Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve mobile signal connectivity in rural areas.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Improving mobile coverage in rural areas is a priority for the Government, and we want the UK to have high-quality mobile coverage where people live, work and travel. We are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK, as well as providing an uninterrupted mobile signal on all major roads, and we are considering all of the options available to facilitate this.
The Government is working closely with the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to consider their proposal for a Shared Rural Network. Their proposal is still being developed and my department looks forward to hearing more about the industry’s potential solution to the issue of rural mobile coverage.
My department also welcomes the current proposals set out in Ofcom’s consultation on awarding the 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum bands to improve coverage, which aims to deliver two MNOs to 90% geographic mobile coverage.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government where and when they intend to pilot citizens' juries.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Innovation in Democracy Programme (IiDP) will involve citizens in decision making at local government level through innovative models of participatory democracy. Local authorities will be invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to take part in the programme later in 2018/19, with the programme running until March 2020.Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (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 adequacy of the law to protect vulnerable people from phone phishing and other communication scams.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is cracking down on nuisance calls. Over the last five years the average fine issued has increased from around £5000 to £85000, we have strengthened the law to make it easier to clamp down on companies who break the rules and have increased the maximum fine to £500,000.
The Government takes all types of fraud extremely seriously. We are working closely with the City of London Police (CoLP), the national lead force for fraud, to help local forces and partners deliver protective advice to the public on fraud, including phone scams. CoLP operates Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, to ensure that the public has the information they need to protect themselves from telephone fraud. Action Fraud, for example, places an alert on its website when a serious threat or new type of fraud is identified - which members of the public can sign up to receive by email.
We are also working with Financial Fraud Action UK and the British Bankers’ Association who issue advice to consumers on how to protect themselves from phone scammers. Ofcom work with the Metropolitan Police Service, Action Fraud and landline providers to prevent criminals exploiting phone lines to defraud members of the public.