Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Mayor of London concerning proposals for a statue for the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
HM Government has had no discussions with the Mayor of London concerning proposals for a statue for the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay on 29 January (HL1664), when they expect to receive applications for the listing of gas lamps within Westminster, and what steps they will take to make public the outcome of those applications.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture Media and Sport has recently received the advice of Historic England on a number of these applications and protected four historic lamps by listing them at Grade II. These cases were assessed as part of a pilot group and Historic England, the Government's statutory advisor on heritage matters, is currently undertaking a series of wider listing assessments relating to gas lamps in Westminster. When this additional advice is received by the Department, each case will be carefully considered. Historic England is then responsible for notifying interested parties of the Minister's decision.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Westminster Council over providing listed status for any gas lamps that are currently not listed.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Historic England, the Government’s statutory advisor on heritage, is in discussions with Westminster City Council about this matter and is currently undertaking a project assessing Westminster’s unlisted gas-lit lamp-posts. These listing applications will be carefully considered by the Secretary of State, or me on her behalf.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many of the 150 journalistic posts paid for by the BBC though the local democracy reporter's service have been awarded to Trinity Mirror Group.
Answered by Margot James
As the scheme is administered and funded by the BBC and not DCMS, we do not hold operational data on this scheme. However, according to the BBC Local Democracy Reporters official website, 23 contracts have been awarded to Trinity Mirror, which represents 63 journalists.
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Asked by: Lord Swire (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 his Department is taking to improve mobile phone signals in rural areas.
Answered by Margot James
As set out in our 2017 5G Strategy our ambition is for the UK to have good quality connectivity where people live, work and travel. This is why we reformed planning laws in England in 2016, reformed the Electronic Communications Code in 2017 and signed an Accord with the Church of England in February 2018 to make it easier and cheaper to install digital infrastructure across the UK including rural areas.
We also welcome Ofcom’s consultation, launched on 9 March, which outlines potential new licence obligations for rural coverage as part of the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction. This will further help drive coverage improvements for consumers.
Asked by: Lord Swire (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 estimate his Department has made of the number of businesses that have access to superfast broadband in East Devon.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband, currently 90.02% of premises in East Devon can access superfast broadband. This is up from 9.4% in 2012. DCMS does not hold data on broadband coverage which distinguishes between homes and businesses.
Asked by: Lord Swire (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 estimate his Department has made of the number of homes that have access to superfast broadband in East Devon.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband, currently 90.02% of premises in East Devon can access superfast broadband. This is up from 9.4% in 2012. DCMS does not hold data on broadband coverage which distinguishes between homes and businesses.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with BT on the pace of its commercial roll-out.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media & sport recently met the Chief Executive of BT to discuss a range of issues, including BT’s progress in improving broadband connectivity through its commercial investments. This issue will be one of the priorities in the Department’s regular discussions with BT.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the progress against its targets of BT's commercial roll-out of superfast broadband in the Connecting Devon and Somerset area.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Broadband Delivery UK works closely with the Connecting Devon and Somerset team and BT to keep progress on the BT commercial roll-out under review. Responsibility for the commercial roll-out lies with BT.