Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on (a) jobs and (b) revenues in the events sector; and what steps the Government is taking to mitigate that effect.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DCMS appreciates the important role that the events sector plays in the UK’s economy, and that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many businesses operating in these sectors.
The Secretary of State provided a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors. This support package will benefit cultural sector services by providing support to cultural venues and many other organisations in the Creative Industries that host live events, to stay open and continue operating.
From 15th August, and as part of the Government’s 5 stage roadmap to get performing arts and live entertainment sectors back up and running as soon as possible, organisations can now put on live indoor performances in front of a socially-distanced audience. This is in addition to the earlier announcement that from 11 July we can all enjoy performances outdoors with social distancing.
We are committed to continuing to work with the events sector to understand the difficulties they face and help them access support through these challenging times and through recovery.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans the Government has to increase accessibility to files held by the National Archives for people living outside London.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Like many archives within the sector, The National Archives has adapted its services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and for the remainder of 2020, anticipate limited on-site access to their physical collections. Therefore, The National Archives remains committed to expanding remote access to its collections, with a focus on making content discoverable and, where possible, available online.
In response to its temporary closure in the spring, The National Archives provided free online access to a wide range of digital and digitised records through its Digital Downloads Service, for which demand has increased more than 2,000%. While The National Archives reopened to the public on 21 July 2020, it has continued to provide this free online access alongside its present onsite service offer.
Since 2003 The National Archives has captured, preserved, and made freely accessible the UK Government Web Archive, which includes billions of webpages, videos, tweets and images from government dating from 1996 to the present day. Throughout the pandemic, the UK Government Web Archive has been critical in capturing the comprehensive record of fast paced coronavirus information published by the UK Government, through high-intensity web archiving.
Finally, as the Queen's Printer and the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO), The National Archives aids legal certainty through legislation.gov.uk, with the registration and publication of legislation which is freely accessible to anyone regardless of locality.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on the average broadband speed in rural areas in 2010.
Answered by Matt Warman
Ofcom’s UK Broadband Speeds report, published in May 2010, estimated that the average download speed delivered to residential fixed-line broadband consumers in rural areas was 2.7Mbps. This was actual experienced speed, measured using a sample panel, and would have reflected the package chosen by the consumer, even if a higher speed service was available to them. Ofcom’s latest UK Broadband Speeds report, published in May 2020, found that the average peak time download speeds for rural areas was 38.5Mbps.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of households were able to access a broadband service delivering (a) a download speed of at least 10 Mbps and (b) an upload speed of at least 1 Mbps, in 2010.
Answered by Matt Warman
In 2010, neither the Department nor Ofcom published the data requested.
The broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) provides every household with the legal right to request a broadband connection that provides download speeds of at least 10Mbps and an upload speed of at least 1Mbps up to a Reasonable Cost Threshold of £3,400 per premise. However, the legislation underpinning the USO was not passed until 2018.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of rural households were able to access a broadband service delivering (a) a download speed of at least 10 Mbps and (b) an upload speed of at least 1 Mbps, in 2010.
Answered by Matt Warman
In 2010, neither the Department nor Ofcom published the data requested.
The broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) provides every household with the legal right to request a broadband connection that provides download speeds of at least 10Mbps and an upload speed of at least 1Mbps up to a Reasonable Cost Threshold of £3,400 per premise. However, the legislation underpinning the USO was not passed until 2018.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many community radio stations have been awarded grants through the Community Radio Fund since its creation.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Community Radio Fund was set up in 2005 and has an annual budget of £400,000, which is used to help support community radio stations across the UK. It is administered by Ofcom, and applications are assessed by an independent panel.
Information on all grants provided via the Community Radio Fund prior to the financial year 2020-21, including the recipients, the amount of funding awarded to each, and the posts and projects that have been supported, can be found on Ofcom’s website (from 2018 to date) and the National Archives (pre-2014 and 2014-2018).
For the financial year 2020-21, given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the sector, the Community Radio Fund is being used to provide stations with an emergency source of funding to help them to meet urgent liabilities and to keep themselves in business. Given the sensitive commercial nature of this situation, it has been agreed between the Government, Ofcom and the Community Media Association (the representative body for the sector) that the names of the supported stations and the amount that each has received will not be disclosed.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
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 effect of working from home during the covid-19 lockdown on the quality of rural broadband.
Answered by Matt Warman
Overall, the UK's broadband network has stood up well to mass home working and leisure usage as a result of COVID-19, including in rural areas. This is a result of the contingency planning that the Government has done with industry and also the Government's £1.7 billion superfast broadband programme, which has ensured that 96% of UK premises have access to superfast broadband.
However, the Government recognises that rural coverage lags behind the rest of the UK, which is why we legislated to create the first-ever broadband Universal Service Obligation, which went live in March 2020. The scheme allows everyone in the UK to request a decent broadband connection of at least 10 megabits per second from a designated universal service provider, up to a reasonable cost threshold of £3,400.
At Budget, we also committed to invest £5 billion to roll out gigabit broadband in the hardest to reach areas of the UK. At present, our £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme remains open, offering voucher-based support for eligible consumers to request gigabit-capable connections from a variety of providers.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the use of potentially misleading statistics in advertising.
Answered by Margot James
Advertising in the UK is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the industry’s independent regulator, which enforces the Advertising Codes through a system of self-regulation and co-regulation with Ofcom. The Codes apply to all media, including broadcast and online. They incorporate all relevant legislation and set standards for accuracy and honesty to which advertisers must adhere, including specific conditions on advertising to children, causing offence and social responsibility.
The ASA is recognised by the government, the courts and trading standards as the ‘established means’ for the enforcement of misleading advertising, and the Codes include rules designed to ensure that advertisers do not mislead consumers. It has a range of sanctions it can take against non-compliant advertisers and, as a last resort, can refer some to Trading Standards.