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, whether it is her Department's policy that Non-Fungible Tokens or any aspect of the mechanisms of their transfer are considered to be user-to-user regulated content under the terms set out in the Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We introduced the Online Safety Bill to Parliament on 17 March 2022 and it passed its second reading in the House of Commons on 19 April.
The Bill will apply to a range of services that allow users to interact with each other and post content online. Companies will have duties to take action to prevent the proliferation of illegal content and to protect children from harmful content. This will include taking action against harmful content within Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), such as preventing users from encountering them where these are shared on in scope services.
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, how many black and white TV licences have been paid for in each of the last five years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC is responsible for administration of TV licences and, therefore, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport does not hold this information. However, the below figures from the BBC’s Annual Reports show the number of monochrome TV licences in force for each of the last five financial years, to the nearest thousand.
2020/21: 4,000
2019/20: 5,000
2018/19: 5,000
2017/18: 6,000
2016/17: 6,000
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 steps her Department is taking to hold social media platforms accountable for content promoting eating disorders and self-harm on their platforms.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill will be for children. Services in scope of the Bill which are likely to be accessed by children will need to do much more to protect them from harmful content. This includes content promoting eating disorders or self-harm content.
Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content accessed by adults.
The Government will set out in secondary legislation priority categories of harmful material for children and adults. If platforms fail in their duties under the Bill, they will face tough enforcement action including fines of up to 10% of global annual qualifying turnover.
The Government asked the Law Commission to review current legislation on harmful online communications. It has now published final recommendations, which includes a proposed new offence to address the encouragement of self-harm. The Government is considering the Law Commission’s recommendations and will set out our position in due course.
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 - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
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 progress his Department has made on its plans for an outside-in strategy to build full-fibre networks in rural areas.
Answered by Margot James
Work has already started to build full fibre networks in rural areas, with up to £700 million allocated by Government for rollout up until the end of 2021.
The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review identified that around 10% of premises would not get full fibre commercially by 2033, largely in rural and remote areas. To reach the Government’s targets for nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033, these areas will require additional funding of around £3 billion to support investment, ensuring delivery in the final 10% occurs alongside commercial rollout.
Funding already committed to these areas includes around £200 million from the BDUK Superfast programme, which is building on the 96% superfast coverage in the UK, and now rolling out full fibre connections.
The Local Full Fibre Networks programme (LFFN) is designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the whole of the UK. LFFN will have invested almost £300 million across the UK by the end of the programme in 2021.
At Budget 2018, a further £200 million was allocated from the National Productivity Investment Fund, for the 2 year Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme starting in April 2019.
Longer-term options for funding rural connectivity under the Outside-In approach will be determined as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.
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 funding his Department has allocated to subsidise full-fibre networks in rural areas.
Answered by Margot James
Work has already started to build full fibre networks in rural areas, with up to £700 million allocated by Government for rollout up until the end of 2021.
The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review identified that around 10% of premises would not get full fibre commercially by 2033, largely in rural and remote areas. To reach the Government’s targets for nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033, these areas will require additional funding of around £3 billion to support investment, ensuring delivery in the final 10% occurs alongside commercial rollout.
Funding already committed to these areas includes around £200 million from the BDUK Superfast programme, which is building on the 96% superfast coverage in the UK, and now rolling out full fibre connections.
The Local Full Fibre Networks programme (LFFN) is designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the whole of the UK. LFFN will have invested almost £300 million across the UK by the end of the programme in 2021.
At Budget 2018, a further £200 million was allocated from the National Productivity Investment Fund, for the 2 year Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme starting in April 2019.
Longer-term options for funding rural connectivity under the Outside-In approach will be determined as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.