Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with the BBC on the implications for (a) public health and (b) disinformation of the appearance of individuals who have espoused anti-covid-19-vaccine views on BBC television channels.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC has a duty to deliver impartial and accurate news coverage and content under its Royal Charter. The BBC Charter also requires the BBC to ‘accurately and authentically represent and portray the lives of the people of the United Kingdom today, and raise awareness of the different cultures and alternative viewpoints that make up its society.’
The BBC is operationally and editorially independent of the government, and the government has no say on the BBC's day-to-day decisions, including on the content it shows. It is for the BBC Board to ensure the quality of all BBC’s content, and that BBC output meets the highest standards the public expects.
As the external independent regulator of the BBC, Ofcom is responsible for ensuring BBC coverage is impartial and accurate under the Broadcasting Code and BBC Charter.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 tackle (a) disruption and (b) abuse at professional football matches.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is clear that there is no place for any kind of discrimination or abuse in sport.
We are concerned by the increase in disorder at football matches and have discussed this with the relevant bodies. These include the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, the UK Football Policing Unit, and the Football Association. We will continue to liaise closely with all the football authorities about their work to tackle disruption and abuse at football matches.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will hold discussions with social media firms to help ensure that they conduct investigations into allegations of incidents of online abuse.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with social media platforms on a range of issues, including to discuss incidents of online abuse. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on GOV.UK.
Under the draft Online Safety Bill, social media firms will need to protect users from illegal abuse. Services will need to have effective systems in place to minimise and remove illegal content and protect children from harmful abuse. Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults. Priority categories of legal but harmful content for adults will be set out in secondary legislation and these are likely to include some forms of online abuse.
If platforms fail in their duties under the Bill, they will face tough enforcement action including fines of up to 10% of global annual qualifying turnover.
The draft Bill has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee which reported its recommendations on 14 December. We are considering the Committee’s report and will introduce the Bill as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will include provisions in forthcoming online harms bill to prevent anonymity in social media to help tackle the prevalence of online hate.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Online Safety Bill places new requirements in relation to anonymity online. It requires companies in scope to effectively manage the risk of online anonymous abuse on user-to-user services.
Services within scope of the Bill will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content and prevent children from harmful content. Major platforms will also need to set out clearly what legal content is acceptable for adult users on their services and enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently. This applies whether a user is anonymous or not. If platforms fail in their duties under the Bill, they will face tough enforcement action including fines of up to 10% of global annual qualifying turnover.
The draft Bill has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee which reported its recommendations on 14 December. We are considering the Committee’s report and will introduce the Bill as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 encourage broadcasters to run more UK-originated content and programmes on television.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
All of the UK’s public service broadcasters are subject to original production quotas, specified in legislation and enforced by Ofcom, which require them to allocate a minimum proportion of their broadcast schedules to original productions each year. To qualify as an ‘original production’ a programme must be commissioned by one of the public service broadcasters themselves. The Government also has a stable and generous tax relief system, where productions must qualify as ‘British’ under the cultural test. This drove a record-breaking £5.1 billion in UK screen production in 2019, much of it shown by UK broadcasters.
We want this to continue. Indeed, the government is supportive of a modern system of public service broadcasting (PSB) that remains relevant and can continue to meet the needs of UK audiences in the future. This includes making sure that viewers can continue to see themselves and their way of life reflected on screen by ensuring broadcasters show a wide range of high-quality UK-originated content. It is exactly for these reasons that the government is conducting its own strategic review of PSB, including appointing an expert PSB Advisory Panel. We will set out the conclusions from that review in due course.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure that streaming platforms require pin entry where users have elected to use parental controls.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government launched a consultation in August 2021 to level the playing field between traditional broadcasters and video-on-demand streaming services; to provide a fair competitive framework; and ensure UK viewers receive equivalent standards.
That consultation, which closed in October, considered audience protection measures such as the role of PIN codes and parental controls. We are now considering the response to the consultation and will publish next steps in due course.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to allocate funding for internet connection in rural community businesses throughout the UK.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to support gigabit broadband coverage in areas not covered by commercial roll-out, adding to the 600,000 rural homes and businesses already covered by gigabit with our support.
As part of Project Gigabit the government is investing up to £210m in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. The scheme provides a micro-grant of up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband.
The scheme enables those communities and businesses in rural areas not in line for commercial rollout, and those that do not want to wait for Project Gigabit procurements, to get more immediate help with the costs of installing a gigabit-capable connection. Further information is available on the gigabit voucher website including eligibility criteria and how to apply for the scheme.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to tackle hate speech on (a) Twitter and (b) other social media platforms to ensure that comments are removed in addition to users banned.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Under the draft Online Safety Bill, services in scope will need to minimise and remove illegal content, including illegal hate speech. Services in scope which are likely to be accessed by children will also need to protect them from harmful or inappropriate content.
Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults. These services will have to set out clearly what legal content is acceptable on their platforms and enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently. This could include removal of prohibited content, banning repeat offenders and preventing them from creating new accounts. Priority categories of legal but harmful content for adults will be set out in secondary legislation and these are likely to include some forms of abuse, including racist abuse.
If platforms fail in their duties under the Bill, they will face tough enforcement action including fines of up to 10% of global annual qualifying turnover.
The draft Bill has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee which reported its recommendations on 14 December. We are considering the Committee’s report and will introduce the Bill as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 ensure that (a) threats against referees are not carried out and (b) they are adequately protected against such threats.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Violence against match officials is wholly unacceptable and will not be tolerated within the administration of any sport, including football. No-one should receive abuse at their workplace or in wider society, and criminal sanctions are in place where relevant.
More specifically, the Football Association has recently rolled out a nationwide respect campaign, “Pledge for Positivity”, which calls on coaches, parents and spectators of grassroots football to withhold their frustrations at match officials in an effort to create a more positive environment.
The FA have also designed a specific training module for aspiring referees on how to deal with abuse which is included in their Referee Course run at county level alongside other initiatives that are being rolled out to tackle abuse. These include a campaign promoting referees under the age of 18 to wear brightly coloured items of clothing to signal their age to others in an effort to reduce potential safeguarding issues or having mentors on standby to offer advice and support in the face of abuse.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to tackle depression in sports.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s sport strategy ‘Sporting Future’ recognises the positive impact that being physically active has on mental health, and the importance of welfare and wellbeing for people participating in sport at all levels.
Sport England, DCMS's arm’s length body for grassroots sport in England, launched a new ten year strategy 'Uniting the Movement’ in January 2021 which prioritises the importance of improving mental health and wellbeing through sport and physical activity. They have also committed to working with partners on health and wellbeing, and supporting communities through social prescribing.
Since 2017, Sport England have invested £280 million into grassroots programmes with mental wellbeing outcomes, as well as £5.5 million into partnerships with expert mental health organisations, such as Mind and Rethink. Mind’s ‘Get Set to Go’ programme has supported 8,000 people to improve their mental health through engaging in physical activity since its launch in 2014. Sport England have also worked closely with national partners such as Public Health England (now Office for Health Improvement and Disparities) and the Royal College of GPs to develop the Moving Healthcare Professionals programme, improving social prescribing links by providing support for healthcare professionals to promote physical activity to patients.
At the elite level, the Government published its Mental Health and Elite Sport Action Plan in 2018, setting out a range of actions to improve the support available to athletes, the sharing of best practice across the sector, and mental health education and training. Following this UK Sport, DCMS’s arm’s length body for elite sport, launched its own mental health strategy as well as a programme of mental health education to support athletes and promote positive mental health across the UK’s high performance system.