Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the oral contribution by the Minister for Safeguarding and Vulnerability to the Offensive Weapons Bill Committee on 11 September 2018, Column 280, what policy proposals he is discussing with the Home Secretary on preventing the sale of illegal knives on online platforms.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to delivering on the people’s priorities by tackling violent crime, including through the Offensive Weapons Act which received Royal Assent on 16 May 2019.
In addition, the Government published the initial response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation on 12 February 2020. This is a joint Home Office and DCMS publication that summarises themes from the 2019 consultation.
The interim response confirmed that the Government is developing legislation on online harms to establish a new duty of care on online companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. This will ensure companies take action to address harmful behaviour online, including the sale of weapons and other illegal goods and services. The regulator will issue codes of practice on what companies need to do to fulfil their duty of care. The regulator will work with law enforcement regarding expectations relating to illegal content and behaviour to ensure they adequately keep pace with the threat.
We will set out our final policy position on this issue in a full Government response later this year, before moving to legislation.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support orchestras in the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In the past five years, Arts Council England (ACE) has invested over £107 million in orchestras and related classical music organisations in its National Portfolio. This figure does not include ACE investment in Opera companies, each of whom also support their own orchestra. As culture is a devolved matter, this figure excludes funding decisions taken by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Orchestras have also benefited from the Government’s introduction of the Orchestras Tax Relief (OTR), which is helping to support the increase of productions, especially via touring. Since the introduction of the OTR in 2016, £23 million has been paid out relating to 170 claims and 770 productions.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support UK orchestras to tour throughout the world.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Our British orchestras are renowned across the globe for their world-leading performances; collectively touring to an average of 35 countries per year.
We understand the importance of being able to tour, and recognise that it depends on performers and crew being able to move quickly and easily between countries, taking necessary equipment with them.
As we increase and develop our links with countries across the globe, we will continue our close dialogue with the sector, maintaining our deep understanding of sectoral need and ambition. We will ensure that the interests of our great cultural institutions are considered at every opportunity, including during the development of future trade agreements.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential contribution of (a) FTTP, (b) DOCSIS, (c) xDSL and (d) G.fast technology in supporting (i) smart city applications, (ii) fourth industrial revolution innovations and (iii) 5G backhaul.
Answered by Matt Warman
Copper based ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber lines), FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), and G.fast cannot provide gigabit speeds, although performance between these services varies. ADSL is capable of delivering maximum download speeds of 24Mbps, compared to FTTC (VDSL/virtual digital subscriber line) which can deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbps and G.fast which is currently capable of providing speeds of up to 330Mbps. However, with all these services, the speed achievable declines with distance, with the highest speeds only available to premises closest to the cabinet.
FTTP (fibre to the premises or full fibre) and DOCSIS (data over cable service interface specification) 3.1 are both capable of gigabit download speeds. However, unlike DOCSIS 3.1, FTTP can also offer symmetrical upload speeds, and can therefore deliver gigabit upload as well as download. High upload speeds are especially important to businesses in sectors where large files need to be transferred e.g. media production, as well as for certain domestic uses, such as online gaming.
All gigabit capable networks also offer increased reliability and resilience compared to copper, with FTTP providing the most reliable and resilient service. As well as improved quality of service, full fibre networks requires much lower maintenance compared to copper networks, with five times fewer faults. The reduction in fault rate means FTTP networks are cheaper to run than copper, and the National Infrastructure Assessment estimated that this could save £5bn in operating costs over 30 years.
The department has not made specific assessments of the differences in energy efficiency. However, FTTP has lower energy requirements than copper and cable technologies and requires the use of fewer exchanges, and will therefore likely lead to reduced emissions for similar bandwidths.
In addition, the Government is investing £167m into Made Smarter, the UK’s key industrial digitalisation programme, to put UK at forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Fibre is a key requirement for 5G networks, providing high speed and capacity mobile backhaul to match the capacity of 5G mobile networks. It is important that mobile operators and infrastructure providers have access to the key inputs for network densification, including sufficient fibre backhaul capacity.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the differences in (a) speed, (b) reliability and (c) energy efficiency of (i) FTTP, (ii) FTTC, (iii) DOCSIS, (iv) xDSL and (v) G.fast technology.
Answered by Matt Warman
Copper based ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber lines), FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), and G.fast cannot provide gigabit speeds, although performance between these services varies. ADSL is capable of delivering maximum download speeds of 24Mbps, compared to FTTC (VDSL/virtual digital subscriber line) which can deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbps and G.fast which is currently capable of providing speeds of up to 330Mbps. However, with all these services, the speed achievable declines with distance, with the highest speeds only available to premises closest to the cabinet.
FTTP (fibre to the premises or full fibre) and DOCSIS (data over cable service interface specification) 3.1 are both capable of gigabit download speeds. However, unlike DOCSIS 3.1, FTTP can also offer symmetrical upload speeds, and can therefore deliver gigabit upload as well as download. High upload speeds are especially important to businesses in sectors where large files need to be transferred e.g. media production, as well as for certain domestic uses, such as online gaming.
All gigabit capable networks also offer increased reliability and resilience compared to copper, with FTTP providing the most reliable and resilient service. As well as improved quality of service, full fibre networks requires much lower maintenance compared to copper networks, with five times fewer faults. The reduction in fault rate means FTTP networks are cheaper to run than copper, and the National Infrastructure Assessment estimated that this could save £5bn in operating costs over 30 years.
The department has not made specific assessments of the differences in energy efficiency. However, FTTP has lower energy requirements than copper and cable technologies and requires the use of fewer exchanges, and will therefore likely lead to reduced emissions for similar bandwidths.
In addition, the Government is investing £167m into Made Smarter, the UK’s key industrial digitalisation programme, to put UK at forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Fibre is a key requirement for 5G networks, providing high speed and capacity mobile backhaul to match the capacity of 5G mobile networks. It is important that mobile operators and infrastructure providers have access to the key inputs for network densification, including sufficient fibre backhaul capacity.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the timetable is for requesting an adequacy assessment of UK data protection regulations from the EU if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 31 October.
Answered by Nigel Adams
In no deal, it is in everyone’s interests that the exchange of personal data between EU Member States and the UK continues.
The European Commission has said that adopting adequacy decisions is not part of their priority no deal contingency planning. In light of this, we do not expect the European Commission to have made adequacy decisions regarding the UK at the point of exit.
However, the UK is ready to commence an adequacy assessment now. We will continue to make the case to the European Commission to start the adequacy assessments as soon as possible.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
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 implications for the aims of the Online Harms White Paper of the adoption of new technical standards to bypass the blocking of online content; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
As set out in the Online Harms White Paper, the Government will establish a new statutory duty of care to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users. Compliance with this duty of care will be overseen and enforced by an independent regulator. We are currently consulting on which enforcement powers the regulator should have at its disposal to ensure it can take effective action against companies that breach their legal duty. Alongside this consultation, we continue to work with industry to understand the implications of the changing technologies and to promote approaches that work for the good of all.