Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what his policy is on the regulation of third-party sellers on online marketplaces; and whether he plans to include those sellers in the forthcoming online harms legislation.
Answered by Matt Warman
Consumer protections already apply to online traders operating directly or as a third party through a platform.
The Online Harms White Paper sets out the Government's plan to establish a statutory duty of care to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users and tackle harm caused by content or activity on their services. We have consulted on our proposals for the new duty of care to apply to companies and other bodies that allow users to share or discover user-generated content or interact with each other online.
Companies in scope of the regulatory framework will be held to account for tackling a broad range of harmful and illegal content or activity on their services. However, where there is already an effective regulatory framework, this will be excluded from scope to avoid duplication.
The Online Harms White Paper consultation closed on 1 July. The Government will publish its response later this year.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department plans to take steps to prevent organisations from making a profit on Gift Aid claims when they receive a donation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Charities Act 1992 requires all professional fundraisers, including online fundraising platforms, to inform potential donors of their fees and charges.
The Fundraising Regulator strengthened its Code of Fundraising Practice in June 2018 to clarify what is expected of online fundraising platforms in terms of their transparency.
Improved transparency requirements enable potential donors to make informed choices about their giving.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the National Emergencies Trust will be established; which organisation will provide the fundraising platform for that trust; and what the criteria his Department used to make that decision.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The charity sector has developed proposals to establish a new charity, the National Emergencies Trust. Its purpose would be to co-ordinate charitable fundraising and distribution in response to a major incident. The proposed charity would be independent from Government, and questions relating to how the charity would operate would be for the charity itself, once established.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the economic analysis published by Development Economics that over the course of a decade £30 million of taxpayers' Gift Aid donations could be taken in fees by private sector fundraising platforms; and if he will take steps to ensure that Gift Aid donations reach the causes, charities and beneficiaries they are intended for.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Digital fundraising platforms raise significant funds for charitable causes and therefore must ensure high standards of transparency to allow donors to make informed decisions.
The Fundraising Regulator has updated the Code of Fundraising Practice to include requirements for these platforms, including new transparency requirements about charges. This helps donors ensure that as much money as possible, including Gift Aid, goes to the intended charities and beneficiaries, which is important.
In addition, one of the largest digital fundraising platforms, Just Giving, has recently announced they will no longer charge fees on donations made to campaigns for major incidents, which will also ensure more money, including Gift Aid, is passed to charities
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
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 create more conservation areas across London.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
In this, the 50th anniversary of their introduction, I can confirm that in total nearly 10,000 localities in England have been designated as conservation areas, including over 1,000 in London. Though the Secretary of State has discretion to designate conservation areas, local planning authorities are generally best placed to do so by identifying those parts of their locality that possess special architectural or historic interest. Historic England has recently published guidance to support local planning authorities through this process.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the oral statement of the First Secretary of State and Minister for the Cabinet Office of 26 June 2017, Official Report, column 329, when the Rotherhithe and Poplar SE16 postcode area will have full access to superfast broadband.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Government is committed to improving digital connectivity right across the country. Overall UK superfast broadband national coverage is on track to reach 95% of premises by December 2017. The Government expects the commercial sector to ensure full superfast broadband coverage within dense urban areas such as Rotherhithe and Poplar. In Greater London, superfast broadband now covers approximately 96% of premises, an increase of 2% in the last 12 months.
Additionally, our Universal Service Obligation will ensure that by 2020 every home and every business in Britain has access to high speed broadband.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she will take to ensure that people with audio or visual impairments benefit from the Digital Economy Bill; and if she will assess how on-demand services will meet such people's needs.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Ofcom is the regulator with responsibility for on-demand programme services (ODPS). Ofcom are presently consulting on how to improve access services.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the food and drink industry does not meet his Department's criteria for inclusion on its list of creative industries.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government fully recognises the importance of the food and drinks sector to our economy, and appreciates that there is a creative element to work in this sector. The definition of the Creative Industries since 2013 has been based on a Creative Intensity approach, which measures the proportion of jobs within an industry that are classified as creative. The proportion of these jobs in the 'food and drink' industry was below the 30 per cent threshold set in 2013, and was therefore not included in the Creative Industries Economic Estimates.
Earlier this year, this Department carried out a consultation on our Economic Estimates for the Creative Industries, which included asking whether we should review the sectors included within the Creative Industries based on the existing Creative Intensity approach. We published our response to this consultation on 9 June, which stated that we will continue to review the Creative Intensities on an on-going basis to ensure they remain relevant. The Standard Occupational Classifications (SOC) which underpin this work are currently being reviewed, however, and we will wait for the outcome of that review before deciding whether and when to make any changes to the occupations which contribute to the Creative Industries.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to deliver hyper-speed broadband coverage in urban areas.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
As announced at the 2016 Budget, the Government intends to support the development of the ultrafast market by establishing, in partnership with the private sector, a new broadband investment fund to support the growth of alternative network developers by providing greater access to finance. Ofcom also recently announced its strategy to promote large-scale roll-out of new ultrafast broadband networks as part of its Digital Communications Review. The Government is committed to ensuring that ultrafast broadband should be available to nearly all UK premises, as soon as practicable. We are proposing to take action in a number of areas which will help support existing commercial investment plans and encourage the ultrafast market to develop further, including reforming the Electronic Communications Code, the statutory framework governing rights of access to private land; implementing the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive to help reduce the cost of rolling out high speed broadband; reviewing the effectiveness of the fixed planning changes introduced in England in 2013 to determine whether they should be made permanent; and encouraging and supporting innovative approaches in street works which can lower the cost and speed up deployment of faster broadband.Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to improve access to high speed internet for people in (a) former dockyard areas and (b) rural communities.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Current superfast broadband coverage is over 80% of UK premises and the Government remains committed to providing access to superfast broadband for 95% of homes and businesses by December 2017. In areas of the country covered by the Superfast Broadband Programme, projects are managed by Local Authorities who can agree their own priority areas with their supplier. There is no superfast broadband project under the programme in London, but small and medium sized enterprises in London are eligible for grants of up to £3,000 to improve their broadband connections under the Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme.