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 the Government plans to take through the Online Harms Bill to tackle Islamophobia.
Answered by Matt Warman
Islamophobia is completely unacceptable and has no place in our society. The Online Harms White Paper sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, by making companies more responsible for their users’ safety online. We will establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. Companies will be held to account for tackling a comprehensive set of online harms, and hate crime is one of the harms in scope of these proposals. We will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which has the cross-government lead on countering Islamophobia, as this policy is developed.
It is also important that the criminal law is fit for purpose to deal with online harms. The Law Commission has recently started the second phase of its review of abusive and offensive online communications, which will review existing communications offences and make specific recommendations about options for legal reform in a final report in 2021. In parallel, the Law Commission is looking into the adequacy of protection offered by hate crime legislation, and this strand of work is expected to report in 2020.
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 - Shadow Minister (Women)
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 - Shadow Minister (Women)
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
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.