Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to force social media platforms to stop amplifying hateful content via their algorithms.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Under the new Online Safety Bill, companies will need to mitigate the risks of harm associated with their algorithms, for example by preventing them from recommending particular types of content, or by giving users additional control over the content with which they interact.
Major platforms will have to publish annual transparency reports, setting out what they are doing to tackle online harms, including information about algorithms.
Ofcom will have further powers available to help it assess whether companies are fulfilling their duties, including in relation to algorithms. This will include powers to require information from companies, to require an expert report on a platform, and to access premises, data and equipment.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to legislate (1) to limit the social media abuse of public figures, and (2) to end online anonymity.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Everybody should be able to be safe online. Under the Online Safety Bill, which was published in draft in May 2021 for pre-legislative scrutiny, companies in scope will need to minimise and remove illegal content including criminal online abuse targeted at public figures and illegal anonymous abuse.
Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults. These companies will have to set out clearly what content is acceptable on their platforms and enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently.
The Bill also places new requirements on tech companies in relation to anonymity online. It requires companies to identify, mitigate and effectively manage the risk of online anonymous abuse. Ofcom will set out the steps that companies must take to address online abuse in codes of practice.
If companies do not comply with their legal duties, they could face tough enforcement penalties of up to £18 million or ten percent of annual global qualifying turnover.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce loan schemes at libraries for electronic devices to encourage citizens to become more digitally capable.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The provision of public library services in England is a matter for local authorities to determine. The responsibility for libraries in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales rests with the respective devolved administration.
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. They are responsible for determining the delivery of a modern and efficient library service that meets the requirements of their communities. In considering how best to deliver this statutory duty, each local authority can, if they wish, consider the provision of loaning out electronic devices.
Whilst this is not a matter for the department to require, we understand that the provision of portable devices to lend is something library services are increasingly delivering. We know that at least a quarter of library services in England already provide portable electronic devices for loan, generally targeted to those more likely to be digitally disadvantaged. I learned about an example of this at Manchester Central Library in my visit during Libraries Week.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of a YouGov survey, published on 25 August, which found that 62 per cent of football fans fear that a player will be racially abused.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There is no place for racism in football, whether in the stands or on social media, or society more widely.
The Government therefore welcomed the Premier League’s “No Room for Racism” Action plan, and the announcement of new enhanced anti-discrimination measures to be implemented in the 2021/22 season, such as league-wide bans for offenders.
The Government’s pioneering Online Safety Bill will make it even tougher for offenders to abuse others, with social media firms facing huge fines if they fail to clamp down on abuse.
There is still more to do though, and we will continue to work with the football authorities to combat racism in the game.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce regulations on social media companies, including mandatory design standards, to increase online safety for services that are used by children.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The draft Online Safety Bill, published in May 2021, will ensure companies design their platforms to be safer for users, and particularly for children. The new laws will apply to companies that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other, which includes social media companies. The draft bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny in this session. The Joint Committee that will scrutinise the draft Bill has now been set up, and members from both Houses have now been appointed.
The strongest protections in the legislation are for children. Unless social media companies 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. As part of the risk assessment, companies will need to assess how the design and operation of the service may increase or reduce the risks identified.
The government has also published voluntary Safety by Design guidance in June 2021 that will help companies design safer online services. In addition, the Information Commissioner’s Age Appropriate Design Code, which will come into force in September 2021, will set out specific protections for children’s personal data that companies will need to build in when designing online services likely to be accessed by children.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to negotiate (1) visa-free travel, and (2) Europe-wide work permits, for musicians and crew.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government recognises the importance of our world leading creative and cultural industries. That is why the UK took an ambitious approach during negotiations with the EU that would have ensured that touring musicians, performers and their support staff did not need work-permits to perform in the EU. Regrettably, our proposals were rejected by the EU, but our door remains open if the EU wants to reconsider its position.
A bespoke visa waiver agreement with the EU would require the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) to be renegotiated. The TCA is the basis of our trading relations with the EU, and this is not going to be renegotiated. Furthermore, the Commission would be likely to argue that any EU-wide visa waiver agreement can only be part of a wider package with a binding non-discrimination clause and a reciprocal visa waiver agreement covering all current and future Member States. This was what the Commission proposed in the negotiations and would be incompatible with our manifesto commitment to retain control of our borders.
