Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to update the content of the Cyber Essentials programme.
Answered by Margot James
An independent academic evaluation of the effectiveness of Cyber Essentials found that its security controls work well to mitigate the vast majority of Internet-based threats. These security controls are kept under continual review. The primary objective for Cyber Essentials is to help all organisations mitigate cyber security risks, especially small and medium-sized organisations. The Government continues to work to ensure Cyber Essentials has the greatest impact for the majority of the target audience and is currently developing the scheme to ensure a) the journey to certification is as simple as possible, and b) the technical controls remain fit for purpose in the ever-changing cyber threat landscape.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Cyber Essentials programme.
Answered by Margot James
An independent academic evaluation of the effectiveness of Cyber Essentials found that its security controls work well to mitigate the vast majority of Internet-based threats. These security controls are kept under continual review. The primary objective for Cyber Essentials is to help all organisations mitigate cyber security risks, especially small and medium-sized organisations. The Government continues to work to ensure Cyber Essentials has the greatest impact for the majority of the target audience and is currently developing the scheme to ensure a) the journey to certification is as simple as possible, and b) the technical controls remain fit for purpose in the ever-changing cyber threat landscape.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many businesses have been certified under (a) Cyber Essentials and (b) Cyber Essentials Plus.
Answered by Margot James
At the end of April 2019 the total number of Cyber Essentials certificates awarded to organisations was 26,712. Of these, (a) 21,948 were awarded at Cyber Essentials level and (b) 4,764 were awarded at Cyber Essentials Plus level.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to announce which projects will be run by DLT Field Labs to test the potential of distributed ledger technologies.
Answered by Margot James
As was announced at Budget 2018, the Digital Catapult will test the potential of their Field Labs concept, a small experimental trial of Distributed Ledger Technology, working with businesses, investors, and regulators, in a range of areas. We anticipate the first Field Labs will focus on the construction sector and the management of goods in ports.
The Digital Catapult, while receiving significant long-term funding from the government, is an independent private sector entity. The specific arrangements of the Field Labs, including their participants, focuses, and timing, are therefore a commercial and private decision for the management of the Digital Catapult to take, and we expect it to set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the April 2017 reforms to the Horserace Betting Levy on (a) horse-racing and (b) the public purse.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
In April 2017, the Government implemented reforms to the Horserace Betting Levy which made it a requirement for offshore operators to pay the Levy for the first time.
The Horserace Betting Levy Board, which collects the Levy, estimates that the reformed Levy will generate c.£85m in 2017/18. This would represent an increase of c.£20m compared to receipts from bookmakers in 2016/17 under the old system. The actual Levy yield for 2017/18 will only be known after the end of the financial year. Increased receipts from the Levy have already allowed an additional £9.7m of investment in grassroots prize money, contributing to record prize money of £160m in 2018.
The Levy is collected from bookmakers and distributed in line with the statutory purposes in support of horseracing, and so has no direct effect on the public purse.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to reduce digital exclusion.
Answered by Margot James
We are committed to tackling digital exclusion and the UK Digital Strategy, published in March 2017, describes the steps we are taking across government.
These include establishing the Digital Skills Partnership which brings together stakeholders from the private, public and charity sectors to join efforts to help people increase their digital skills at all levels. It will also build upon the 4 million pledges of free digital skills training opportunities that our corporate partners pledged as part of the Digital Strategy of which more than 2 million have already been delivered; introducing fully-funded basic digital skills training for adults lacking these vital skills from 2020. Adults will have the opportunity to take improved basic digital courses based on new national standards setting out the basic digital skills needed to participate effectively in the labour market and day–to-day life. We will consult on these new standards in the autumn; using the 3000 libraries across England to provide a trusted network of accessible locations with trained staff and volunteers, free Wi-Fi, computers, and other technology as well as Assisted Digital access to a wide range of digital public services where individuals are unable for whatever reason to access these services independently.
These initiatives will build on the significant investment Government already makes in basic digital skills training through the Adult Education offer, the budget for which is being devolved to ensure decisions on skills provision are made at a local level. Government also funds the Future Digital Inclusion programme managed by the Good Things Foundation and delivered through the 5,000 strong Online Centres network. To date this programme has supported over 800,000 adult learners to develop their basic digital skills, many of whom are socially excluded.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the contribution of big data to GDP in the current financial year.
Answered by Margot James
Big data, combined with advances in computing technology, is creating new opportunities for business growth across all industry sectors. It enables companies to gain new insights on consumer trends and preferences, improve productivity, and develop innovative new products and services.
Figures are not currently available on the estimated contribution of big data to GDP this financial year, but industry research published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) in February 2016 estimates that between 2015 and 2020 the total benefit to the UK economy of big data analytics will amount to £241 billion, or £40 billion on average per year. The sectors expected to benefit most include manufacturing, professional services, telecoms and retail.
The CEBR report is available at: https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/en_gb/doc/analystreport/cebr-value-of-big-data.pdf