Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 (a) trends in the level of betting on football, (b) the effect of in-play betting on gambling levels and (c) the adequacy of existing regulations on gambling advertising in relation to sport.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Gambling Commission publishes Industry Statistics twice a year. These demonstrate an upward trend for remote betting on football, where gross gambling yield (GGY, the amount retained by operators after the payment of winnings but before the deduction of the costs of the operation) increased from £578 million to a little over £1 billion between 2015 and 2018. In the same period, offline betting on football fell by roughly one fifth, from £331 million to £265 million. This data can be found here: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Statistics/Industry-statistics.aspx
The Commission also tracks gambling participation rates and data for 2017 showed that football and horse racing were the most popular activities to place a bet on, with 5% of respondents having bet on football in the past four weeks, and 4% having done so for horse racing. This report also includes data on in-play betting, and found that 26% of online gamblers had made a bet in-play during the past four weeks, a figure relatively consistent with the previous years. The most recent report can be found here: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/pdf/survey-data/gambling-participation-in-2017-behaviour-awareness-and-attitudes.pdf.
Strict controls apply to the content of all gambling advertisements, including broadcast adverts and online, and adverts for gambling must not be broadcast in or around children’s TV programmes.
The Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out a package of measures to strengthen protections around advertising further. These include significantly strengthened guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people which restricted urgent calls-to-action, such as ‘bet now’ adverts, tougher sanctions for operators who breach advertising codes and a multi-million pound safer gambling advertising campaign, which will include responsible gambling messages around sports. More recently, the gambling industry has announced that it will introduce a whistle to whistle ban on adverts during sporting events. We will continue to monitor issues around advertising and consider any new evidence carefully.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 level of access to superfast fibre broadband in (a) Birmingham Northfield, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands; and what steps he is taking to improve such access.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/england), 96.8% of premises in Birmingham Northfield constituency currently have access to Superfast Broadband. Similarly, 96.8% of premises in the city of Birmingham has access to Superfast broadband.
The West Midlands area is slightly higher with 97% of premises having this access. This is up from 60% in 2010. All three areas currently sit above the UK average.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 using alternative and emerging technologies such as G.fast to support the roll-out of superfast and ultrafast broadband.
Answered by Margot James
The UK has good digital connectivity to meet the needs of today’s consumers. This includes G.fast technology, which is used by Openreach to deliver ultrafast speeds of more than 100 Mbps, using their existing part-copper infrastructure.
However, the Government is clear that demand for faster, more reliable and resilient broadband will rise and that the UK needs to increase the number of full fibre connections to deliver a nationwide gigabit capable broadband network by 2033. Our Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), published in July 2018, set out a strategy for delivering that ambition. This includes direct investment into full fibre through the £190 million Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) Challenge Fund and the £67 million Gigabit Voucher Scheme. At Budget, the Chancellor announced a further £200 million from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) to pilot innovative approaches to deploying full fibre in rural areas.
The Government is also working to improve mobile broadband. We are committed to extending geographic coverage to 95% of the UK by 2022, and to becoming a world leader in 5G, with the majority of the population covered by a 5G signal by 2027. As part of this, Government is investing £200 million in a 5G Testbeds and Trials programme.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent representations his Department has (a) made to and (b) received from professional football clubs in (i) England, (ii) Wales and (iii) Scotland on the potential introduction of safe-standing at sports stadiums.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Representations have been received from the following football clubs about the possible introduction of certain types of accommodation which could facilitate standing at parts of their respective grounds: Bristol City, Peterborough United, Grimsby Town, Shrewsbury Town and West Bromwich Albion. Representations about the all-seater policy have also been received from Southampton City Council.
I also met Andrew R T Davies, Leader of the Conservative Party at the Welsh Assembly in 2015 to discuss standing at football in Wales. Standing at football matches in Scotland is a matter for the relevant Scottish authorities.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 promote regional diversity in broadcasting.
Answered by Margot James
This government is committed to spreading jobs and prosperity throughout the UK, and it is important that our broadcasting sector provides for and reflects the whole country. As part of this, we have made clear that Channel 4 must make a greater regional impact. We are in discussions with Channel 4 about how they should do this, and we will set out next steps soon.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with (a) Birmingham City Council and (b) the West Midlands Combined Authority on the potential relocation of Channel 4 outside London.
Answered by Margot James
We received a number of submissions to the Channel 4 regional consultation from individuals and local authorities across the UK. No decisions have been taken. The government is working with Channel 4 on how it can best increase its regional impact, and we will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what representations he has received from the heritage and archaeological communities on the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on those communities; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Prime Minister has been clear that the negotiation for Britain's future relationship with Europe will need to begin under a new Prime Minister, and we have now got to look at all the detailed arrangements. In the meantime, Departments continue working to deliver the Government agenda.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his Department's policy is on capping exceed costs on mobile phone contracts for consumers.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The UK mobile network operators (Vodafone, Three, O2 and EE, together with Virgin Mobile) have signed a Code of Practice on Consumer Billing, which sets out a number of ways help customers to avoid excess charges when exceeding their monthly allowance. The code outlines the need for regular updates on usage, so customers can manage spend. For example, operators committed to sending alerts to customers - usually SMS messages - when they are nearing their bundle limits.
In addition, for contracts entered into after 23 January 2014, consumers can exit contracts without penalty, and hence can switch to another provider or tariff, when the agreed core price (usually the monthly subscription) increases. All communications providers have to comply with these rules when increasing prices.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to resolve non-spots in urban areas as part of the superfast broadband roll-out.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government's strategy for city centres is to work with the commercial suppliers to encourage them to deploy superfast and ultrafast broadband quickly to as many premises as possible, for example it has prequalified the expansion of Virgin Media’s ultrafast broadband network for the UK Guarantees Scheme, supporting Virgin’s proposed £3 billion investment.
We are also providing direct financial support to small and medium sized businesses in 50 cities across the UK through the Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme, which contributes up to £3,000 to each SME to help pay for the connection costs to faster and better broadband.