Our focus is now on engaging with Member States, who are principally responsible for deciding the rules governing what work UK visitors can undertake in the EU. We have spoken to every Member State, involving British Embassies and DCMS ministers. We have established that musicians and performers do not require visas or work permits for short-term tours in at least 19 out of 27 Member States, including France and Germany.
We are now working closely with individual Member States that do require visas or permits for short-term touring to encourage them to adopt a more flexible approach, in line with the UK’s own rules which allow creative professionals to tour easily here. These countries are Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Bulgaria, and Romania. We are also still confirming the details of requirements with Cyprus.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support a defibrillator education programme at all professional sports teams.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
First aid skills, including how to administer CPR, are important life skills for everyone. Recent events at UEFA EURO 2020 have demonstrated the immense value of first aid training and access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) for anyone involved in professional sport.
Sports have a responsibility to make the safety and welfare of players their top priority, including through access to life-saving first aid equipment and relevant training and education. It is for the relevant national governing body or professional league to determine what education programmes may be appropriate for participants and support staff in their sport.
A number of sports do provide relevant education, including football. The Minister for Sport and Tourism welcomed the Premier League’s announcement in June 2021 of their new Defibrillator Fund, which will fund AEDs at thousands of football clubs and facilities across the country. Each grant recipient will be required to have at least one person successfully complete The FA Education’s free online Sudden Cardiac Arrest course.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce tax penalties against tech companies that are slow to remove harmful content.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Where tech companies fail to fulfil their new duty of care, the Online Safety Bill provides a suite of enforcement powers for the regulator, Ofcom. Ofcom’s powers will include fines for companies of up to £18m or 10% of qualifying annual global turnover (whichever is higher), and business disruption measures (including applying to court to block access to services that cause serious harm).
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by British Future Our Chance to Reconnect, published in March; and what steps they are taking to make it easier for people to volunteer in their local community.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Her Majesty’s Government welcomes the findings of the report and its contribution to our understanding of civil society during the pandemic. As documented, the scale and breadth of the volunteer response over the last year has been remarkable; as the study estimated, 12.4 million people volunteered during the pandemic, 4.6 million of them volunteering for the first time. Government would like to express its gratitude to all those who volunteered for their contributions, whether through continuing or taking up a formal role with an organisation, or national schemes such as the NHS Volunteer Responders programme, or the extraordinary 2.5 million people who undertook local acts of neighbourliness as coordinated through over 4,000 mutual aid groups. Undoubtedly our experience of the pandemic would have been very different without them.
As outlined by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, our approach to the government's role in volunteering is as a steward, enabling further unlocking of the potential within the volunteering sector as we seek to build a volunteering legacy from this challenging time.
To meet this ambition, DCMS is developing policy with a focus on simplifying the routes into volunteering, how volunteering supply and demand can be best matched and leveraging government’s links with the voluntary and community sector for strategic collaboration. Developing solutions to address the barriers facing those who wish to volunteer in their local community will be an integral element of our work.
Beyond this, the Government continues to celebrate and champion extraordinary individuals who volunteer across the United Kingdom through the Prime Minister’s daily Points of Light Awards, and remains committed to promoting the benefits of volunteering both to personal wellbeing and community cohesion.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prepare further financial support packages for the night-time entertainment industry affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government recognises the severe impact the pandemic has had on the night-time entertainment industry.
The Chancellor announced in the 2021 Budget an additional £300 million to support cultural organisations, including businesses in the night industry such as theatres, music venues and nightclubs in England through the Culture Recovery Fund. Nightclubs were eligible for the first and second rounds of Culture Recovery Funding and many organisations were funded, for example, the Ministry of Sound received a grant of almost £1m. To date, over £1.2 billion has been allocated from the Culture Recovery Fund, reaching over 5000 individual organisations and sites.This extra funding means that our total support package for culture during the pandemic is now approaching £2bn.
More generally, the Government will spend over £33 billion supporting those in self-employment during this crisis, among the most generous anywhere in the world. The Government has also provided economic wide support packages which the sector has been able to access including extensions to the furlough scheme, SEISS, and additional business support.