Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 BBC over its plans to launch four new spin-off radio stations and over whether the introduction of these stations risks being anti-competitive.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Ministers at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regularly meet the BBC’s leadership to discuss a range of issues.
The BBC has responsibilities, set out in its Royal Charter, to avoid unnecessary adverse impacts on the market. In delivering these responsibilities, the BBC is required to undertake a public interest test, carrying out an assessment of the impact of new services and justifying the resulting market impacts. The BBC is currently consulting on the impact of its radio station plans.
As the BBC’s independent regulator, it is for Ofcom to ensure that any adverse impact on the market is necessary for the effective fulfilment of the BBC’s Mission and Public Purposes, and robustly to hold the BBC to account in meeting its obligations both to its audiences and to the market. Ofcom will therefore review the evidence provided by the BBC with regard to its radio station plans and determine the materiality and impact of the changes.
The Government was clear in the Mid-Term Review about the importance of the BBC meaningfully engaging with its competitors when it is considering changes to its services. Given the number of new services proposed, it will be important that the BBC consults widely on the detail of the proposals – and for Ofcom to rigorously assess them before granting any approval.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made any assessment of the government of Australia’s response to the Roadmap for Age Verification for online pornographic material in August 2023, specifically the decision not to mandate age verification for the time being; and whether there are lessons for UK policy in this area.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, publishers of pornographic content and user-to-user providers which allow pornography must use highly effective age verification or age estimation to ensure children are not normally able to encounter this content on their service. This reflects the serious risks that this type of content poses to children.
The Australian response to the Roadmap notes that age assurance technologies are still in development. The Act ensures that, as new solutions develop, these can be used to support the protection of children.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the changes to the tax thresholds for Financial Promotion exemption, especially the impact on female-led start-ups, including those who rely on small investments from female angel-investors.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The changes to the financial promotion exemptions that came into force on 31 January 2024 were subject to a public consultation which closed in March 2022.
However, the Government recognises the significant concerns that have been raised recently about these changes. The Economic Secretary met recently with the angel investing sector and listened carefully to the representations made, and the Government is working closely with the sector to address the concerns raised.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Johnson of Lainston on 1 February (HL1695), what assessment they have made of the impact of not renewing the Recovery Loan Scheme on small businesses in deprived areas who have received loans from Community Development Financial Institutions after being turned down for loans from high street banks.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Lenders are currently offering over £100 million of additional lending per month through the British Business Bank’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS), with 85 per cent of facilities going to small and micro businesses. RLS is particularly effective at serving alternative and social lenders, with more than three quarters of lending delivered through smaller lenders, including Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). Since launch, RLS has enabled almost £50 million of CDFI lending: over 90% of the businesses which borrowed from CDFIs in 2023 had been turned down by another lender, and half were based in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Johnson of Lainston on 1 February (HL1695), what assessment they have made of the impact of not renewing the Recovery Loan Scheme on small businesses in deprived areas who have previously been turned down for loans by high street banks.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Lenders are currently offering over £100 million of additional lending per month through the British Business Bank’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS), with 85 per cent of facilities going to small and micro businesses. RLS is particularly effective at serving alternative and social lenders, with more than three quarters of lending delivered through smaller lenders, including Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). Since launch, RLS has enabled almost £50 million of CDFI lending: over 90% of the businesses which borrowed from CDFIs in 2023 had been turned down by another lender, and half were based in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to extend the Recovery Loan Scheme which is due to expire in June; and if so, when this will be announced, and when it will be extended until.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As at 30 June 2023, businesses had drawn more than 20,000 facilities, totalling more than £4.34bn, through the Recovery Loan Scheme.
We are consulting with lenders and business representative organisations on how best to continue to support businesses, including on the role of a government-backed loan guarantee scheme. Any such scheme would be announced in Parliament in due course.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of Lord Harlech on 21 September (HL Deb col 1533), whether any companies have asked them to maintain mandatory reporting on food waste, what were those companies, and whether any such companies have offered to pay the costs of that reporting rather than using public money.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In the 2022 consultation on improved food waste reporting, 40 companies supported introducing mandatory reporting for large businesses in England. These companies were from the manufacturing, retail, hospitality and primary production sectors. A list of respondents, excluding those who requested confidentiality, is included in the Government Response published in July 2023. If a mandatory approach were to have been taken forward, those companies in scope would be liable for the costs of reporting their food waste.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the withdrawal of Victoria and Alberta as hosts for the 2026 and 2030 Commonwealth Games respectively, whether they intend to invite expressions of interest to host the 2026 or 2030 Commonwealth Games from UK cities and regions; whether they have spoken to any UK cities or regions interested in hosting the 2026 or 2030 Commonwealth Games; and whether they are aware of any other Commonwealth countries that have expressed an interest in hosting the 2026 or 2030 Commonwealth Games.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The announcement by the Victorian Government was disappointing for fans and athletes across the Commonwealth. HM Government is keen that the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games Australia should work together to find a viable solution to hosting the event in 2026 so that athletes have the chance to compete in, and fans have the opportunity to enjoy, this incredible event.
The UK is proud to have hosted the Games twice in the past decade, including in Birmingham last year – coming in under budget and adding at least £870 million of Gross Value Added to the UK economy. We are committed to working with the Commonwealth Games Federation and other Commonwealth countries to support a sustainable future for the Games.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 2 May (HL6631), how many times magistrate courts have awarded a sentence of more than the Sentencing Council's maximum sentence for any offence, where the legal maximum is longer than the Sentencing Council's guidelines, in the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold this information in the format requested. To obtain this information would be at disproportionate cost.
Further to PQ HL6631, you may be interested to know that the Council listened to the concerns raised by stakeholders in response to its consultation and decided to increase the sentencing range upper limit for the most serious animal cruelty offences to 3 years and 6 months custody.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 2 May (HL7140), which states that the Home Secretary’s comments reported in the Daily Mail on 1 April about sexual abuse of females by perpetrators described as “almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values”, related only to the findings of local reviews into child sexual exploitation cases in Rotherham, Telford and Rochdale, whether they will ask the Daily Mail to publish this clarification.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is clear that child sexual exploitation is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion. The Home Secretary’s comments relate to the findings of local reviews into child sexual exploitation cases in Rotherham, Telford and Rochdale, which showed that perpetrators in those cases were overwhelmingly British-Pakistani men, and the victims were white girls. However, of course child sexual abuse offenders come from every walk of life, every ethnicity, and every background – as do their victims.
The Home Secretary has made her comments clear, including through the Written Answer mentioned and through her publication in The Spectator on 22 April 2023.