Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for withdrawing support for 5G telecoms networks in favour of further research into 6G technology.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
6G mobile technology is in the early research phase. The Government’s focus is on the UK becoming a world leader in 5G mobile technology, and for the majority of the UK population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027. To support this ambition, the Government is investing £200 million in a 5G Testbeds and Trials programme. The Mobile Network Operators are similarly focussed on rolling out commercial 5G coverage across the UK and, as a result, it is currently available in over 80 UK towns and cities.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to incentivise more innovative digital projects in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Industrial Strategy set out our commitment to becoming the world’s most innovative economy, ensuring the UK is the best place for researchers and innovators throughout Britain. We are already delivering record increases in public sector R&D investment — an extra £7bn committed by 2021/21 — with a target to reach 2.4% of GDP investment in R&D across the whole economy by 2027.
The government is supporting organisations that promote digital innovation. The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is incentivising innovation, including in digital projects, by bringing together world-class UK research with business investment to develop new technologies. The Digital Catapult, an advanced digital technology innovation centre, receives funding to drive the early adoption of digital technologies to make UK businesses more competitive. It provides physical and digital facilities for experimentation and brings small companies, corporates, researchers and investors together through innovation programmes.
We are also helping innovative companies to access funding to expand and develop new projects. This includes the £2.5 billion British Patient Capital programme, delivered through the British Business Bank, which will support innovative UK companies to access the long-term investment they need to grow and expand worldwide.
The Industrial Strategy also supports the development of projects in specific sectors through Sector Deals: long term partnerships between industry and the government. These have included commitments to develop several digital projects to improve productivity in sectors ranging from Rail to Creative Industries to Tourism.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to use blockchain-based smart-contracts to ensure that small and medium sized enterprises are protected from late payment by larger companies in the supply chain.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government recognises the impact late payments can have on businesses, particularly small and medium sized enterprises.
Blockchain technology is one solution of how this can be tackled.. For example, smart contracts can initiate payments based on digitally approved work or digitally tracked goods delivery. This enables businesses to be paid automatically, reducing the need for invoicing and preventing delays in payments. The technology ensures a high level of transparency for all parties involved, and helps prevent organisations from taking unilateral actions to alter original contracts.
The Government is supporting the development of blockchain technology in the UK and officials in the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport are exploring potential pilot projects with government departments. The Department for Business recently published the government response on the call for evidence to end late payments to small businesses. Many SMEs supply to government and, as one of the UK's largest corporate buyers, it is our responsibility to ensure suppliers are paid promptly and to examine where the use of technology can help with this.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to combat advances in digital technology to counter difficult-to-detect digital manipulations of audio or video recordings.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government recognises the challenges and potential dangers of digitally manipulated content. We are considering these issues carefully as part of the Government’s plan to tackle wider forms of online manipulation and disinformation.
Our Online Harms White Paper sets out the actions we expect companies to take to limit the spread of disinformation on their platforms.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance and support they provide to businesses in relation to cyber security; and whether they intend to introduce systems for businesses to assess the adequacy of (1) their protection against cyber threats, and (2) their cyber security skills.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was created in 2016 as part of the Government's five-year, £1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy and provides guidance and support to businesses and public sector organisations on all matters relating to cyber security. This includes the Small Business Guide, a Response and Recovery guide, a toolkit for Boards and an "Exercise In a Box" to help organisations assess their cyber resilience. Through the Cyber Essentials Scheme, companies are already able to assess whether they have put in place security measures to protect themselves against the majority of untargeted cyber attacks.
We are undertaking a comprehensive review of the UK’s cyber regulatory and incentives landscape. This builds on our last review in 2016, to understand what has worked well, and where further action is needed to drive the necessary improvements in cyber security behaviours and practices. This will be done with acknowledgement of the broader asks being placed on business as we look to grow and secure the digital economy. It will include consideration of whether and how businesses should be required to assess the adequacy of their cyber security and whether they have the skills they need to manage cyber security risk.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the Waverley Criteria for export controls on objects of cultural interest.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government has no such plans. The Waverley criteria continue to be the standard against which cultural objects, which are the subject of an export licence application, are judged to determine their national importance and whether an opportunity should be provided to retain them in the UK for the enjoyment of the public. The criteria continue to be held in high esteem.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 5 March (HL5690), whether they consider the National Cyber Security Centre guidance stated is sufficient to ensure that all sectors of industry and the general public are sufficiently protected against a hybrid threat; and if not, what additional guidance is planned.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The National Cyber Security Centre is focussed on the cyber security threat but works closely with its partners, CPNI and MOD, to ensure that the UK is protected against the hybrid threat. The NCSC seeks to provide actionable and accessible guidance and it also works closely with a range of key UK organisations to understand their systems, provide bespoke advice and ensure that cybersecurity is considered as part of new programmes and systems. The NCSC has also been strengthening the UK’s cyber defences through the Active Cyber Defence programme.
It is the responsibility of all organisations to ensure they are sufficiently cyber secure and, while the threat of cyber attacks cannot be eliminated completely, organisations can and should reduce the risks by acting on NCSC issued guidance on how best to defend against cyber attacks. This guidance is widely available to all and updated regularly.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to modernise the legal environment to enhance the resilience of UK private sector organisations to defend themselves and their clients against cyber threats.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The forthcoming Data Protection Bill will require all organisations to have appropriate technical and organisational cyber security measures in place to protect personal data. In addition, for critical services and digital service providers, the Government is transposing the Network and Information Systems Directive into UK Law which requires relevant digital service providers to take appropriate and proportionate measures to secure their network and information systems from both cyber attacks and physical failures. In addition, as committed to in its Cyber Regulation and Incentives review published in 2016, the Government continues to monitor the wider cyber security regulatory landscape to ensure it remains fit for purpose.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what role the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport plays in responding to national security threats; and if that Department plays no formal role, which department responds to digital threats and other security threats relating to culture, the media, or sport.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) is the Lead Government Department for the Broadcast, Internet and Telecommunications sectors as parts of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure. As such, DCMS is responsible for the government’s security and resilience policy within those sectors.
DCMS plays a key role in delivering the Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy to support a prosperous digital nation. DCMS also undertakes work to prevent internet harms, such as disinformation. Other security threats would be managed as appropriate by individual digital, culture and media organisations in conjunction with law enforcement and other agencies.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what budget they are allocating to train and evaluate personnel on individual tools, techniques and processes related to live, virtual and constructive simulated environments.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Individual Government departments and agencies make decisions on the appropriate tools to train and evaluate their workforces to meet their specific needs.