Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of UNESCO World Heritage sites located in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Each of the 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the UK and its Overseas Territories must undertake reporting to the World Heritage Committee on a periodic basis. Additionally, each site must have and regularly update a management plan. This process is overseen by DCMS, acting on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, as State Party to the World Heritage Convention.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance, if any, they intend to offer to the Video Standards Council on the age-rating system for video games.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Video Standards Council (VSC) is an independent body, designated under the Video Recordings Act 1984 to issue statutory age ratings for video games in the UK. Although the VSC’s classification decisions are therefore rightly independent of the Government, we do require it to meet certain operating standards, including regularly consulting the public on its classification standards and maintaining an Advisory Panel of experts in fields such as child and adolescent mental health.
We are in frequent dialogue with the VSC about their work and on how we can ensure that children are better protected from inappropriate content. This includes working with them on a call to industry to adopt PEGI ratings for every online game.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prevent children accessing pornography online now that they do not intend to introduce age verification for pornographic websites.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Protecting children is at the heart of our online harms agenda and is key to wider government priorities. The government published the Online Harms White Paper in April this year which proposed the establishment of a duty of care on companies to improve online safety, overseen by an independent regulator with strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance.
The White Paper sets out our expectation that companies should protect children from inappropriate content, including pornography, and we will produce guidance for companies to keep children safe online, ahead of the new regulatory framework.
We are committed to the UK becoming a world-leader in the development of online safety technology and expect age verification to continue to be a tool used by companies to keep children safe online.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include (1) the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup, and (2) women’s world cup sporting events in the list of listed sporting events.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Cricket World Cup final, semi-finals and matches involving home nations’ teams are listed under Group B of the Listed Events Regime. Events listed in Group B may have live coverage on subscription television provided that secondary coverage is offered to qualifying broadcasters.
Coverage of women’s professional sport on free to air television has improved significantly in the last ten years, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Euro Championships, Women’s Rugby World Cup, cycling and tennis being regular fixtures on the BBC and ITV.
We know that more can be done to improve equality in sports broadcasting. That is why we have just announced our proposal to add the Paralympic Games to the list and we have started the statutory consultation process to do that. We are also considering the addition of women’s only sporting events where the equivalent men’s only tournaments are currently listed, which we plan to consult on later in the year. This is to give equal recognition to disabled and women’s sports.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the social media application TikTok and the safeguarding implications for young people of its use.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The government wants the UK to be the safest place in the world to go online. As set out in the Online Harms White Paper the government will take action to tackle content or activity that harms individual users, particularly children. We will establish a new statutory duty of care, overseen by an independent regulator to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users and tackle harm caused by content or activity on their services. The regulator will take a risk-based approach, prioritising action where there is the greatest evidence or threat of harm, or where children or other vulnerable users are at risk. Ahead of the implementation of the new regulatory framework, we will continue to encourage companies to take early action to address online harms.
With regards to the social media application TikTok, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has a live investigation on TikTok’s compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) relating to the protection of children’s personal data. The GDPR is regulated and enforced by the independent ICO, and as such, the government is unable to comment further on live investigations.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the importance of music education to creative industries in the UK.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
In 2016, the creative industries employed 2 million people and made up 5% of the UK’s total GVA. Securing a strong and diverse intake of skills and talent is key to the sector's continued success and that is why Government is committed to ensuring children enjoy a broad curriculum, including music. Recognising the importance of music, the Government is spending £300m between 2016-20 on music education hubs alongside a range of other arts and cultural educational programmes. In January 2019, DfE announced an additional £1.33 million funding for music education hubs and that an independent panel would be working with Government to create a model music curriculum.
Sir Peter Bazalgette's 2017 independent review of the creative industries concluded that social and informational barriers to entry are inhibiting the growth and greater productivity of the sector. That is why government is investing £2m seed funding for the industry-led Creative Careers Programme, aimed at raising awareness of employment opportunities and developing entry routes into the creative industries, including the music sector.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Reporters Without Borders 2019 World Press Freedom Index; and the UK’s position at 33 in that index.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
We welcome the improvement in the UK’s ranking, but are disappointed that our position is not higher. The UK press is among the most respected and free in the world. The government recognises press freedom is fundamental to a healthy democracy and strongly supports it, including committing to repeal s40; publishing a world leading independent review on the sustainability of high quality journalism by Dame Cairncross; and launching a Global Media Freedoms campaign.