Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the timeline for introducing the codes of practice under the Online Safety Act 2023 to combat fraudulent advertising.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
DSIT regularly engages with Ofcom on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. The Act will help tackle online fraud, including fraudulent advertising. Since 17 March 2025, all services are required to take measures to tackle illegal fraud.
Further fraudulent advertising duties on Category 1 and 2A services will come into effect once the register of categorised services and the relevant codes are in place. Ofcom plans to publish the register this summer and then consult on the draft codes of practice for the remaining duties by early 2026. We anticipate the duties will come into force around a year later.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Ofcom regarding the implementation of measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to combat fraud.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
DSIT regularly engages with Ofcom on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. The Act will help tackle online fraud, including fraudulent advertising. Since 17 March 2025, all services are required to take measures to tackle illegal fraud.
Further fraudulent advertising duties on Category 1 and 2A services will come into effect once the register of categorised services and the relevant codes are in place. Ofcom plans to publish the register this summer and then consult on the draft codes of practice for the remaining duties by early 2026. We anticipate the duties will come into force around a year later.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take in response to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and Office for National Statistics report Data-sharing: The beating heart of a successful public sector, published on 14 February; and how they intend to address the specific recommendations on defining "the public good" and legislating for access, given that these seem to diverge from the approach taken in the Data Usage and Access Bill.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
GDS is working to ensure public sector data is fit for purpose, trusted and available via interoperable architecture. Work is ongoing to ensure we can identify our most critical data assets and ensure they are managed and reused to maximise their value for public good within the scope of public sector activities, regardless of the individual departmental source. An initiative trialled across central government departments has already identified approximately 200 assets which will be made discoverable for reuse within the public sector with plans to make them more broadly available. What we learn from this will inform programmes such as the National Data Library.
All departments must follow UK data protection laws and requirements, including on impact assessments, legal agreements, and privacy notices. The Digital Economy Act 2017 supports secure, lawful data sharing with safeguards to protect personal data, while enabling better public services and policy-making. The register of information sharing agreements under this Act supports transparency.
Any proposals to develop changes to data sharing legislation for the public good will be subject to open policy making and full public consultation.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure proper governance of data-sharing initiatives across departments; and what plans they have to introduce additional safeguards to protect public data when working with private sector partners.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
All departments must adhere to the UK data protection legislation, which requires data protection impact assessments, legally binding agreements and contracts, and privacy notices to ensure transparency and the protection of personal information. This requirement extends to data shared under the Digital Economy Act (DEA) Public Service Delivery power as outlined in the DEA Code of Practice. The register of information sharing agreements under the Digital Economy Act aims to support transparency.
To further reinforce these practices Government Digital Service is developing a trust framework for data sharing, which aims to align with public and stakeholder expectations, ensure compliance with UK data protection laws and best governance practices, and establish an accountable, standardised, secure, and transparent approach to the use of public data assets.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 11 December 2024 (HL2971), when they will provide further information about contract extensions and variations to national providers of Skills Bootcamps.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Skills Bootcamps are an important offer in the skills landscape and at present they remain available for learners via national contracts and grant funding in local areas. Existing national contracts remain in place until the end of their term.
We recognise the need for clarity on national contract extensions or variations. The department continues to finalise 2025/26 budgets through the business planning process and will confirm the position as soon as possible.
In the longer term, we intend to fund Skills Bootcamps through funding Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and local areas directly. This supports the government’s commitment to empower local leaders to have greater control of skills development alongside an increased role in supporting people into work.
On 30 January the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government published the final details of the 2025/26 integrated settlements, confirming £18 million of Skills Bootcamps local funding will be devolved to Greater Manchester and West Midlands MCAs next year.
We are currently working through the process to inform non-devolved local areas of their Skills Bootcamps 2025/26 allocations as quickly as we can.
Providers will be able to look for opportunities through contract finders on GOV.UK, with procurement exercises likely to match the skills needs identified in a local area’s local skills improvement plan.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Competition and Markets Authority accelerates the Digital Markets Unit's strategic market status designation for cloud services.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated in its provisional Cloud Services report that it will recommend to its Board prioritising Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Decisions on which SMS investigations to launch are for the CMA, as the UK's independent competition authority. The Government will consider any additional recommendations made by the CMA in its final report, which is not expected until Summer 2025.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what actions they are taking to address restrictive software licensing practices by dominant cloud providers, as identified by the Competition and Markets Authority, to ensure fair competition in the cloud services market.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated in its provisional Cloud Services report that it will recommend to its Board prioritising Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Decisions on which SMS investigations to launch are for the CMA, as the UK's independent competition authority. The Government will consider any additional recommendations made by the CMA in its final report, which is not expected until Summer 2025.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to issue guidance to public sector procurement authorities to mitigate the anti-competitive effects of restrictive cloud licensing practices.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As part of the Government’s blueprint for modern digital government published in January the government has committed to streamline the procurement of cloud services. We will also continue our work to negotiate whole-of-public-sector agreements and contracting once for a limited number of high value cases, including platform services such as cloud.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to discourage the use of excessive egress fees in public sector contracts for cloud services, to foster competition in the cloud services market.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As part of the Government’s blueprint for modern digital government published in January the government has committed to streamline the procurement of cloud services. We will also continue our work to negotiate whole-of-public-sector agreements and contracting once for a limited number of high value cases, including platform services such as cloud.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to reform cloud procurement frameworks to ensure a level playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises and challenger cloud providers.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The upcoming iteration of G-Cloud will introduce a streamlined ‘Open Framework’ under the new Procurement Act. This will simplify the existing portfolio of agreements, enhancing access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and challenger cloud providers.