Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what payments were made to civil servants in her Department for relocation costs to government offices outside London in 2021.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
DCMS did not make any payments to Civil Servants to support relocation costs in 2021.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
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 18 October 2022 to Question 62850 on Public Opinion, in which locations the focus groups delivered by C M Monitor (Britain Thinks) took place.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
BritainThinks have run focus groups for the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) since 2020 on a range of topics such as algorithmic transparency, AI governance and smart data. The focus groups are one of a range of methodologies used by the CDEI to inform a trustworthy approach to AI and data governance.
All focus groups to date have taken place online, initially due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have continued to deliver groups online to enable engagement with diverse groups of participants from all four nations of the UK.
To ensure these focus groups are representative across the entire population, we have also ensured a mix of demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background and digital literacy. Participants with the lowest digital familiarity are typically interviewed via telephone.
For certain focus groups, we have also recruited participants with relevant experiences. For example, in focus groups held to inform the UK's public sector algorithmic transparency standard, developed by the CDEI alongside the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital and Data Office, we focused on recruiting participants with recent experience of scenarios where algorithms could be used to inform decision-making.
Further information about the CDEI’s approach to public engagement can be found here.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether any social events took place between three or more people within her Departmental buildings between (a) 5 November 2020 and 1 December 2020 and (b) 16 December 2020 and 22 February 2021.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This information is not collected. At the time, staff were expected to work from home and undertake meetings remotely, wherever possible.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he or any of the Ministers in his Department use personal email addresses to conduct Government business.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Ministers will use a range of digital forms of communication for discussions in line with relevant guidance on information handling and security.
Ministers will have informal conversations from time to time, in person or remotely, and significant content relating to government business from such discussions is passed back to officials.
The Cabinet Office has previously published guidance on how information is held for the purposes of access to information, and how formal decisions are recorded for the official record. Ministers are also given advice on the security of electronic communications.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department operates a red amber and green rating system for categorising Freedom of Information requests according to their presentational sensitivity.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The department does not operate such a system for categorising Freedom of Information requests. All FOI requests are treated exactly the same, regardless of who the request is from and their occupation.