Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that travel exemptions apply to fashion creatives on the same basis as they are applied to performing arts professionals, TV production staff and journalists arriving in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The bar for exemptions remains very high due to the current public health context.The gov.uk website lists the jobs that qualify for travel exemptions here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules). The travel quarantine exemptions do not currently include an exemption for fashion professionals, but this list is kept under review.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether people employed in the fashion industry are included in the travel corridor exempt list.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The gov.uk website lists the jobs that qualify for travel exemptions here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules). The travel quarantine exemptions do not currently include an exemption for fashion professionals, but this list is kept under review.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to work with internet providers throughout the UK to ensure that rural areas have adequate level of connectivity.
Answered by Matt Warman
The UK Government has legislated to implement the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which launched on 20th March 2020. The USO is a UK-wide measure which provides eligible households 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. The eligible premises are predominantly located in rural areas.
In addition, the Government’s Superfast programme has invested more than £1.8bn of public money, to connect over 5.2 million homes and businesses to superfast broadband, providing download speeds of at least 24 Mbps. Over 96% of the UK now has access to these speeds. Building Digital UK (BDUK) continues to work closely with Local Authorities and Devolved Administrations to deliver improved connectivity through the programme, overwhelmingly focussing on premises in rural areas.
The Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, which is part of the Government’s £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, provides vouchers of up to £3,500 for SMEs and up to £1,500 for residents in rural areas to connect to gigabit-capable broadband. This government will also be investing an additional £5 billion to ensure that premises in the hardest to reach areas are able to access gigabit-capable broadband.
Alongside this investment in broadband, the Government announced in March 2020 that it had agreed a £1 billion deal with the mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network. This will see operators collectively increase mobile phone coverage throughout the UK to 95% by the end of 2025, underpinned by legally binding coverage commitments.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much and what proportion of the Government’s £750 million covid-19 fund for charities has been allocated.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The £750 million funding package announced by the Government on 8 April is to ensure charities providing frontline services to vulnerable people affected by the pandemic can continue their vital work.
£360m is being distributed via individual government departments based on evidence of service need. Up to £200m of this will directly support hospices and be administered by the Department of Health and Social Care. Departments are using a range of approaches to allocating funding in order to meet identified needs quickly, including bidding processes and awarding funding directly. Applications are now open for funding for the distribution of food to vulnerable people, safe accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse, armed services charities, and charities working to tackle loneliness and homelessness. Further information has been released on gov.uk.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 number of incidences of abuse directed at hon. Members on social media from (a) anonymous and (b) pseudo-anonymous accounts.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are working closely with technology companies, civil society and academia to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period. The Cross-Whitehall Counter-Disinformation Unit was stood up on 5 March 2020 to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation and misinformation on Covid-19, and is working with partners to ensure appropriate action is taken. On April 23rd DCMS published new guidance for all users on staying safe online during the Covid-19 pandemic. It includes detailed advice on privacy settings, cyber security and disinformation.
The Government is committed to making the UK the safest place to be online. We expect companies to take responsibility for tackling abusive behaviour on their services such as taking steps to limit anonymised users abusing their services, including harassing others. We are continuing work to develop the final policy position on the new online harms regulatory framework and intend to publish a full government response later this year.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the role of (a) anonymous and (b) pseudo-anonymous social media accounts in spreading disinformation about the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are working closely with technology companies, civil society and academia to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period. The Cross-Whitehall Counter-Disinformation Unit was stood up on 5 March 2020 to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation and misinformation on Covid-19, and is working with partners to ensure appropriate action is taken. On April 23rd DCMS published new guidance for all users on staying safe online during the Covid-19 pandemic. It includes detailed advice on privacy settings, cyber security and disinformation.
The Government is committed to making the UK the safest place to be online. We expect companies to take responsibility for tackling abusive behaviour on their services such as taking steps to limit anonymised users abusing their services, including harassing others. We are continuing work to develop the final policy position on the new online harms regulatory framework and intend to publish a full government response later this year.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring mobile network operators to supply people working from home with unlimited mobile data.
Answered by Matt Warman
In response to Covid-19, my Department has already agreed a package of measures with the UK’s major fixed and mobile providers in order to help and support vulnerable consumers, and those who may be vulnerable, with their connectivity needs.
In recognition of more people working from home, signatory companies have agreed to lift data caps on all their customers’ fixed broadband connections. To assist those relying on mobile networks, companies have also agreed to provide new generous offers, including free voice and data boosts to their mobile customers. All signatories have also committed to working with customers who find it difficult to pay their bill as a result of Covid-19 to ensure that they are treated fairly and appropriately supported.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what data his Department hold on the level of political participation and civic engagement among disabled people.
Answered by Margot James
My department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 number of complaints the Advertising Standards Authority has received on broadband companies miss-selling download speeds in each of the last five years.
Answered by Margot James
Detailed information on numbers of complaints can be obtained from the Advertising Standards Authority directly.
On 23 May 2018, the ASA implemented a major change. Now, numerical speed claims in broadband adverts should be based on the download speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time. The previous position was that advertised “up to” speeds should be available to at least 10% of customers.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government is planning to create alternative grass-roots funding programmes for creative SMEs if the UK does not participate in EU funded programmes after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Margot James
The creative industries contributed £91.8 billion to the economy in 2016, and the government recognises the important role of SMEs in this success.
Under the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK will continue to benefit from EU programmes such as Creative Europe until the end of the current period (until 2020). The White Paper published on 12 July states that the Government is open to looking at continued participation in programmes, such as Creative Europe. As part of the Sector Deal published in March, government is also looking at securing the sector’s future prosperity and growth and will invest more than £150 million across the lifecycle of creative businesses.