Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish documentation that sets out how proposals to maintain surcharge free mobile roaming were proposed by the Government and rejected by the EU Commission during the UK's EU-exit negotiations.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
UK negotiators did raise with EU negotiators the issue of reciprocal arrangements to ensure ongoing surcharge-free roaming post-Transition Period. This was in the early stages of UK-EU negotiations.
EU negotiators stated they had no mandate to discuss roaming with the UK. We listened to this before putting forward our 2020 policy paper 'Our approach to the Future Relationship with the EU'. We instead tabled a review clause as an attempt to compromise. This clause stated that the UK and EU would assess the need for the regulation of roaming charges three years after the agreement was signed. The EU also did not accept this suggestion.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 of 3 December 2021 entitled Building Digital UK to become executive agency of DCMS, what assessment she has made of how that reform will improve the delivery of investment in broadband infrastructure.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Building Digital UK (BDUK) has historically delivered spending commitments as a directorate within the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
However, the government’s agenda for broadband infrastructure has scaled up dramatically, to include the ambitious £5bn Project Gigabit investment. Establishing BDUK as an Executive Agency will drive further effective delivery through:
Governance and accountability: As an Executive Agency, the BDUK Board will be formalised and chaired by a Non Executive and comprise a Non Executive majority. This will ensure BDUK receives expert independent challenge and advice. Accountability will remain within the central department; DCMS will robustly challenge and hold BDUK to account.
Operational autonomy: BDUK will have pre-defined operational autonomy to focus on the capabilities and processes essential to the delivery of its commitments, whilst DCMS will provide an appropriate level of oversight and second line assurance.
Furthermore, this transition will enable BDUK to expand its operations to create new jobs, boost economic growth and level up communities that are most in need.
The intention is for BDUK to be established as an Executive Agency in April 2022, at the start of the new financial year, ahead of a significant ramp up in programme delivery planned in 2022/23. Following the launch of the Executive Agency in April 2022, BDUK and DCMS will follow a ‘glide path’ or transitioning period through the first half of 2022/23 to embed ‘end state’ ways of working.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish a timeframe for the implementation of the £5.5 billion investment in broadband infrastructure services announced in 2020.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has committed £5 billion to support the delivery of Project Gigabit. Our objectives are for gigabit-capable broadband to be available to at least 85% of premises by 2025 and for coverage to reach almost all premises as soon as possible thereafter. We are on track to meet these objectives and gigabit coverage is now at 63%, up from 9% in 2019. We will continue to publish regular updates on the Project Gigabit delivery plan.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Online Safety Bill will include provisions to help ensure that social media platforms provide advertisers with appropriate controls to determine who can (a) view and (b) engage with their content.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The draft Online Safety Bill has been designed to tackle harm facilitated through user-generated content. The Bill must be targeted and proportionate for businesses and Ofcom.
Harms associated with paid-for advertising will be addressed through the Online Advertising Programme. In 2020, DCMS launched a call for evidence and we will be launching a public consultation on the Online Advertising Programme in the coming months. The draft Bill is currently in pre-legislative scrutiny and the Department will carefully consider all recommendations made by the Joint Committee.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Online Safety Bill will include specific guidance on what constitutes (a) content that is harmful to body image and (b) other harmful content.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Online Safety Bill defines harmful content that is in scope of regulation. For content that is legal-but-harmful to children or adults, this is defined as content that the service provider has reasonable grounds to believe may have a significant adverse physical or psychological impact on children or adults. Further categories of priority content will be set out in secondary legislation. Where content that harms body image falls within these definitions, it will be in scope of the Bill.
Ofcom will issue guidance to companies on how they should conduct a proper risk assessment for this type of content. It will also publish codes of practice that will set out the recommended steps that companies can take to fulfil their duties to protect users.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with representatives of (a) Facebook and (b) Instagram on recent reports of the harmful impact of their products on children and young people; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Protecting children is at the heart of our plans to transform the online experience for people in the UK, and the strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill will be for children. All companies in scope of the Online Safety Bill will need to seriously consider the risks they may pose to children and take action to mitigate these risks.
The recent reports about the impact of Facebook’s products on children and young people are highly pertinent to the forthcoming online safety legislation. The impact of harmful content and behaviour on young people’s mental health has been a key consideration during the development of legislation.
Ministers and officials have met with a wide range of stakeholders, including Facebook (representing various products including Instagram) several times as the legislation has been developed.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 put in place formal advocacy arrangements for children, funded by an industry levy, in the Online Safety Bill; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Protecting children is at the heart of our plans to transform the online experience for people in the UK and the strongest protections in the online safety framework will be for children. Under these new laws, Ofcom will have a statutory duty to establish mechanisms for user advocacy. This is to ensure Ofcom understands the experiences of users, including children, and is able to detect and address issues early on.
The costs incurred by Ofcom in carrying out its functions under the Online Safety Bill, will be met by proportionate fees charged to industry.
Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill by Parliament is underway, and the Joint Committee is expected to report with their recommendations by 10th December.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 merits of ensuring there is an effective child-use test to protect children from harmful content in the Online Safety Bill; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Online Safety Bill protects children from harmful and inappropriate content on any service in scope which children are likely to access. Such services will need to protect children from both illegal content and content which is harmful or inappropriate for children.
Services who do not consider they need to implement the higher level of protection for children will need to provide robust evidence to the regulator that children are not accessing their service, and keep this under review. Ofcom may take enforcement action where providers do not carry out an assessment on children’s access and keep it up to date.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 in the draft Online Safety Bill to help tackle (a) online child abuse and (b) the cross-platform nature of risk; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All companies in scope of the Online Safety Bill will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content, including child sexual exploitation and abuse material. Services which are likely to be accessed by children will also be required to protect children from other harmful or inappropriate content.
In addition, companies will have duties to protect children from encountering harmful content by means of their service, which could include protecting them from being directed to harmful content or activity on other sites. The regulator will undertake research and horizon-scanning to identify any cross-platform emerging issues, backed up by robust information-gathering powers.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 set standards for age-assurance technologies to protect children from harmful or age-inappropriate content to meet legislative objectives set out in the draft Online Safety Bill; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Age assurance technologies are an important child safety tool. Their use will be essential for supporting compliance with the draft Online Safety Bill’s higher protection for children. It is important that these technologies are robust, effective, secure and inclusive. This is needed to ensure children are appropriately protected online and so that the public has trust in these solutions. DCMS is leading a detailed programme of work on age assurance technologies. This includes working with the British Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization to develop relevant standards, including an international standard that will set consistent expectations on key considerations including user privacy, confidence levels, security, and inclusion.