Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Margot James
Government Departments continue to engage with a wide range of businesses to understand their priorities and issues as we leave the European Union, both to inform our negotiating position, and our preparations in the unlikely event of there being no deal.
Departments can make use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when structuring their engagements on preparations for leaving the EU, which is a crucial component of planning. It is for departments to determine the manner in which engagement with stakeholders takes place. Given the sensitive nature of some discussions, there may be limited circumstances in which departments have used NDAs to enable those conversations, thereby reaching more stakeholders than would otherwise be the case.
NDAs are also a common component of contractual arrangements that are used to protect commercial considerations of the parties involved or to protect sensitives around the development of Government policy.
It is entirely normal practice to use such agreements and they are therefore sometimes necessary for Government departments who are responsible for managing their preparations for leaving the EU.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
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 include a new statutory requirement on social media companies to stop the spread of online hate speech in the forthcoming internet safety strategy white paper.
Answered by Margot James
The Government response to the Internet Safety Strategy Green paper announced that DCMS and Home Office will jointly work on a White Paper. The White Paper will set out our proposals for future legislation that will cover the full range of online harms, including both harmful and illegal content. We expect the White Paper to be published later this year.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will include penalties for social media companies that fail to remove hate speech flagged by users in the forthcoming internet safety strategy white paper.
Answered by Margot James
The Government response to the Internet Safety Strategy Green paper announced that DCMS and Home Office will jointly work on a White Paper. The White Paper will set out our proposals for future legislation that will cover the full range of online harms, including both harmful and illegal content. We expect the White Paper to be published later this year.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to diverge from EU standards for data protection after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Margot James
The EU and the UK both have an ambition to achieve high data protection protection standards globally. The UK demonstrated this commitment with the successful passage of the new Data Protection Act 2018, which implements and transposes the GDPR and Law Enforcement Directive respectively in UK law.
The Act received Royal Assent on 23 May. It further strengthens UK data protection standards, ensuring they are fit for the modern age, and implements in full the EU’s new data protection framework in UK domestic law. Our data protection laws will therefore be fully aligned with the EU’s at our point of exit.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment the Government has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the creative industries.
Answered by Margot James
The Creative Industries are one of the UK’s greatest success stories, growing twice as fast as the economy as a whole, contributing £92bn to the economy and accounting for two million jobs.
The Government continues to work closely with stakeholders from across the Creative Industries to fully understand the potential impacts and opportunities presented by our decision to leave the EU.
These sectors play an important role in showing the world the very best of Britain, strengthening global relationships and demonstrating that we are open for business.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to raise awareness of the link between mental health issues and the use of social media in young people.
Answered by Margot James
DCMS is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Education on their joint Children and Young People's Mental Health Green Paper, published on 4 December 2017. As announced in the green paper, DCMS and DHSC are convening a working group comprising social media and technology companies. This group will consider further action that can be taken on children's wellbeing in relation to online activities. We expect the working group to to report on progress in due course.The Chief Medical Officer will also produce a report on the impact that technology has on young people's mental health.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many postcodes in (a) Bethnal Green and Bow and (b) London are designated for for fibre broadband implementation that is yet to be introduced.
Answered by Margot James
We do not hold details of suppliers’ commercial plans to extend fibre broadband coverage within London.
The Full Fibre Networks Programme (LFFN) has launched a £190m Challenge Fund into which Local Authorities have been invited to bid by 26th Jan 2018. We previously received an expression of interest from Tower Hamlets Council which referenced Bethnal Green and Bow. We therefore anticipate a bid from them.
The Government is currently trialling a voucher scheme which makes full fibre connection vouchers available to SMEs in four regional areas. The Government will make full fibre connection vouchers available for companies across the country in 2018 to help businesses gain the benefits of fibre broadband connectivity.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many postcodes in (a) Bethnal Green and Bow constituency and (b) London are currently earmarked for fibre broadband installation in the next 12 months.
Answered by Margot James
The Government does not hold details of suppliers’ commercial plans to extend fibre broadband coverage within London.
The Full Fibre Networks Programme (LFFN) has launched a £190m Challenge Fund into which Local Authorities have been invited to bid by 26th January 2018. We previously received an expression of interest from Tower Hamlets Council which referenced Bethnal Green and Bow. We therefore anticipate a bid from them.
The Government is currently trialling a voucher scheme which makes full fibre connection vouchers available to SMEs in four regional areas. The Government will make full fibre connection vouchers available for companies across the country in 2018 to help businesses gain the benefits of fibre broadband connectivity.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, in how many local authority areas in (a) London and (b) England broadband speeds are below the recommended speed as advised by Ofcom.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Superfast broadband with speeds of at least 24Mbps is now available to 90 per cent of UK premises and this will reach 95 per cent by December 2017. The Government has also implemented a basic broadband scheme to enable all premises to gain access to speeds of at least 2Mbps. This enables residents and businesses in all parts of the UK to gain access to every government service available online.
In addition it is the Government's intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation that will give people the legal right to request a broadband connection, no matter where they live, by the end of this Parliament. Our ambition is that this should initially be set at 10 Mbps.
There is no specific recommended speed advised by Ofcom.