Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent representations he has received on privatising a larger share of the radio spectrum; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Government is aware of the need to put more spectrum into the market to support innovation and growth and launched the Public Sector Spectrum Release Programme in 2011. This programme aims to release 500MHz of sub-5GHz spectrum from public sector use by 2020. One of the early actions was to gauge stakeholder demand at a series of events. The most recent Programme update was published on 10 March 2014. On the same day Government published the UK Spectrum Strategy which sets out a vision for efficient and flexible spectrum management, with specific actions and the goal of doubling the contribution of spectrum use to the economy by 2025. Both documents can be found on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spectrum-strategy
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the (a) 30-300MHz, (b) 300-3000MHz and (c) 3-30GHz bands of the radio spectrum is in the operation of the private sector.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Officials have consulted Ofcom who hold such information. Ofcom advise that they do not hold such information for bands below 87.5MHz (as frequencies above this are considered to be the most important and usable), but have provided information for bands from 87.5MHz-30GHz.
The table provides an overview of the proportion of total weighted spectrum accessed for market uses by band.
Lower frequency | Upper frequency | Spectrum authorised for Market uses as a % of total weighted spectrum |
87.5 MHz | 328.6 MHz | 47% |
328.6 MHz | 3.1 GHz | 73% |
3.1 GHz | 30 GHz | 80% |
The Public Sector Spectrum Release Programme aims to release 500MHz of sub-5GHz spectrum from public sector use by 2020. The most recent Programme update can be found on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spectrum-strategy
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the radio spectrum is earmarked for (a) military purposes, (b) radar purposes and (c) public service broadcasting.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Officials have consulted Ofcom who hold such information. Ofcom advise that they do not hold such information for bands below 87.5MHz, but have provided information for bands from 87.5MHz-30GHz.
Ofcom has identified the proportion of spectrum accessed for public sector uses (not limited to the military), defined as all spectrum bands used by the public sector with Crown immunity (i.e. without need for authorisation by Ofcom). For the purpose of this analysis, this category includes all aeronautical uses of spectrum.
Crown use of spectrum as a % of total weighted spectrum | ||
87.5 MHz | 30 GHz | 54% |
26% of the total weighted spectrum in the 87.5MHz to 30 GHz is allocated for radiolocation services/radar.
Ofcom cannot provide specific information with regards to spectrum in use for public service broadcasting as the national allocation of frequencies does not distinguish between public service broadcasting and non-public service broadcasting. The table below provides information with regards to the proportion of total weighted spectrum in use for terrestrial broadcasting, split into TV and radio.
Terrestrial broadcasting spectrum as a % of total weighted spectrum | TV | Radio | ||
87.5 MHz | 30 GHz | 8% | 7% | 1% |
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to increase tourism to (a) Berkshire and (b) the South East; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Grant
DCMS is responsible for the policy that supports the growth of domestic and international tourism, working in partnership with other Government Departments and our Arms-Length Bodies, VisitBritain and VisitEngland. Between 2011 and 2015, Government is investing more than £105m in tourism through the GREAT and other international campaigns. Investment to date is showing positive results. 2013 was a record year for inbound tourism with 32.9 million international visits being made which generated a record £21 billion into the UK in 2013.
In terms of Berkshire specifically, VisitBritain's public-facing website includes a range of tourism information relating to Windsor which is available via the following link: http://www.visitbritain.com/en/Destinations-and-Maps/History-and-heritage/Windsor.htm. VisitBritain's ‘Heritage is GREAT' advertising campaign also prominently featured Highclere Castle, which is the setting for Downton Abbey.
The South East region will benefit from a number of thematic campaigns currently being run by VisitEngland which can be found at http://www.visitengland.com/. It will also benefit from VisitEngland's Holidays at Home are GREAT campaign, which has been broadcast on mainstream terrestrial channels since 1 April, while those areas in the South East region affected by the recent floods are also benefitting from both VisitEngland's ‘Spot on England' marketing campaign and business support events.