Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of properties have access to superfast broadband in Brigg and Goole constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez
According to the independent website Thinkbroadband, over 94.5% of premises in the constituency of Brigg and Goole have access to superfast broadband (>= 30 Mbps).
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with stakeholders on the potential merits of bringing voice recognition services within the scope of the proposed Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Broadcasting content regulation applies to television, video-on-demand and radio services in the UK. While some content delivered through voice recognition devices may be regulated by Ofcom (such as live radio), voice recognition services themselves are not subject to broadcasting regulation.
Under current legislation, online platforms, including those that use voice recognition software, must remove illegal content expeditiously once they are aware of its presence, or face civil or criminal liability.
The new online harms regulatory framework will apply to services which host user-generated content or enable user interaction, and to search engines, regardless of how the service is accessed. Therefore, some services that use voice recognition software may fall in scope. All in-scope companies will need to assess the risk of harm to users of their services, and take appropriate steps to mitigate that risk.
We have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders including industry, civil society, academics and parliamentarians and will continue to do so as we move towards legislation.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with representatives of voice recognition services on the potential broadcast of illegal content into homes.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Broadcasting content regulation applies to television, video-on-demand and radio services in the UK. While some content delivered through voice recognition devices may be regulated by Ofcom (such as live radio), voice recognition services themselves are not subject to broadcasting regulation.
Under current legislation, online platforms, including those that use voice recognition software, must remove illegal content expeditiously once they are aware of its presence, or face civil or criminal liability.
The new online harms regulatory framework will apply to services which host user-generated content or enable user interaction, and to search engines, regardless of how the service is accessed. Therefore, some services that use voice recognition software may fall in scope. All in-scope companies will need to assess the risk of harm to users of their services, and take appropriate steps to mitigate that risk.
We have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders including industry, civil society, academics and parliamentarians and will continue to do so as we move towards legislation.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with mobile phone network operators on improving coverage across Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Margot James
Ministers have meet Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) regularly to discuss a range of issues, including network coverage.
The Government wants the UK to have high-quality mobile coverage where people live, work and travel. We are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK, as well as providing an uninterrupted mobile signal on all major roads, which should lead to coverage improvements across Yorkshire and the Humber.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 the next steps for the Rural Gigabit Connnectivity programme.
Answered by Margot James
The £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, announced in Budget 2018, will trial a model for full fibre to public buildings - starting with primary schools - which will act as hubs in rural areas, alongside vouchers for funding gigabit-capable connectivity to homes and businesses across the UK.
An announcement on the launch of the programme will take place in Spring 2019.