Leveson Inquiry

Debate between Pete Wishart and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

With respect, Lord Justice Leveson is reporting to me and the Home Secretary on the express wishes of the Prime Minister. The most important point is that what he reports is totally independent, and it is.

[Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)]

Some 6,800 people are employed by BSkyB in Scotland. They will have been watching the events of the past 24 hours with increasing concern and alarm. What message has the Secretary of State got for them today?

[Mr Hunt]

We want to have a thriving media industry, and I believe that the great strength of our media industry in this country is that we have a strong BBC and strong competition to the BBC. Those employees play a good part in that, and we want to see all companies in this sector thrive.

Phone Hacking and the Media

Debate between Pete Wishart and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Yes.

[Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)]

On behalf of the Scottish National party, we welcome the public inquiries and the referral back to the Competition Commission. Does the Secretary of State agree that there has been a systematic failure of successive Westminster Governments when it has come to the whole field of the regulation of the press? As long ago as 2006, the Information Commissioner found more than 3,000 breaches of data protection, but nothing was done. How can we have any faith that this House will in future get its press regulation fixed?

[Mr Hunt]

It is stretching it a bit to say that this is a Westminster issue and not something that affects the whole of the United Kingdom. We have to sort it out, and we are absolutely determined to do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Pete Wishart and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 21st June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

The best way for us to support local print media is by not constraining them with regulations that prevent them from evolving new business models that work in the digital age. Those are exactly the plans on which my colleagues and I are working right now.

[Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)]

Will the Secretary of State commit his Government to pursuing the measures agreed in the Digital Economy Act 2010, or will he take advice from the hon. Member for Bath (Mr Foster), who rejected the measure with his hon. Friends and now have it as Liberal Democrat policy to repeal large sections of it?

[Mr Hunt]

The Act remains on the statute books, and it will be implemented. I remind the hon. Gentleman that the next stage, when Ofcom may decide to suspend connections, requires a decision by the Government. Parliament has to be consulted in that process. We will look at the progress of the earlier measures before deciding whether to proceed to that critical next stage.