Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ability of the UK economy to operate effectively in the event of a major disruption to subsea cable infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government takes the security and resilience of subsea cables very seriously, including their operation, supply chain and repair arrangements.
We regard subsea cables as critical to our national and international infrastructure and monitor a variety of risks they face. Subsea internet cables are specifically considered in the National Risk Assessment which is kept under review.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the resilience of subsea cable infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government takes the security and resilience of subsea cables very seriously, including their operation, supply chain and repair arrangements.
We regard subsea cables as critical to our national and international infrastructure and monitor a variety of risks they face. Subsea internet cables are specifically considered in the National Risk Assessment which is kept under review.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cloud services contracts that were previously delivered by British cloud services providers for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are now delivered by multinational cloud service providers; what is the value of those contracts; and what are the names of the previous providers.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
DCMS have had no such contracts.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s data is hosted (1) in the UK, and (2) overseas.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Approximately 20% of data is hosted exclusively in the UK. Approximately 80% is hosted on cloud services distributed across data centres in the UK and abroad.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 2 March (HL5634), what measures they use in assessing whether the Gambling Commission is effective in preventing underage gambling.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Gambling Commission has a statutory duty to advise government on the regulation of gambling.
The Department meets regularly with the Gambling Commission both at ministerial and official level to discuss a wide range of issues relating to the regulation of gambling in Great Britain.
The Department and the Gambling Commission have a management agreement in place which sets out ways of working. The Gambling Commission Management Agreement sets out its performance measures which include “reducing levels of children and young people gaining access to age-restricted gambling products".
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Price on 6 March (HL5447), what assessment they have made of concerns for child security and privacy presented by the marketing of My Friend Cayla dolls in the UK.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government is aware of reports that some internet-connected children’s toys potentially pose a risk in terms of cybersecurity. As with all internet connected devices, the quality of these products varies.
The cyber security of the UK is a top priority for the Government. Manufacturers of internet-connected devices should ensure those devices have appropriate security measures built in and seek to ensure emerging technologies are secure by default.
Where internet-connected products are collecting personal data, organisations that process that personal data in the UK must comply Data Protection Act’s (DPA) eight data protection principles.
These include requiring personal data to be processed fairly and lawfully; to be accurate and up-to-date; not to be kept for longer than is necessary; and to be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects under the DPA. Failure to comply with the Act is an offence. Further information about these obligations can be found on the ICO’s website at:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 12 January (HL Deb, col 2067), what measures are available to the Gambling Commission to take action against overseas providers who fail to prevent underage gambling.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
All operators that offer bets to people in Great Britain must obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission. Where an operator breaches the conditions of its licence the Gambling Commission has a range of powers at its disposal, including financial penalties, imposition of licence conditions or revoking the licence.
Where websites are identified that are offering facilities for gambling to customers in Britain without the appropriate licence the Commission will take action to ensure compliance with the licensing regime.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 12 January (HL Deb, col 2067), how many times the Gambling Commission took action against those failing to prevent underage gambling in each year since 2010; and what penalties were issued in each case.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The protection of children from being harmed or exploited by gambling is one of the three licensing objectives that underpin the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. The Commission use a range of tools to prevent children from accessing gambling, one of which is to issue penalties.
The Gambling Commission licence and regulate gambling operators but individual gambling premises (across the land based sectors) are regulated by licensing authorities (local authorities). Any individual action in relation to land based gambling premises regarding underage gambling would therefore be taken by licensing authorities; as such, the Government does not hold the number of people convicted of failing to prevent underage gambling.
In terms of online, from November 2014 the Commission’s regulatory framework was extended to include, for the first time, remote gambling operators that are based outside of Britain but are selling to customers here. In February 2017 the Gambling Commission prosecuted two men who were offering online unlicensed gambling to children. Fines and costs totalled £265,000.