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 his Department has made of the potential effect of (a) new draft HMRC tax guidance for actors and other performers, (b) legal cases HMRC is considering under IR35 in the entertainment industry and (c) extending IR35 off-payroll rules to the private sector from April 2020 on the (i) sustainability of the entertainment sector in the event that that sector has to operate Class 1 employee National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and pay employer NICs on multiple and short-term engagements and (ii) self-employed status of performers and other creative workers in that sector.
Answered by Margot James
DCMS has made no assessment as these are matters for HMRC.
HMRC has not changed its approach to actors and other performers but has been working with industry to add some practical examples to the Employment Status Manual. Employment Status is not a choice but depends on the facts of the engagement. Given that most actors and performers are self-employed and unaffected by off-payroll rules (often known as IR35), they will not be affected by off-payroll reform in 2020 and do not pay Class 1 National Insurance. There are no plans to change this.
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 discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on changes in the approach by HMRC to the entertainment sector through (a) new draft HMRC tax guidance for actors and other performers and (b) legal cases HMRC is considering under IR35 following the Upper Tribunal Tax and Chancery decision of 9 April 2019 in Big Bad Wolff Ltd v The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs.
Answered by Margot James
The Secretary of State has not discussed this matter with the Chancellor. This matter has been discussed by officials from HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
(a) HMRC has not changed its approach to the entertainment sector but has been working with the entertainment industry to add some practical examples to the Employment Status Manual, which provides guidance on issues relating to the employment status of individuals.
(b) In Big Bad Wolff Limited v HMRC, the Upper Tax Tribunal upheld HMRC’s long published view that the Social Security Categorisation of Earners Regulations 1978, which were in force before 6 April 2014, required actors to pay Class 1 National Insurance and could not be avoided by working through a company. Most actors paid their National Insurance correctly at the time but there are a small number of cases where actors chose to dispute liability and await the outcome of the appeal.
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 he is taking to prevent the loss of council-owned football pitches in order to support grass roots football.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises how important it is that local communities have access to good sporting facilities. That is why in partnership with the FA and the Premier League we are investing more money than ever before, through the Football Foundation charity, to significantly improve the access and quality of community football facilities across the country. This year a combined £70million will go to this important area. To inform and direct future investment, new local football facility plans are being produced for every local authority in England. The plans will be in place by 2020 and will identify local priorities where investment in grassroots facilities is needed the most.
Sport England also has a role in protecting sport pitches as a statutory consultee in the planning system. Sport England objects to all applications unless the developer can prove it will improve or safeguard sports provision. For the period between April 2016 and March 2017, 93% (1,102 out of 1,187) planning applications affecting playing fields resulted in improved or protected sports provision.
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 ensure that there is adequate support for sportswomen dealing with the effect of periods.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Periods should never be a taboo subject. Women and girls should never feel embarrassed to speak out about their menstrual cycle and how it affects their performance.
We have a responsibility to break down barriers for women and ensure that coaches and sporting organisations are able to help female athletes reach their full potential. I welcome the work that the English Institute of Sport are doing through their SMARTHer campaign to open up conversations amongst athletes, coaches and staff in high performance sport around athletes’ menstrual cycles in order to improve support. Sport England are also supporting the new government taskforce to tackle period poverty, primarily around actions to tackle the stigma and taboos relating to women in sport (and particularly their impact on teenage participation in physical activity in schools).
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 has taken to ensure that businesses have the required IT infrastructure in place to enable a paperless society.
Answered by Margot James
The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), published in July 2018, sets out the Government’s strategy for ensuring that 15 million premises are able to connect to full fibre by 2025, with a nationwide network established by 2033. Since the publication of the FITR, full fibre coverage is now available to 7% of UK premises, up from 4% around 12 months ago.
The Better Broadband Voucher Scheme, open for applications until 31st December 2019, is available to those who are unable to obtain a connection speed above 2Mbps. The Scheme can support access to satellite broadband, or fixed 4G or wireless connections in some locations. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, launched in March 2018 as part of Local Full Fibre Networks programme, enables small to medium sized businesses to claim a voucher worth up to £2,500, and residents to claim a voucher worth up to £500 as part of a group project.
DCMS has convened the Digital Enterprise Delivery Group, part of the Digital Skills Partnership, to bring together a range of industry stakeholders to improve the digital capabilities of SMEs and charities.
BEIS’s £9 million Business Basics programme, announced as part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, is testing innovative ways of encouraging SMEs to take up technology (such as accountancy or CRM software), as well as business practices that can boost productivity. Be the Business, supported by up to £18.6m Government funding, is a business-led independent charity that is identifying practical steps to enable the adoption of technology and enable best-practice leadership and management techniques.
