Digital Platforms: Impact on Democracy
Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Wills(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Baroness Barran
My Lords, protecting children online is perhaps the greatest priority in our online harms legislation. Obviously, we are working very hard to understand the interaction between our trade policy and our online harms policy in future trade agreements, but we stand by our online harms commitment and nothing in the US trade deal will affect that. I am more than happy to do my best to liaise with colleagues in the Department for International Trade, as the noble Baroness suggests.
Lord Wills (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I recognise what the Minister said earlier about the duty of care but will she now rule out placing explicit obligations on social media companies to police advertisements with political content on their platforms? To save time, a simple “yes” or “no” would be sufficient as an answer.
Baroness Barran
I cannot give a simple “yes” or “no” at this time; all these things will be considered in detail, as I have mentioned already.
Cycling: Licences and Insurance
Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Wills
Baroness Barran
As the noble Lord will be aware, transport is a matter that is devolved to the mayor, so the Government have no specific plans in this area.
Lord Wills (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that 20 years ago fixed-penalty notices were introduced precisely to deter irresponsible cyclists from cycling on pavements. She may not be aware that freedom of information requests have shown that in 2017-18, 30 out of 38 police forces issued fewer than five fixed-penalty notices and 12 of them issued no fixed-penalty notices at all. Does the Minister really think that there is so little irresponsible cycling on pavements? If she does not think that, what are the Government going to do to protect disabled people, vulnerable pensioners, mothers with babies in buggies and many others from these hoodlums in lycra?
Baroness Barran
I hear the noble Lord’s concerns. I have to say that I did not anticipate the popularity of this topic. The Government take these issues extremely seriously. There are small minorities of motorists, cyclists and, dare I say, what are now known as “smombies”—smartphone zombies, including pedestrians—who cause danger on our roads, but only a tiny percentage of accidents on our roads are caused by cyclists so the Government are seeking a proportionate response that upholds the law but also encourages cycling and walking.