Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the findings from the final round of the Events and Research Programme will be published.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Events Research Programme has now concluded. DCMS continues to work closely with other government departments and will be publishing the final Events Research Programme findings shortly.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
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 ensuring adequate ventilation in theatres and cinemas to help reduce the transmission of covid-19 by (a) issuing guidance to operators of theatres and cinemas services, (b) clarifying what standards operators should use to plan and measure ventilation, (c) outlining what enforcement activity he plans to take to ensure such guidance is followed and (d) making funds available to improve standards of ventilation.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Public Health England has published guidance on the ventilation of indoor spaces which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-ventilation-of-indoor-spaces-to-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus/ventilation-of-indoor-spaces-to-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus-covid-19
The Health and Safety Executive has published guidance on ventilation and air conditioning here:
Using this guidance, Local Authorities should assess the risk from COVID and implement the appropriate transmission risk controls. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to assess risks and implement the appropriate controls. HSE is the health and safety enforcing authority for local authority activities and can take proportionate enforcement action.
Venues are advised to pay due regard to the published guidance above, alongside any sector-specific guidance available.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of children using live streaming services on TikTok to solicit in-app virtual gifts or donations in exchange for content.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We recognise the serious risks that children face online, including through the use of functionalities such as live streaming. The draft Online Safety Bill, published in May 2021, will ensure companies design their platforms to be safer for users.
The strongest protections in the legislation are for children. Unless services in scope are able to prove that children are not accessing their service, they will need to conduct a child safety risk assessment and provide safety measures for child users, keeping these under regular review.. Companies will also need to assess how the design and operation of the service, including functionalities such as instream payments and live-streaming, may increase or reduce the risks identified.
In addition, the UK’s regulatory regime for video sharing platforms requires UK-established video sharing platforms to take appropriate measures to protect under-18s from harmful material, TikTok is in scope of these requirements. Ofcom is working with UK-established video sharing platforms to help them understand their duties under this regime and will be able to take enforcement action against platforms that do not comply.