Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the merger of BBC News and BBC World News on the effectiveness of public service news broadcasting (a) in the UK and (b) overseas; and what discussions she has had with representatives of the BBC on funding to maintain those services.
Answered by Matt Warman
The BBC’s proposal to merge BBC News and BBC World News means that the BBC will continue to provide a 24 hour news channel both domestically and abroad. This forms part of the BBC’s plan announced on 26 May to keep the BBC relevant and offer value to all audiences in an on-demand age, with a particular focus on plans to build a digital-first BBC.
We believe the recent licence fee settlement is a fair settlement for the BBC, which will see the BBC continue to receive £3.7bn in annual public funding to deliver its Mission and Public Purposes and continue doing what it does best. We recognise the BBC, just like individual households, businesses and other organisations across the UK, is having to make difficult financial decisions. But the BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, and decisions over its spending and services are a matter for them.
The Government strongly values the BBC’s work in promoting UK values globally through its independent and impartial broadcasting. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office will also continue to provide the BBC World Service with £94.4m p/a for the period 2022-2025.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to tackle digital exclusion.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government is focused on building a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone. As the overall lead department for digital, DCMS works closely with the rest of the government to ensure that all departments consider the needs of digitally excluded people when making policy.
To improve access to the internet, help is available for low income households to access broadband, mobile and landline services. A range of low-cost social tariffs are available to those on Universal Credit, and a number specifically include individuals on Pension Credit. These tariffs are available to eligible households in 99% of the UK.
To improve access to vital digital skills, the government has introduced a digital entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills. This allows adults wishing to acquire essential digital skills to gain specified digital qualifications, up to level 1, free of charge. Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs), introduced alongside the digital entitlement, are based on new national standards which set out the digital skills people need to get on in life and work. We also support the provision of essential digital skills training in community settings through the Adult Education Budget.
Public libraries play an important role in tackling digital exclusion. Around 2,900 public libraries in England provide a trusted network of accessible locations with staff, volunteers, free wifi, public PCs, and assisted digital access to a wide range of digital services.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many public swimming pools have remained closed since being closed in 2020 in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and all generations and communities should be able to enjoy the health, wellbeing, social and other benefits of being active
The Government has provided a range of support for swimming pools during the pandemic. The £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country. In addition, Sport England have made 139 Covid support awards to the Swimming & Diving community (totalling £1,178,198). However, information from Swim England shows that since June 2021 there have been 14 public pools that have not reopened after closing during the pandemic.
Beyond Covid, Sport England have awarded £24,190,440 to swimming and diving projects since January 2017, which includes £15,724,500 of funding directly to Swim England.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to help ensure that (a) TV news broadcasters and (b) print news outlets report responsibly to reduce the negative impact of panic-buying.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government is committed to a free and independent media. It is not appropriate for the government to arbitrate on what should or should not be published or broadcast.
Ofcom is the UK’s independent regulator of television services. The Ofcom Broadcasting Code covers standards in programmes and has rules to ensure that broadcast news is reported with due accuracy and impartiality. The government does not interfere in broadcasters’ editorial decisions and it is for content makers to decide what to include in their programmes, provided that they comply with the Broadcasting Code.
There is also an independent self regulatory regime to ensure that the press adheres to a wider set of clear and appropriate standards, and to offer individuals a means of redress where these are not met. The regulators, IPSO and IMPRESS, enforce codes of conduct which provide guidelines on a range of areas, including discrimination, accuracy, privacy, and harassment. If they find that a newspaper has broken the code of conduct, they can order corrections. IPSO can also order critical adjudications and Impress can levy fines.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the evidential basis was used by his Department when determining the timing for when spectators will be permitted to watch grassroots sports under Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap for the easing of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. That’s why we made sure that people could exercise throughout the national restrictions and why we ensured that grassroots and children’s sport was at the front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. Each full step of the roadmap is informed by the latest available science and data and has been five weeks apart in order to provide time to assess the data and provide one week’s notice to businesses and individuals.
Spectators must adhere to legal gathering limits at Step 3. Outdoors, spectators can gather in groups of up to 30. Indoors, unless an exemption applies, spectators may only gather in groups of up to 6 people, or as a group of two households. A group made up of 2 households can include more than 6 people, but only where all members of the group are from the same 2 households (and each household can include an existing support bubble, if eligible).
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to help ensure that elderly people are not excluded as a result of the digital divide.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
To tackle the digital divide and support connectivity, we have worked closely with providers to ensure social tariffs are in place that provide low cost landline and broadband services for those on means-tested state benefits. Wider commitments by the telecoms industry to support vulnerable consumers have included the removal of data caps on fixed broadband packages, and free or low cost data boosts on mobile services.
Training is available for elderly people wishing to acquire essential digital skills. The Government has introduced a digital entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills to undertake specified digital qualifications, up to level 1, free of charge. Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs), introduced alongside the digital entitlement, are based on new national standards which set out the digital skills people need to get on in life and work. We also support the provision of essential digital skills training in community settings through the Adult Education Budget.
Public libraries play an important role in tackling digital inclusion. Around 2900 public libraries in England provide a trusted network of accessible locations with staff, volunteers, free wifi and assisted digital access to a wide range of digital services. The volunteers and library staff have been trained in digital skills so that they can provide library users with support in using digital applications and services.