Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
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 merits of committing a proportion of the funding from the Independent Dormant Assets Commission to prepare charities for compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The independent Dormant Assets Commission reported to Government on the feasibility of expanding the current dormant assets scheme to include a wider range of dormant financial assets in March 2017. The Government is considering the Commission’s report and will publish its response in due course.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the telephone helpline for small businesses on the General Data Protection Regulation, run by the Information Commissioner's Office, will be open to small charities.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Yes. The phone service is aimed at people running small businesses or charities and recognises the particular problems they face getting ready for the new data protection regime. There are already resources on the Information Commissioner's Office website (ico.org.uk) to help smaller organisations to prepare for the data protection regime.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to extend her Department's support for smaller charities to include training on data protection before the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Small charities and SMEs can make use of the ICO's advisory visit service which provide organisations with practical advice on improving their data protection practices. Through an advisory visit charities will be able to benefit from the ICO's knowledge and expertise to identify what they are doing well and where they need to improve. The ICO has also: launched a helpline aimed at small organisations; updated its SME toolkit to include GDPR requirements; and begun working on simplifying its 12-step GDPR preparation guidance.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff in her Department have been seconded from (i) businesses and (ii) charities.
Answered by Matt Hancock
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Parliament is dissolved.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials of her Department have had with (i) businesses and (ii) registered charities in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretary meetings with external organisations, including senior media figures, are published routinely on Gov.uk and can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications
Information about meetings between officials, businesses and charities are not centrally held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of establishment of the Fundraising Preference Service on charitable donations.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The fundraising preference service is a recommendation of the 2015 review of fundraising regulation led by Sir Stuart Etherington. Its development has been charity sector-led and it will be implemented by the independent fundraising regulator.
The government welcomes the proposals for a fundraising preference service. It will give greater control to the public about how and whether they are approached with targeted charity fundraising requests. It will be particularly useful for people who feel inundated with such requests. It will also help charities to ensure that they target their fundraising material only at those people who want to receive it. The fundraising preference service will be an important element in restoring public trust in charity fundraising, which will be of long term benefit to charities.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his plans are for future funding of S4C.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government is committed to Welsh language programming and to the future of S4C. This is why the Secretary of State announced on the 3 February that S4C’s funding would be protected in 2016/17 at current levels (£6.8m). In order for S4C to continue to provide a first-class service and have a sustainable future, the Government also intends to carry out a comprehensive review in 2017. This will look at the remit, governance and funding of S4C to ensure the broadcaster can continue to meet the needs of Welsh speaking audiences in the future. The additional funding announced on 3 February will ensure financial stability through the review process.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
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 improve access to Welsh subtitling for learners and people with accessibility needs.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
According to the Television Access Services report of October 2015, S4C provides subtitles on over 75% of required programmes, against the Ofcom quota of 53%.