Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support the Government plans to provide to the UK Safer Internet Centre.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The UK Safer Internet Centre plays an important role in improving online safety in the UK, particularly for children.
The Centre has been successful in its bid for further funding from the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility programme for the calendar year of 2021, for which the government provided a letter of support. Officials are in regular engagement with the Centre on its future funding position.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 increase the volume of marketing spend in key (a) development and (b) other source markets in the upcoming Tourism Recovery Plan.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The Global Travel Taskforce last year committed the Government to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector, which will include plans for a marketing campaign to welcome visitors back to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so. We will publish this document in the Spring.
When holidays are permitted again, we will work with VisitBritain, VisitEngland and local partners to champion the UK’s diverse tourism offer once again - just as we did with last year’s Enjoy Summer Safely and Escape The Everyday campaigns.
A successor to the Global Travel Taskforce will report by 12 April with recommendations aimed at facilitating a return to international travel as soon as possible, while still managing the risk from imported cases and variants of concern. Following that, the Government will determine when international travel should resume, which will be no earlier than 17 May. The Government will align the timing and details of its marketing plans with the outcome of the report.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether it remains Government policy for 130,000 more hotel rooms to be built by 2025; and what progress has been made against that target to date.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The UK Government will publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in the Spring. Given the significant impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, we now face different challenges to when the Tourism Sector Deal was published. The Recovery Plan will build on the foundations of the Sector Deal.
We are continuing to engage with stakeholders to assess how we can most effectively support tourism’s long term recovery.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what data and information his Department holds on trends in the level of (a) original programming hours and (b) broadcast hours produced as (i) Programmes for schools and colleges and (ii) other educational content for school-age children by (A) the BBC, (B) ITV and (C) other broadcasters.
Answered by John Whittingdale - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The department does not hold this information.
Ofcom data indicates that in 2018, public service broadcasters (PSBs, in this context the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) collectively broadcast 125 hours of content in 2018 meeting the description of “formal education”. Of this, 65 hours were considered original content.
This output was supplemented by content available on-demand, online, on podcasts and radio, as well as less formal educational content such as documentaries and broader children’s content.
Between 2010 and 2018, the total amount of educational content broadcast by PSBs fell considerably (2010: 725 hours). Over the same period, the amount of original educational content broadcast by PSBs remained relatively constant (2010: 70 hours), albeit with considerable year-to-year fluctuation. Data covering 2019 and 2020 is not yet available.
Ofcom data suggests that commercial multi channels broadcast 40 hours of original content classified as ‘other’ in 2018 (2014: 0 hours). This classification includes formal education.
Further information can be found on Ofcom’s website.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what data his Department holds on the (a) number of hours of school-age educational programmed content on the BBC and (b) amount of online content on BBC bitesize in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by John Whittingdale - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The department does not hold this information. The BBC may hold more information on this topic.
Page 115 of the BBC’s Annual Report for 2019-20 sets out some information on how the BBC has performed on its public purpose to support learning for people of all ages. The report also states that the BBC offered 14 weeks of educational programmes and lessons during the summer term and that, by the end of the term, the BBC had published nearly 2,000 curriculum-led ‘Bitesize Daily Lessons’ online.
Further, on 5 January 2021, the BBC also announced its education offering for the UK’s third national lockdown. The announcement included three hours of primary school programming each week day on CBBC, and at least two hours of secondary school content each day on BBC 2. It also included an expansion of BBC bitesize online content for primary and secondary school pupils. The full announcement can be found on the BBC website here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2020/bbc-launches-biggest-education-offer-ever
I also refer the Hon Member to my answer to PQs 136489 and 136491 where I set out Ofcom’s figures for the education provision by Public Service Broadcasters collectively.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on trends in the level of (a) original programming hours and (b) broadcast hours of (i) programmes for schools and colleges and (ii) other educational content for school-age children on (A) the BBC, (B) ITV and (C) other broadcasters.
Answered by John Whittingdale - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The department does not hold this information.
Ofcom data indicates that in 2018, public service broadcasters (PSBs, in this context the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) collectively broadcast 125 hours of content in 2018 meeting the description of “formal education”. Of this, 65 hours were considered original content.
This output was supplemented by content available on-demand, online, on podcasts and radio, as well as less formal educational content such as documentaries and broader children’s content.
Between 2010 and 2018, the total amount of educational content broadcast by PSBs fell considerably (2010: 725 hours). Over the same period, the amount of original educational content broadcast by PSBs remained relatively constant (2010: 70 hours), albeit with considerable year-to-year fluctuation. Data covering 2019 and 2020 is not yet available.
Ofcom data suggests that commercial multi channels broadcast 40 hours of original content classified as ‘other’ in 2018 (2014: 0 hours). This classification includes formal education.
Further information can be found on Ofcom’s website.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 extent of (a) misinformation and (b) disinformation on social media on the covid-19 outbreak to date; who the originators of the most widespread messages are; and what assessment he has made of the motivations behind such messages.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government takes the issue of disinformation very seriously. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it continues to be vitally important that the public has accurate information about the virus, and DCMS is leading work across Government to tackle disinformation.
That is why we stood up the Counter Disinformation Unit up on 5 March to bring together cross-Government monitoring and analysis capabilities. The Unit’s primary function is to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation and misinformation regarding Covid-19 and to work with partners to ensure appropriate action is taken.
Misinformation and disinformation can come from a range of sources, however it would not be appropriate for us to provide a running commentary on the amount of misinformation or disinformation seen to date. Throughout the pandemic, we have been working closely with social media platforms to quickly identify and help them respond to potentially harmful content on their platforms, including removing harmful content in line with their terms and conditions, and promoting authoritative sources of information.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing the recommendation in the Duty of Care in Sport independent report to Government by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, published in April 2017, that the Government should create a sports ombudsman or sports duty of care quality commission, with powers to hold national governing bodies to account for the duty of care they provide to all athletes, coaching staff and support staff.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
It is important that the systems elite sports have for dealing with concerns about athlete welfare are as effective as possible, regardless of whether any new service - be that an ombudsman or a different model - is developed. All sports and clubs should have appropriate procedures in place, and when formal channels have been exhausted and a matter remains unresolved, investigations should be conducted independently through an appropriate organisation such as Sport Resolutions UK.
The Code for Sports Governance came into force around the same time as the Duty of Care report was published in April 2017. This imposes clear requirements on all funded sports organisations to have appropriate whistleblowing and safeguarding policies and procedures in place. In addition, UK Sport have proactively worked to strengthen the existing systems, structures and responsibilities for dispute resolution within the high performance system, and introduced numerous measures in the 12 months following the report’s publication. These actions included mandating an independent element in discipline and grievance procedures, establishing a dedicated integrity unit, and introducing an annual Culture Health Check survey that monitors athlete welfare and enables issues to be picked up and addressed.
My department will continue to work closely with UK Sport and keep this issue under review, looking to strengthen provision wherever necessary.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
What steps her Department is taking to improve (a) broadband and (b) mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is already supporting rollout of gigabit broadband in rural areas.
The government has also pledged £5bn of funding for Gigabit broadband in the ‘hardest to reach’, predominantly rural, areas of the UK.
The government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the Mobile Network Operators’ Shared Rural Network proposal. It aims to collectively increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025.