Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 ensure that British musicians will continue to be able to travel across Europe for touring and rehearsal purposes after the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Matt Hancock
I refer the Hon. Member to the response to PQ 3046.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 adequacy of resources available to the Information Commissioner's Office to support businesses in the implementation of changes to the General Data Protection Regulation.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports is committed to ensuring the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is adequately resourced to fulfil its current functions under the Data Protection Act 1998 and its new responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which includes guidance and support to businesses. The Government has recently introduced new charging provisions in the Digital Economy Act 2017 to ensure the ICO it is adequately resourced both during the transitional period and once the GDPR comes into effect in May 2018. The ICO has issued guidance for businesses on how to prepare for the GDPR. This is available at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/guidance-what-to-expect-and-when/.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) accountability of internet service providers to their customers and (b) role of the regulator in upholding the rights of those customers.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Internet Service Providers are accountable to Ofcom - and in turn to their customers - through Ofcom's 'General Conditions (14)'. These conditions include ensuring that an effective complaint handling procedure is in place, and Ofcom can impose a penalty of up to 10% of turnover for failure to comply.
Ofcom, as the UK’s independent communications regulator, has a duty to secure alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes for domestic and small business customers to make sure their rights are upheld. Ofcom periodically reviews the two approved ADR schemes (Ombudsman Services: Communications and the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme) and monitors their ability to deal with complaints independently, transparently and effectively.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with VisitEngland on fiscal support for the Great Places Fund; and what the outcome of those discussions was.
Answered by David Evennett
The British Tourist Authority received a very positive Spending Review settlement, with a stable budget over the next four years for both Britain and England activity, an increase in overall GREAT funding and the new £40million Discover England Fund. The Fund will be administered by VisitEngland and will benefit both domestic and international tourism, making it easier for all visitors to book, access and enjoy our tourism offer.
Following the floods caused by storms Desmond and Eva,, £1million has also been provided for a promotional campaign to encourage British families to take holidays in the North of England.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to (a) maintain and (b) increase real terms funding for marketing of domestic tourism after 2015.
Answered by David Evennett
The British Tourist Authority received a very positive Spending Review settlement, with a stable budget over the next four years for both Britain and England activity, an increase in overall GREAT funding and the new £40million Discover England Fund. The Fund will be administered by VisitEngland and will benefit both domestic and international tourism, making it easier for all visitors to book, access and enjoy our tourism offer.
Following the floods caused by storms Desmond and Eva,, £1million has also been provided for a promotional campaign to encourage British families to take holidays in the North of England.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many responses he (a) expected to receive and (b) received to the consultation on BBC Charter Review.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Prior to the consultation opening, no estimate was made of the number of expected responses. Over 192,000 responses were received, with over 140,000 responses submitted in the final 2 weeks of the 12 week consultation period.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the capacity of Ofcom to protect the rights of internet service provider customers.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom is the independent communications regulator under the Communications Act 2003. It has a principal duty to protect end users and has in place general conditions for service providers for this purpose. Providers are also required to be a member of an approved alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/complain/phone-and-broadband-complaints/adr.
This ensures that complaints can be resolved and providers have to abide by any decisions made. Ofcom ensures that the ADR scheme operates in accordance with the criteria set out in the Communications Act, by monitoring to ensure the required standard is met.
Ofcom’s Code of Practice for broadband speeds requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide clear and accurate information about broadband speeds, including maximum levels, estimated speed and factors that may slow it down such as fair usage, or traffic management policies. ISPs are required to have in place systems, which find the cause of speed problems, take steps to fix issues and explain if they can do anything to improve the situation. Also, consumers can terminate their contracts at any time without penalty, if they receive speeds significantly below the minimum guaranteed access line speed.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many staff have been seconded to his Department to analyse responses to the BBC Charter Review consultation.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Given the number of responses, DCMS brought in additional resource into the BBC policy team. Based on demand, an average of 25 additional people per week supported the process to review the consultation responses, which included 19 staff seconded from other departments.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the conclusions of his Department's report, Connectivity, Content and Consumers, published in July 2013, what progress has been made in establishing and enforcing targets on subtitled and audio-description TV services for on-demand content on the 80 per cent of on-demand providers in the UK who offer no subtitles at all.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government remains committed to seeing an improvement in the provision of access services for video-on-demand (VoD) services. We have been monitoring progress of the provision of access services for VoD content since 2013 through engagement with the Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD), platform operators and content providers. Government will use information from a variety of sources to develop a target that we would expect to see reached by mid-2016. That information includes the Action on Hearing Loss, Sense and RNIB paper (April 2015). If ATVOD's 2015 annual survey of VoD services indicates that significant progress has not been made then, as stated in the Connectivity, Content and Consumers Paper (July 2013), we will consider legislation in 2016.