Oral Answers to Questions

Anne Begg Excerpts

Thursday 13th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

My hon. Friend is drawing me back to my old job, but I will resist the temptation. He is right that this matter is well and truly in the sights of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and I note his comments.

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

I, too, welcome the right hon. Lady to her new position. As she has already seen, her old position will follow her wherever she goes. I do not think that she will ever get away from that, because disability pervades all of society.

The Paralympics were a huge success and the Channel 4 coverage was wonderful. Does the right hon. Lady agree that it was particularly insensitive of Atos to sponsor not only the games but the lanyards, so that every Paralympian was forced to wear the name of Atos around their neck? Perhaps Atos had a perverse reason for doing that, because a much wider audience now knows how it has been treating disabled people in the work capability assessment.

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Lady will know that such decisions are made by organisations outside of Government. She is right to say that the Paralympics were a fantastic opportunity to change attitudes in this country, and I think that they achieved that. We need to keep that going. She is also right to say that former Ministers for Disabled People retain a deep and passionate interest in ensuring that the needs of disabled people are catered for, whichever Department they work in.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Vaizey]

Yes; my understanding is that DMOL applied to Ofcom, effectively to have its electronic programme guide regulated by Ofcom. I will write to my hon. Friend with the full details of the implications.

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

T7. Many of my constituents cannot even get moderately fast broadband. They are therefore desperate for the introduction of superfast broadband, but 2015 is too far away. Aberdeen will be bidding to become one of the superfast cities. Can the Secretary of State give us an assurance that the criteria will include not only ease of installation and density of population but factors such as the industries that will depend on having superfast broadband? Aberdeen is an important economic driver in the north-east of Scotland.

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Lady makes an important point, and I hope that she will join me in encouraging her local authorities to adopt the kind of deregulation of planning issues that will help to speed up the delivery of broadband and reduce the costs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Anne Begg Excerpts

Thursday 3rd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My right hon. Friend is well aware of my concerns about anything that challenges or threatens the important income that goes to good causes from the national lottery. He will know that the Gambling Commission and the National Lottery Commission are looking at this, and we await what they have to say with great interest.

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

9. If he will ask Ofcom to review its code on electronic programme guides.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

It is the duty of Ofcom from time to time to review and revise the electronic programme guide code. We will consider the electronic programme guide as part of the communications review.

[Dame Anne Begg]

I add my condolences to those expressed by the Minister to the family of Iain Sproat who, when he represented Aberdeen South, was my MP for a short time. Will the Minister ask the Department and Ofcom to look at guaranteeing front-page prominence for public service broadcasting channels such as the UK’s highly successful children’s channels, and extending that prominence so that children’s services are as easy to find on on-demand TV as they are on live TV?

[Mr Vaizey]

The hon. Lady makes a good point. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has pointed out, the EPG is the most important lever to protect public service broadcasting going forward. We are reviewing it as part of the communications review, and we may legislate to protect public service broadcasting.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Heath]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for his involvement with young people. As I said, we must build on the extremely good work being done by the Department for Education, the education services in the House and others to make that a reality. A variety of things are happening that may engage the interest of young people. For example, there is even a parliamentary week app for tablets. I have downloaded it, and it is very good. The only drawback is that for some obscure reason, it has a 12-plus rating on the grounds of mild or occasional sexual content, nudity, fantasy violence, alcohol and drug abuse, profanities and crude humour—all of which are far from the normal life of hon. Members.

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

I took the opportunity to write to all the schools in my constituency to inform them about Parliament week and the excellent resources that were available to them. As a result, I was at a school last Friday and I will be visiting another school tomorrow. Does the Deputy Leader of the House know how many hon. Members have actively taken part in promoting and attending Parliament week events? How will he encourage those who have not participated on this occasion, to make sure that they do so next year?

[Mr Heath]

The honest answer is that I do not know how many hon. Members have taken part, but from speaking to colleagues around the House, it seems that a significant number have done so. Those who have not done so have missed an opportunity, and let us hope that they will do so at different stages, not only during Parliament week next year but throughout the year, as the hon. Lady suggests.

Business of the House

Anne Begg Excerpts

Thursday 10th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The Government are very much in favour of the community support that my hon. Friend has just mentioned to tackled coastal erosion. Local authorities already have the necessary powers to raise funds and carry out coastal erosion works, but if there are any barriers to the initiative to which my hon. Friend refers, the Government would be happy to discuss them with him.

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the unfairness facing the 500,000 women who were born between 6 October 1953 and 5 April 1955, who will now have to wait for more than one year in order to reach their state retirement age because of the acceleration of the raising of the state retirement age to 66, and particularly the group who were born between 6 May and 5 June 1954, who will have to wait up to two years before they reach state retirement age?

[Sir George Young]

I understand the strong views that the hon. Lady expresses on behalf of those who are caught in the gap to which she refers. There will be Department for Work and Pensions questions on Monday, but, subject to a decision of the Backbench Business Committee, we usually have a debate on international women’s day. I do not want to pre-empt any decision by that Committee, but that would seem an appropriate subject to raise if such a debate took place.

Oral Answers to Questions

Anne Begg Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con)]

1. What plans he has to support the activities of local and regional media providers; and if he will make a statement.

[Miss Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

7. What plans he has for the future of regional news on channel 3.

[Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)]

9. What plans he has for the future of regional news services; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

I welcome my hon. Friend to his position, particularly given his background in the telecoms industry. I hope he can contribute to a discussion of that policy area, given his understanding of convergence between telecoms and broadcast technologies. He is absolutely right that this is not simply about the future of local television, but about the future of our struggling local newspaper sector. He mentioned in glowing terms his local newspapers, but the truth is that for everyone in this country local newspapers are incredibly important as a focus for community activities and in holding locally elected politicians to account. I hope that by relaxing the cross-media ownership rules at a local level, local newspapers such as the ones in his constituency can develop into multi-media operations across different technology platforms.

[Miss Begg]

What the Secretary of State just said flies in the face of the fact that one of his first decisions in government was to scrap the independently funded news consortiums that STV was depending on to deliver its news, which it finds increasingly expensive. STV is now very worried about the future of news, as are the people of Scotland, because we might be left with the BBC as the only pan-Scottish news deliverer on terrestrial television. What will the Secretary of State do to ensure that STV can continue delivering news, and to ensure that a plurality of news is provided through terrestrial TV in Scotland?

[Mr Hunt]

I entirely agree with the hon. Lady that it is absolutely essential that we have a plurality of news provision. However, the previous Government’s policy in that respect was to have two state-funded regional news broadcasters in every part of the country, which I think is the wrong way to ensure plurality of provision. What has worked very well in British broadcasting is that we have some broadcasters funded by the licence fee, others by subscription, and others by advertising. That is what we need to look at, which is why we have a much more ambitious model. STV is obliged to continue broadcasting in Scotland under the terms of the licence until 2014. We need to make sure that new models are up and running by that time so that it is possible to go forward with proper plurality of news provision.