Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will undertake an impact assessment of postponing the Gambling Review White Paper.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Gambling Act Review is wide-ranging and aims to ensure that the regulation of gambling is fit for the digital age. The objective of the Review is to get the appropriate balance between respecting consumer freedom and preventing harm, with effective and proportionate protections. We will publish a white paper setting out our vision for the sector and next steps in the coming months.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to publish the Gambling Review White Paper before summer recess 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Gambling Act Review is wide-ranging and aims to ensure that the regulation of gambling is fit for the digital age. The objective of the Review is to get the appropriate balance between respecting consumer freedom and preventing harm, with effective and proportionate protections. We will publish a white paper setting out our vision for the sector and next steps in the coming months.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her announcement on 17 January 2022 that BBC funding will be frozen for the next two years, whether she will take steps to protect funding for programming in the UK's minority languages.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The UK Government has a strong record of demonstrating its commitment to minority language broadcasting to ensure that our broadcasting sector services all audiences of the UK nations and regions.
The BBC’s Royal Charter is an important way of delivering on this. One of the BBC's Public Purposes is to "reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom". The BBC also has a general duty under Diversity to "support the regional and minority languages of the United Kingdom through its output and services and through partnerships with other organisations".
I recognise the incredibly valuable contribution that our minority language broadcasters make, and the licence fee settlement will continue to support these contributions by providing the BBC with billions in annual public funding, allowing it to deliver its mission and public purposes and to continue doing what it does best.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate the Government has made of the loss of income within the live events industry as a result of covid-19 related cancellations.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The pandemic has been a unique challenge to the live events industry. The government is committed to supporting the live events industry and continues to work with the sector to understand losses and recovery.
To assist with recovery, from 22 September 2021, the UK Live Events Reinsurance Scheme has given events the confidence they need to plan through to Summer 2022. The Scheme will support live events across the country - such as concerts and festivals, conferences and business events - that are at risk of being cancelled or delayed due to an inability to obtain Covid-19 cancellation insurance; it will enable the sector to plan future events with greater confidence.
The scheme is in addition to the extensive support already given to the cultural sector throughout the pandemic, including the nearly £2 billion Culture Recovery Fund and the £500 million Film and TV Production Restart scheme.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 effectiveness of the Live Events Reinsurance Scheme at covering live events from the risk of cancellation due to covid-19.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government recognises the important contribution the live events sector makes to the UK’s culture and economy, and the significant challenges the sector has faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Live Events Reinsurance Scheme provides live events across the country with the confidence to plan ahead, and as such will support the UK’s post-Covid economic recovery.
Since the Scheme’s launch in September 2021, a wide variety of events, including business events, concerts and theatre performances, have purchased cover. The Scheme will be reviewed in the Spring to assess its effectiveness, including the extent to which it has benefitted the live events sector while also delivering value for money for UK taxpayers.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 takes to ensure that at least one official from her Department is present during all (a) meetings and (b) phone calls relating to Government business between Ministers and third parties.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
All Ministers holding meetings or phone calls on government business are routinely accompanied by a private secretary, in line with the expectations of paragraph 8.14 of the Ministerial Code. If a private secretary is not available, another official will accompany this Minister. All meetings to discuss official government business are arranged through the department to ensure an official can be present. If any discussion of government business takes place unexpectedly without an official present e.g. at a social event, the content of the discussion is fed back to the department promptly and recorded.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department’s process is for (a) recording and (b) keeping minutes of all meetings relating to Government business.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Formal, structured meetings are usually minuted, however, not all meetings need to be minuted. For example all DCMS internal decision making Board and Committee meetings, within its formal governance framework, are minuted. In regards to other meetings, the general guidance that DCMS provides officials within the department supports them to make judgements as to what meetings need to be minuted, noting their Civil Service Code obligation to ‘keep accurate official records’.
Specific procedures are in place for external meetings involving ministers. These are publicly available and can be found in the Guidance on the management of Private Office Papers.
Minutes are stored electronically within the department’s storage solution, with access granted to appropriate officials as this is required.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will make platforms responsible for fraudulent and scam content hosted on their sites.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The government is working tirelessly with industry, regulators and consumer groups to tackle fraud. We are also considering additional legislative and non-legislative solutions to effectively address the harms posed by all elements of online fraud in a cohesive and robust way.
My Department is considering how online advertising is regulated through its Online Advertising Programme. This work will look at ensuring that standards about the placement and content of advertising are effectively applied and enforced online to reduce consumers’ exposure to harmful or misleading advertising. This work will look at the role advertising can play in enabling online fraud and help inform our future efforts to tackle it. We will be consulting on this issue later this year.
Although paid-for advertising is exempt in the current draft of the Online Safety Bill, some types of advertising will be in scope. This includes posts by influencers and posts by companies on their social media feeds. Companies will therefore need to ensure that these posts do not host illegal content. The Bill is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny and we will consider all recommendations from the Joint Committee when they report.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what provisions the Government (a) has and (b) plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of taking forward in (i) the Online Safety Bill and (ii) other legislative proposals to tackle scam advertisements.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The government is working tirelessly with industry, regulators and consumer groups to tackle fraud. We are also considering additional legislative and non-legislative solutions to effectively address the harms posed by all elements of online fraud in a cohesive and robust way.
My Department is considering how online advertising is regulated through its Online Advertising Programme. This work will look at ensuring that standards about the placement and content of advertising are effectively applied and enforced online to reduce consumers’ exposure to harmful or misleading advertising. This work will look at the role advertising can play in enabling online fraud and help inform our future efforts to tackle it. We will be consulting on this issue later this year.
Although paid-for advertising is exempt in the current draft of the Online Safety Bill, some types of advertising will be in scope. This includes posts by influencers and posts by companies on their social media feeds. Companies will therefore need to ensure that these posts do not host illegal content. The Bill is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny and we will consider all recommendations from the Joint Committee when they report.