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 ensure the security of age-verification check databases.
Answered by Margot James
All providers of age verification (AV) services must comply with data protection laws. In addition, ahead of the introduction of mandatory age verification on online pornography sites, the regulator, the British Board for Film Classifcation, has created a voluntary certification scheme, the Age-verification Certificate (AVC), which will assess the data security standards of AV providers. Age verification solutions which offer these robust data protection conditions will be certified following an independent assessment and will carry the BBFC's new green 'AV' symbol. Details will also be published on the BBFC’s age-verification website, ageverificationregulator.com.
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 reduce the environmental footprint of large sporting events.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government, along with major event partners, is committed to embedding sustainability as a key pillar of the planning and delivery of major sporting events. We also welcome the innovation that the sector is driving such as the degradable seaweed pouches used at this year’s London Marathon instead of plastic water bottles.
UK Sport is working alongside several events, providing support as they look into environmentally friendly delivery options. The upcoming Netball World Cup is currently undergoing an environmental review across all workstreams, with findings not only being used to make changes to the event, but also will be fed back into the newly formed sector working group, which alongside staff from UK Sport, consists of athletes, venues and NGB representatives.
UK Sport is also conducting work to place a range of ethical policies at the heart of all events delivered with government support, with environmental policies and considerations sitting as a core element of that work.
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 has plans to obligate internet broadband companies to be more transparent on achievable speeds.
Answered by Margot James
Both Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have taken action on broadband speeds recently.
Ofcom’s published a new Broadband Speeds Code of Practice on 1 March 2019, under which companies have to provide consumers with a minimum guaranteed speed at the point of sale. If a consumer’s speed then drops below this level, companies have one month to improve performance, before they must allow consumers to leave their contract penalty-free. This right to exit also applies to landline and TV packages, which are purchased at the same time as broadband services
Prior to this, in May 2018, the ASA implemented guidance that requires speed claims in adverts to be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating a mandated system with mandated compensation to address customers' complaints about broadband.
Answered by Margot James
Ofcom, as the UK’s regulator for the communications industry, is responsible for issues around consumer compensation for broadband. In March 2017, Ofcom consulted on introducing an automatic compensation scheme for fixed broadband and landline telecoms to protect consumers that suffer from specific service failures. Subsequently, industry agreed to introduce a voluntary automatic compensation scheme, which came into effect from 1 April 2019. It covers new orders placed, or problems reported since 1 April 2019, and sets out compensation amounts for delayed repairs following a loss of service, missed repairs or appointments, as well as delays to the start of a new service.
The largest broadband providers have signed up to the scheme as a result of which Ofcom have indicated that nine in ten landline and broadband customers are already covered by the scheme. They estimate that it will benefit consumers by up to £126m more per year in compensation payments, compared to £16m per year they received previously. Ofcom is satisfied that the voluntary scheme is a fair, effective and sufficient means to ensure telecoms consumers are compensated when service quality falls short, and that it adequately addresses the need to take regulatory action in this area. Ofcom plans to review the effectiveness of this scheme after it has been in place for 12 months.
In addition, where an individual feels that their service fault has been dealt with in an unsatisfactory manner by their telecoms provider, and if their complaint has not been resolved after eight weeks, they can refer their case to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. ADR schemes can review individual cases and any decisions they make are binding on telecoms providers. There are two ADR schemes for telecoms, the Ombudsman Services (OS) and the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS), and all communications providers must be members of one of these schemes.
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, with reference to the Carnegie UK Trust's report of March 2019, Engaging Libraries: Learning from Phase 1, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of that report.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government welcomed the recent Engaging Libraries programme, supported by Carnegie UK Trust and the Wellcome Trust, which enabled public library services to pilot creative public engagement projects on health and wellbeing. We also welcome the announcement that a second phase of the programme will be launched later in 2019.
In line with the learning in this report, the Government recognises the important roles that libraries can play in promoting health and wellbeing. In December 2016, the Libraries Taskforce (which was jointly established by DCMS and the Local Government Association) published its Libraries Deliver: Ambition document. This set out seven strategic Outcomes to which libraries contribute and that local and central government is seeking to support and encourage; one of these was helping people to have healthier and happier lives.
The Taskforce includes representatives of Public Health England and NHS England, and has been active in promoting and sharing good practice about a number of the Engaging Libraries projects through its blog on GOV.UK. In addition, the Taskforce has published an advocacy brochure to specifically showcase to library services, local councils, and partner organisations how libraries can support health and wellbeing for people and communities.