Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold urgent discussions with representatives of the BBC on investigating internal allegations of bullying by BBC Northern Ireland employees.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government and the government cannot intervene in the BBC’s day-to-day operations, including with regards staffing matters. The BBC Board is responsible for the governance of the BBC. The government established Ofcom as the BBC regulator to ensure the BBC is robustly held to account as the nation's broadcaster. Issues such as these are therefore to be dealt with by the BBC, the BBC Board and, when appropriate, Ofcom.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold further discussions with the BBC on their decision to remove the free television licence concession for people aged over 75.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government recognises the value of free TV licences for over-75s and believes that they should be funded by the BBC. The Government is disappointed with the BBC's decision to restrict the over 75 licence fee concession only to those in receipt of Pension Credit. However, the BBC remains responsible for the administration of the concession and it will be responsible for setting out what those affected will need to do.
The BBC and the Government have been discussing the national Coronavirus situation. Recognising the exceptional circumstances, the BBC Board decided to change the start date of its new policy on over 75s. The current plan is to reduce the concession on 1 August and the BBC will keep the issue under review as the situation continues to evolve.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the ministerial group on loneliness plans to publish a report in 2020.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In the Tackling Loneliness Strategy, published October 2018, government committed to publishing annual progress reports to provide an update on the implementation of policies set out in the strategy. The first annual report was published in January 2020. This set out progress to date, including action by frontline workers across the public sector to recognise and act on loneliness, the launch of the Let’s Talk Loneliness campaign, the commitment to include measures in the Public Health Outcomes Framework so we can understand local rates of loneliness, and the announcement of an additional £2m of grant-funding to help frontline grassroots organisations that bring people together.
The ministerial group on loneliness will consider whether any further reports should be published this year, as part of its ongoing discussions around the government’s work on tackling loneliness.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of additional annual BBC revenue following the implementation on (a) ending free TV licence for all over 75's and (b) proposed increases in the annual licence fee.
Answered by Nigel Adams
In 2015, the Government agreed a licence fee funding settlement with the BBC for a five year period between 2017 and 2022. We agreed that responsibility for the over 75 licence fee concession would transfer to the BBC in June 2020. In return, we closed the iPlayer loophole, committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation for each year of the settlement period, and reduced a number of other BBC spending commitments.
The BBC reports annually on the revenue raised by the licence fee in the ‘Television Licence Fee Trust Statement’ available on the TV Licensing website. For 2017/18, it said that it received an additional £23m as a result of the uplift in the level of the licence fee. For 2018/19, it said that it received an additional £79 million to BBC revenue as a result of the increase.
The estimate for the impact on BBC revenue following the implementation of the revised over 75 licence fee concession from June 2020 is a matter for the BBC.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 9 April 2019 to Question 240967 on Broadband, whether people throughout the UK will have access to high speed broadband by the end of 2020.
Answered by Matt Warman
On the 20th March, the Universal Service Obligation will come into effect, giving all citizens the right to request a ‘decent broadband’ service, up to a reasonable cost threshold.
This initiative, combined with greater commercial availability of broadband services of all types, will provide a ‘safety net’ for broadband provision in the UK.
Progress on the rollout of broadband services continues apace across the UK. The commercial rollout of Gigabit-Capable Networks is accelerating, with more than 10% of the UK now covered with full-fibre services. Superfast services are now available to more than 96% of the UK population. Mobile broadband coverage is also improving, and should benefit from the Shared Rural Network programme.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the extent of coverage of the (a) national and (b) local DAB network as at 1 January 2019.
Answered by Margot James
Information about the coverage of national and local DAB networks is compiled by Ofcom. The most recent figures Ofcom are able to provide are from the 2018 Media Nations report published in July 2018.
|
| Commercial | ||
| BBC UK wide | Digital One – national multiplex | Sound Digital - national multiplex | Aggregate of local DAB multiplexes |
Homes | 97.4% | 91.7% | 77.0% | 91.0% |
Major roads | 87.4% | 80.2% | 66.9% | 75.2% |
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Universal Service Obligation, that by 2020 everyone across the UK will have access to high speed broadband, includes people operating businesses from their homes in rural locations.
Answered by Margot James
The broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) will be available to every UK premise that is not receiving a broadband service that meets that minimum specification set out in the Universal Service Broadband Order 2018, up to the reasonable cost threshold of £3,400 per premise.
This includes people operating businesses from their homes in rural locations.
Homes and businesses in some hard to reach area will soon be able to benefit from the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, announced on 19 May. This is the first step of our "Outside-In" policy, as described in the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review published last year.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of households that will have high speed broadband by the scheduled end of this Parliament.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is introducing a broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) to meet our manifesto commitment that by 2020 everyone across the UK will have access to high speed broadband.
The USO will be a minimum of 10 Megabits per second, from a designated provider, up to a reasonable cost threshold. We will keep the speed and quality parameters under review to make sure that it keeps pace with consumers' evolving needs.
The proportion of households that have high speed broadband will also depend on whether occupiers of those premises choose to take advantage of the service when it is available to them. For example, Ofcom figures from its 2018 Connected Nations report, shows that whilst 98% of UK premises have access to high speed broadband, only 65% of premises actually choose to take a service that delivers it.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to speak to BBC NI on its commissioning process and independent accountability during his visit to Northern Ireland this month.
Answered by Margot James
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will meet with key stakeholders from the creative industries in Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State will not meet BBC Northern Ireland during this visit.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on what dates he plans to visit Northern Ireland in 2019.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
I am planning to visit Northern Ireland in March, subject to ministerial duties.