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Written Question
Electric Scooters
Thursday 23rd June 2022

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what regulations exist to protect electronic scooters from cyber threats.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Department is currently developing technical standards for the construction of e-scooters. Protection against cyber threats, and its merits, will be considered as one of the requirements in these standards. Knowledge gained from the e-scooter trials as well as relevant evidence from other sources will be taken into account.


Written Question
Public Sector: Procurement
Thursday 16th June 2022

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential of using commercial off-the-shelf software solutions as opposed to bespoke software solutions in the public sector.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

Cabinet Office does not hold information on contracting authorities pre-market engagement activities or details of the percentage of contract awards that were preceded by pre-procurement market engagement processes.


Government already makes use of a range of commercial, off the shelf software solutions from vendors of all sizes. The Technology Code of Practice and Government’s spend controls processes ensure that bespoke solutions are developed in an accessible, open and secure manner that can be shared and used across Government.


Written Question
Public Sector: Procurement
Thursday 16th June 2022

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of contract awards made by public sector buyers in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, and (3) 2021, were preceded by pre-procurement market engagement processes.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

Cabinet Office does not hold information on contracting authorities pre-market engagement activities or details of the percentage of contract awards that were preceded by pre-procurement market engagement processes.


Government already makes use of a range of commercial, off the shelf software solutions from vendors of all sizes. The Technology Code of Practice and Government’s spend controls processes ensure that bespoke solutions are developed in an accessible, open and secure manner that can be shared and used across Government.


Written Question
Technology: Procurement
Thursday 16th June 2022

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of pre-market engagement in the procurement of technology by the Government; and what plans they have to publish that assessment.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

Cabinet Office does not hold information on contracting authorities pre-market engagement activities or details of the percentage of contract awards that were preceded by pre-procurement market engagement processes.


Government already makes use of a range of commercial, off the shelf software solutions from vendors of all sizes. The Technology Code of Practice and Government’s spend controls processes ensure that bespoke solutions are developed in an accessible, open and secure manner that can be shared and used across Government.


Written Question
Telecommunications: Infrastructure
Thursday 27th May 2021

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to attract, and (2) to incentivise, Open Radio Access Network suppliers to establish an operational base within the UK.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Government continues to work with mobile operators and suppliers to build an open, flexible, and diverse telecoms supply market, following the recommendations of the Diversification Taskforce, published on 20 April. The Taskforce recommendations are helping to guide our approach to delivering the Diversification strategy, including its core pillar of accelerating the development and deployment of interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, into the UK’s 5G network.

Our engagement with both operators and suppliers continues to be constructive and we are delighted with moves made by industry so far that support our aims. The announcement of numerous Open RAN R&D facilities in the UK is a positive sign that our direction of travel is the right one, and we are working at pace to develop targeted actions to ensure that interoperable technologies are ready to deploy in more resilient network infrastructure. The Government is designing a programme of targeted R&D support, building on existing Open RAN trials, such as the SmartRAN Open Networks Interoperability Centre (SONIC), to level the playing field for smaller suppliers, and we continue to consider all options. This will need to support performance demonstration, such as with large-scale urban trials, as well as product development and testing.


Written Question
Telecommunications: Infrastructure
Thursday 27th May 2021

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to invest in large-scale urban Open Radio Access Network trials in 2022, in order to assess whether Open Radio Access Networks can be successfully deployed in a dense urban environment.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Government continues to work with mobile operators and suppliers to build an open, flexible, and diverse telecoms supply market, following the recommendations of the Diversification Taskforce, published on 20 April. The Taskforce recommendations are helping to guide our approach to delivering the Diversification strategy, including its core pillar of accelerating the development and deployment of interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, into the UK’s 5G network.

Our engagement with both operators and suppliers continues to be constructive and we are delighted with moves made by industry so far that support our aims. The announcement of numerous Open RAN R&D facilities in the UK is a positive sign that our direction of travel is the right one, and we are working at pace to develop targeted actions to ensure that interoperable technologies are ready to deploy in more resilient network infrastructure. The Government is designing a programme of targeted R&D support, building on existing Open RAN trials, such as the SmartRAN Open Networks Interoperability Centre (SONIC), to level the playing field for smaller suppliers, and we continue to consider all options. This will need to support performance demonstration, such as with large-scale urban trials, as well as product development and testing.


Written Question
Telecommunications: Infrastructure
Thursday 27th May 2021

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the publication of the report from the Telecoms Diversification Task Force on 20 April, what plans they have (1) to incentivise, and (2) to encourage, UK Mobile Network Operators to invest in Open Radio Access Networks.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Government continues to work with mobile operators and suppliers to build an open, flexible, and diverse telecoms supply market, following the recommendations of the Diversification Taskforce, published on 20 April. The Taskforce recommendations are helping to guide our approach to delivering the Diversification strategy, including its core pillar of accelerating the development and deployment of interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, into the UK’s 5G network.

Our engagement with both operators and suppliers continues to be constructive and we are delighted with moves made by industry so far that support our aims. The announcement of numerous Open RAN R&D facilities in the UK is a positive sign that our direction of travel is the right one, and we are working at pace to develop targeted actions to ensure that interoperable technologies are ready to deploy in more resilient network infrastructure. The Government is designing a programme of targeted R&D support, building on existing Open RAN trials, such as the SmartRAN Open Networks Interoperability Centre (SONIC), to level the playing field for smaller suppliers, and we continue to consider all options. This will need to support performance demonstration, such as with large-scale urban trials, as well as product development and testing.


Written Question
Roads
Tuesday 9th February 2021

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities and community groups about renaming roads after recipients of (1) the Victoria Cross, (2) the George Cross, and (3) other honours.

Answered by Lord Greenhalgh

I agree with my noble Lord that is important we celebrate our country’s military heroes and are proud of their achievements. We want to see local authorities engaging with their local communities to name streets after local heroes. The department has had no discussions around this issue with local authorities as the naming of streets is the responsibility of local government.


Written Question
UK City of Culture
Monday 1st February 2021

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the criteria for bids for the UK City of Culture 2025; when they expect (1) bidding cities to return expressions of interest, and (2) to announce the winning bid; and what plans they have to commit to having a UK City of Culture in 2029.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The UK City of Culture competition is a flagship DCMS programme and a proven model for using culture and creativity to regenerate and transform places. We want to continue to harness this power, especially as places across the UK plan for their recovery from Covid-19. We are currently in dialogue with the devolved administrations and expect to publish the criteria for bidders in the coming months. Subject to the launch date, we anticipate a timetable that will ask places to return expressions of interest towards the middle of this year, and to announce the winning bid at the end of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture in May 2022. UK City of Culture has been a quadrennial process since 2013 and any announcements about future competitions will be made once the 2025 competition has been confirmed.


Written Question
Radio: Licensing
Monday 4th November 2019

Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to bring forward the legislation required to secure the renewal of analogue FM and AM commercial radio licences simulcasting on DAB.

Answered by Nigel Adams

The government supports a strong and vibrant radio sector and we fully recognise the important role that both national and local commercial stations broadcasting on analogue (FM and AM) frequencies and on DAB play in providing the widest possible choice for listeners.

The first of the analogue commercial radio licences renewed by Ofcom under the Legislative Reform (Further Renewal of Radio Licences) Order 2015 will start to expire in early 2022. We plan to consult on the options of a further renewal of these licences as soon as possible.