enable UK citizens to control their own data.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government has put together an ambitious package of reforms to create a new data protection regime that is pro-growth and trusted for our citizens and businesses.
Our proposed regime should incentivise organisations to invest more effectively in the governance, policies and tools that protect personal data so that UK citizens can have even greater confidence that personal data is being used responsibly.
We recently consulted on our proposed reforms and will be setting out next steps shortly.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 implications for her policies of the recent Belgian Court ruling that IAB Europe’s consent popups are unlawful.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) is a consent management mechanism used by websites and apps to manage users' preferences around online advertising, including through cookie pop-ups. It aims to communicate an individual's preferences between online services and other participants within the advertising supply chain.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published an Opinion in November 2021 that set out clear data protection standards that companies must meet when developing online advertising technologies in order to safeguard people’s privacy. The Opinion noted at paragraph 3.6.1 that to be compliant with the UK’s data protection and privacy legislation, the TCF needed to do more to ensure transparency, fair processing and free and informed consent. The ICO will be assessing the implications for UK companies of the Belgian Court’s ruling in the coming weeks. The ICO’s full Opinion can be viewed here.
Separately, the government has been exploring through the public consultation, Data; A New Direction, whether innovative technologies, such as browser-based solutions, can be designed in a legally-compliant way to help web users manage their consent preferences on the internet. The consultation closed on 19 November 2021 and the government’s response will be published later this year. The consultation paper can be viewed here.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will (a) discuss with the Premier League and the Football Association the experience of Newcastle United fans at Elland Road on 22 January 2022 when turnstiles stopped working and (b) help ensure steps are taken so that fans are not endangered by that situation again.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government continues to work closely with the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA), clubs, governing bodies and local authorities to ensure that spectator safety remains paramount.
The Government is concerned by reports of the incident at Elland Road. The ultimate responsibility for the safety of spectators lies at all times with the ground management, so the SGSA is engaging with Leeds United and the Local Authority to establish the facts and any implications for safety management arrangements at Elland Road and other SGSA licensed grounds.
We welcome the statement from Leeds United, which indicates that they and their safety team will work closely with the Newcastle Supporters Trust, West Yorkshire Police to review the issues raised and ensure that a safe environment is provided for those attending the Elland Road Stadium.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 taken steps to prevent BT from exclusively using Openreach fibre infrastructure following the legal separation in 2017.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom’s reforms of the BT Group’s governance structures in 2016 and 2017 were designed to address concerns that Openreach’s decisions were favouring BT and insufficiently considering the needs of other operators. Ofcom has since established the Openreach Monitoring Unit to monitor Openreach’s compliance with these reforms and publishes a report each year. The most recent report from December 2021 is available on Ofcom’s website here.
The government has not taken steps to mandate BT’s use of other networks, and as a commercial internet service provider, it is for BT to choose where to deploy its services and over which networks it chooses to offer these services.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what incentives BT has to utilise independent fibre networks to provide BT retail customers with broadband where no Openreach fibre exists.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
It is the government's view that the best way to achieve nationwide gigabit coverage is to create a competition-friendly environment in areas where deployment is commercially viable.
Alternative networks may allow service providers to reach additional customers and compete on price and quality of service standards, improving overall consumer outcomes.
However, as a service provider, it is for BT to choose where to deploy its services and which networks it chooses to offer its services over, including in areas where the Openreach network is not available, given this is ultimately a commercial matter.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 encouraging all communications providers to offer services across existing incumbent and independent fibre networks.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
It is the government's view that the best way to achieve nationwide gigabit coverage is to create a competition-friendly environment in areas where deployment is commercially viable.
Regulations set by the independent regulator Ofcom on operators with significant market power - Openreach and KCOM - enable other operators to access their networks to deploy services in certain circumstances. In addition, networks which are rolled out due to government subsidy regimes including Superfast and Project Gigabit are required to offer wholesale access.
As a result of this approach, there is now a thriving market of over 80 providers rolling out gigabit broadband all over the UK across many existing incumbent and independent fibre networks.
However, where network operators choose to deploy their services and over which networks Internet Service Providers choose to offer their services is ultimately a commercial matter.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made a comparative estimate of the (a) contribution of Camelot to the North and (b) amount spent by people in the North on lottery sales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The operation of the National Lottery and the distribution of good cause income are two separate processes. Camelot, as the current operator of the National Lottery, has no involvement with or responsibility for the distribution of good cause income raised by the National Lottery.
Good cause income is distributed at arm’s length of the government by 12 Lottery Distributing Bodies, to fund projects in the arts, sport and heritage sectors and to support communities and charities across the whole of the United Kingdom.
Since 1994, the National Lottery has raised over £45 billion for good causes. Over 660,000 individual grants have been awarded since the National Lottery started - the equivalent of more than 235 lottery grants in every UK postcode district. More detailed information about National Lottery grants can be found at the National Lottery grants database website. Due to technical limitations, this database does not incorporate more recent National Lottery grant data. We hope to have this resolved in the Spring.
Camelot publishes aggregated National Lottery sales data two months in arrears on their website. More granular data, for example analysed by region, not published due to commercial sensitivities.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 14 January 2022 to Question 101712 on National Lottery: Regional Planning and Development, for what reason the £1.8 billion spent by Camelot is not part of the Levelling Up agenda; and whether he has had discussions on that matter with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Camelot, as the current operator of the National Lottery, has no involvement with or responsibility for the distribution of good cause income raised by the National Lottery.
Good cause income is distributed at arm’s length from the government by 12 Lottery Distributing Bodies, to fund projects in the arts, sport and heritage sectors and to support communities and charities across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The Department has ongoing engagement with the Lottery Distributing Bodies on how their funding can continue to support the government's objective of levelling up opportunity across the United Kingdom. The Levelling Up White Paper will give more detail on the government's plans when it is published in due course.