Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with the Charity Commission on when the Commission plans to provide a substantive reply to the letter from the Conservative Party to the Commission of 14 June 2024, acknowledged by the Commission on 12 July 2024.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Charity Commission responded to the Conservative Party’s Legal Officer on 15th August 2024, providing a full update on the case in question.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will have discussions with local authorities on the long-term effect of the speaking of Welsh of inter-library loan charges for Welsh language books.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities. It is for each local authority to determine operational matters such as its stock management policy, including participation in an inter-library loan service. This is a co-operative and voluntary agreement among libraries which allows books and other materials from one library to be loaned out to a user from another.
Library services providing an inter-library loan service can apply charges for all book titles requested for borrowing from other library services, and are not limited to Welsh language books.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish guidance on the brand advertising exemption from advertising restrictions contained in the Health and Care Bill.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The brand advertising exemption referred to in the government’s 2021 consultation response on less healthy food and drink advertising is not expressly referred to in the Health and Care Bill, as the scope of the restrictions extend only to the advertising of identifiable less healthy food and drink products. This means that brand advertising is out of scope, and provided that there are no identifiable products, food and drink brands can continue to advertise.
It is the government’s intention to work with regulators to ensure that clear guidance is available for businesses to understand all elements of the restrictions and ensure their compliance. This will include providing more detail on brand advertising. We expect this guidance to be made available for consultation later this year. The exact timing is a matter for regulators.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 on (a) businesses and (b) employment of the proposed advertising restrictions on products high in fat, sugar and salt.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Prime Minister has made it clear that tackling obesity is a priority for this Government. In July 2020 the Government outlined it’s Tackling Obesity strategy which details a host of measures aimed at empowering people to live the healthier lives they want to live.
The Government proposed various options for restricting HFSS advertising in the 2019 and 2020 consultations targeted at protecting children from being exposed to advertising of unhealthy food products.
Balanced against the priority of protecting children and tackling obesity, we have carefully considered the impact that any restrictions will have on industry and in particular the potential for market distortion or disproportionate effects on key business sectors.
The final policy will be set out in our consultation response due to be published shortly. This will be accompanied by a final impact assessment. We will support businesses, individuals and organisations to prepare for changes to the rules around HFSS advertising.