Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to create a regulator for online political advertising.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Government has committed to implementing an imprints regime for digital election material. Our aim is to increase transparency and allow voters to see more information about who has produced election material. We will publish the technical proposals for this regime later this year.
The Cabinet Office is also preparing to launch a consultation on electoral integrity. The scope of this may include increased transparency on digital political advertising; closing loopholes on foreign spending in elections; preventing shell companies from sidestepping current rules on political finance; and action to tackle foreign lobbying. More detail will be brought forward in due course.
In addition, in February this year the Government announced its intention to lead a review of how online advertising is regulated in the UK. This review will identify and address the systematic social and economic challenges that arise from the sector.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will include regulation of news publishers in her legislative proposals on online harms.
Answered by Matt Warman
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, and to better protect the rights and wellbeing of users online. It will make companies more responsible for their users' safety online, especially children and other vulnerable groups.
A vibrant, independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to our democracy. As set out in the former Secretary of State's letter to the Society of Editors, the White Paper's proposals do not impact journalistic and editorial content and will not interfere with the current approach to press regulation.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to create a regulator for online political advertising.
Answered by Nigel Adams
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to create a regulator for online political advertising.
Answered by Nigel Adams
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase levels of IT literacy to help prevent the spread of malware and ransomware.
Answered by Matt Warman
Government is supporting increased levels of IT literacy through the refresh of the Essential Digital Skills (EDS) Framework, which sets out the skills learners require to be safe, legal and confident online, and find, manage, and store digital information securely, thereby helping them guard against malware and ransomware. The EDS framework is the basis of the training delivered through the £18m ‘Future Digital Inclusion’ programme. Delivered by a network of 5,000 Online Centres, which are primarily based in libraries and other community spaces, this programme has supported over 1 million adult learners since 2014 to develop essential digital skills.
Government is also supporting IT literacy through the introduction of a national entitlement to basic digital skills courses from 2020, similar to the existing legal entitlements for English and Maths. This will provide adults of any age the opportunity to undertake improved qualifications, based on the EDS framework, free of charge.
Government is also supporting cyber security through Cyber Aware; a campaign which aims to increase UK citizens’ and businesses’ resilience to cyber crime by encouraging the adoption of secure online behaviours. Key promoted advice includes, to always install your e-device’s latest app and software updates to make it less vulnerable to cyber threats.
In addition, the flagship skills programme GDS Academy teaches civil servants the digital skills, awareness and knowledge they need to transform and build the best public services. It offers training in subjects including agile project delivery and user-centred design. The GDS Academy runs across the country, with courses in Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle, as well as a partnership with the Scottish Government. More than 10,000 civil servants have been trained since it was set up in 2014.
Departments have built their digital professionalism and capability, with over 10,000 civil servants now having been trained by the GDS Academy; new standards have made services across government consistent, accessible and intuitive; and departments have delivered exemplar digital services.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to establish a voluntary citizen editors training scheme to help current social media moderators more effectively manage potentially damaging content.
Answered by Matt Warman
As outlined in the Online Harms White Paper, we intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. The duty of care will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services, and keep their users safe. The Government is currently analysing the responses to the White Paper consultation, and will publish its response by the end of the year.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of preventing social media users from seeing how many likes posts have to support the mental health of people who use those media.
Answered by Matt Warman
As set out in the Online Harms White Paper, the government expects companies to be transparent about design practices which encourage extended engagement, and to engage with researchers to understand the impact of these practices on their users. In the future, we expect the online harms regulator will continue to support research in this area to inform future action and, if necessary, set clear expectations for companies to prevent harm to their users.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 potential merits of introducing a statutory levy in greyhound racing for greyhound welfare.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 10th January 2019 the Government announced a new funding commitment from bookmakers, worth an estimated £3 million this year, to ensure the welfare of greyhounds is protected and improved. This commitment is set to increase the total amount of the voluntary levy bookmakers pay to the British Greyhound Racing Fund (BGRF) to an estimated £10m this year. We expect thousands of racing greyhounds will be better cared for as a result of this new deal.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to reduce the number of (a) bogus and (b) nuisance phone calls.
Answered by Margot James
We have introduced a range of measures in recent months to reduce the number of nuisance calls. These include making company directors personally liable for any breach of the rules by their company and banning unwanted calls from claims management companies and pensions providers in the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018. We are also funding the National Trading Standards Scams Team to provide telephone call blocking technology to vulnerable people, as announced during the Chancellor's budget last year. We recognise there are a minority of companies that continue to flout the law and we will work closely with regulators, industry and consumer groups to identify further ways of addressing the issue.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for the consequences of data spillages.
Answered by Margot James
DCMS has clearly defined processes for identifying and managing data incidents.
DCMS consumes a shared official tier platform delivered through a partnership arrangement with the Cabinet Office. As part of this partnership arrangement they ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our core systems.