Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the Government's policy is on the (a) ownership and (b) home of the Maqdala Crown and treasures; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Objects and manuscripts from Maqdala are in the collections of a number of cultural institutions in the UK. These institutions operate independently of the Government and the care of their collections is therefore a matter for the trustees of each institution. Some of the museums which hold material from Maqdala are prevented by legislation from deaccessioning items in their collections, except in some limited circumstances.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress she has been made on establishing a protocol with social media companies to ensure that they take covert hostile state use of their platforms seriously as recommended by the Intelligence and Security Committee’s report on Russia published on 21 July 2020.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect the UK against foreign interference. That is why the Government has robust systems in place that bring together government, civil society and private sector organisations to monitor and respond to interference in whatever form it takes.
During times of heightened vulnerability such as elections or the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government stands up Counter Disinformation Unit. The Unit provides a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and reach of mis- and disinformation, and works with social media platforms to ensure appropriate action is taken to address it, in line with their terms and conditions.
We engage regularly with social media companies and welcome the positive steps many of them have taken particularly in response to misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines. Platforms have updated terms of service and made technical changes to their products, but they need to do more. We continue to put pressure on them to respond quickly and effectively to the threat posed by false information and online manipulation.
The Government is developing and seeking input to inform an ambitious set of legislative proposals to counter these threats and strengthen our ability to deter, withstand and respond to such activity. The Home Office’s upcoming Counter State Threats legislation will provide the security services and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to tackle the evolving threat from hostile activity by states and actors.
We have also published the draft Online Safety Bill, which will bring in a legal duty of care and give companies clear legal responsibilities to improve user safety. The new laws will have robust and proportionate measures to deal with disinformation that could cause significant physical or psychological harm to an individual, such as anti-vaccination content and falsehoods about COVID-19.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he consulted the Public Appointments Commissioner on the appointment of the Chair of the Charity Commission before that appointment was publicly announced; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
As is routine with most high profile appointments, the Commissioner for Public Appointments, reviewed the interview panel report for this role before an announcement was made detailing a preferred candidate. He has confirmed that ‘the report of the panel indicates that the interviews and the assessment were conducted in line with the Government's Governance Code on a fair and equal basis’.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions (a) the Permanent Secretary, (b) Ministers and (c) special advisers of his Department have had with the Prime Minister on the appointment of the Chair of the Charity Commission.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Ministers have regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues across government to discuss a range of issues.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what criteria his Department used to assess the suitability of candidates for Chair of the Charity Commission.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Candidates for the role of Charity Commission Chair were assessed by the Advisory Assessment Panel against the published selection criteria for the role, as per Paragraph 5.3 of the Cabinet Office Governance Code for Public Appointments. The published essential criteria were as follows:
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether Baroness Stowell was the preferred candidate of the independent Assessment Panel for the position of Chair of the Charity Commission.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Paragraph 3.1 of the Cabinet Office Governance Code for Public Appointments stipulates that Advisory Assessment Panels must not rank candidates unless specifically requested by the Minister. The Advisory Assessment Panel received no such request for this competition and candidates were assessed as either ‘appointable’ or ‘unappointable.’ Baroness Stowell was duly found appointable by the Panel.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he held with the Prime Minister on the appointment of Chair of the Charity Commission between 1 October 2017 and 26 January 2018.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Ministers have regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues across government to discuss a range of issues.Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the names of the candidates put forward for the position of Chair of the Charity Commission by the independent Assessment Panel.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The name(s) of the candidate(s) found appointable by the Advisory Assessment Panel will not be published, as this is classified as personal data under Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and the Data Protection Act 1998. More broadly, it would be unfair to those who apply for public appointments, but who are not successful, to have their names published, and could discourage them from applying from other posts.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2015 to Question 221061, what the annual cost to the public purse is of his Department's office space at 179A Tottenham Court Road.
Answered by Helen Grant
The Department's lease on three floors of 179a Tottenham Court Road is predominantly for space used for collection storage, conservation and administration of the Government Art Collection. One floor is available for general office use.
Use of this office space has changed as the Department's Estate Strategy has evolved with the changing responsibilities of the Department including London 2012 and Broadband Delivery UK. At times when space has been surplus to operational needs, half of this office floor has been sublet on a cost recovery basis.
The full year costs to the taxpayer of this sub-lettable space when it has not been sublet are £191,000.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 November 2014 to Question 212813, what the cost to the public purse was of his Department's provision of its office space to the Big Society Network from 28 July 2010 to 26 November 2010.
Answered by Helen Grant
DCMS provided some vacant office space at 179A Tottenham Court Road to the Big Society Network from 28/7/2010 to 26/11/2010, while the Department was seeking a commercial sub-tenant. As the space was unused but waiting to be let no additional costs were incurred to the public purse. The Department also loaned the BSN 5 PCs and a printer and made available access to the wifi connection. Again no additional costs were incurrred to the public purse and BSN did not have access to DCMS systems. The office space was used by BSN for office use.