Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which of the actions set out in the Online Advertising Taskforce action plan, published on 30 November 2023, are (a) completed, (b) being taken forward and (c) not being taken forward.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Online Advertising Taskforce last met on May 6th 2025, and is expected to meet again in Autumn. Its six industry-led working groups are delivering a programme of work to help tackle illegal advertising, and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to be sold to them. A progress report was published in November 2024, updating on progress to date and planned next steps. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-advertising-taskforce-progress-report-2023-24
Since the publication of this report, working groups have continued to set further targets to improve advertising trust, transparency and accountability, and a new AI-focused working group has been established.
The Action Plan also referred to the passage of legislation at the time and to other government initiatives to support a reduction in advertising harms, including fraudulent advertising. This includes the Online Safety Act 2023 and Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which restates the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and applies from 6 April 2025. The Government committed to introducing an expanded Fraud Strategy in our manifesto, covering the continued and modern-day threats our society faces. Development of the strategy has begun, and we are considering all harms, including fraudulent online advertising.
The Online Advertising Programme was an initiative of the previous government and a second consultation was not published, but we continue to monitor the regulatory framework closely.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when will the Online Advertising Taskforce next meet; and how many meetings are anticipated in 2025.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Online Advertising Taskforce last met on May 6th 2025, and is expected to meet again in Autumn. Its six industry-led working groups are delivering a programme of work to help tackle illegal advertising, and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to be sold to them. A progress report was published in November 2024, updating on progress to date and planned next steps. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-advertising-taskforce-progress-report-2023-24
Since the publication of this report, working groups have continued to set further targets to improve advertising trust, transparency and accountability, and a new AI-focused working group has been established.
The Action Plan also referred to the passage of legislation at the time and to other government initiatives to support a reduction in advertising harms, including fraudulent advertising. This includes the Online Safety Act 2023 and Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which restates the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and applies from 6 April 2025. The Government committed to introducing an expanded Fraud Strategy in our manifesto, covering the continued and modern-day threats our society faces. Development of the strategy has begun, and we are considering all harms, including fraudulent online advertising.
The Online Advertising Programme was an initiative of the previous government and a second consultation was not published, but we continue to monitor the regulatory framework closely.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take legislative steps to regulate programmatic advertising.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government will continue to monitor the regulatory framework around online advertising to assess if further legislation is needed. The Online Advertising Taskforce continues to take forward non-legislative action on addressing illegal advertising and minimising children being served advertising for products and services illegal to be sold to them.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the impact of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme on religious minority groups in (a) Hampshire (b) South East England.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Since August 2022, the Listed Places of Grant Scheme has awarded more than £3 million to 416 Non-Christian listed places of worship. This includes Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and other denominations. In the same timeframe the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme has awarded £108,618 to 15 listed places of worship for non-Christian religious minority groups across South East England, and £5,576 to a single listed place of worship for a religious minority group in Hampshire.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the contribution of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme to the heritage crafts sector.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Churches can have an important part to play in heritage skills and crafts. For example, in summer 2024, Historic England's Heritage Building Skills Summer School took place at St John the Evangelist Church, Lancaster, a Churches Conservation Trust site. The Government funds both Historic England and Churches Conservation Trust, and the summer school is part of the Heritage Building Skills Programme, a five-year training and apprenticeships programme running from 2021-2026.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support the Government plans to provide to the UK Safer Internet Centre.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The UK Safer Internet Centre plays an important role in improving online safety in the UK, particularly for children.
The Centre has been successful in its bid for further funding from the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility programme for the calendar year of 2021, for which the government provided a letter of support. Officials are in regular engagement with the Centre on its future funding position.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 increase the volume of marketing spend in key (a) development and (b) other source markets in the upcoming Tourism Recovery Plan.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Global Travel Taskforce last year committed the Government to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector, which will include plans for a marketing campaign to welcome visitors back to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so. We will publish this document in the Spring.
When holidays are permitted again, we will work with VisitBritain, VisitEngland and local partners to champion the UK’s diverse tourism offer once again - just as we did with last year’s Enjoy Summer Safely and Escape The Everyday campaigns.
A successor to the Global Travel Taskforce will report by 12 April with recommendations aimed at facilitating a return to international travel as soon as possible, while still managing the risk from imported cases and variants of concern. Following that, the Government will determine when international travel should resume, which will be no earlier than 17 May. The Government will align the timing and details of its marketing plans with the outcome of the report.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether it remains Government policy for 130,000 more hotel rooms to be built by 2025; and what progress has been made against that target to date.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The UK Government will publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in the Spring. Given the significant impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, we now face different challenges to when the Tourism Sector Deal was published. The Recovery Plan will build on the foundations of the Sector Deal.
We are continuing to engage with stakeholders to assess how we can most effectively support tourism’s long term recovery.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what data and information his Department holds on trends in the level of (a) original programming hours and (b) broadcast hours produced as (i) Programmes for schools and colleges and (ii) other educational content for school-age children by (A) the BBC, (B) ITV and (C) other broadcasters.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The department does not hold this information.
Ofcom data indicates that in 2018, public service broadcasters (PSBs, in this context the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) collectively broadcast 125 hours of content in 2018 meeting the description of “formal education”. Of this, 65 hours were considered original content.
This output was supplemented by content available on-demand, online, on podcasts and radio, as well as less formal educational content such as documentaries and broader children’s content.
Between 2010 and 2018, the total amount of educational content broadcast by PSBs fell considerably (2010: 725 hours). Over the same period, the amount of original educational content broadcast by PSBs remained relatively constant (2010: 70 hours), albeit with considerable year-to-year fluctuation. Data covering 2019 and 2020 is not yet available.
Ofcom data suggests that commercial multi channels broadcast 40 hours of original content classified as ‘other’ in 2018 (2014: 0 hours). This classification includes formal education.
Further information can be found on Ofcom’s website.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what data his Department holds on the (a) number of hours of school-age educational programmed content on the BBC and (b) amount of online content on BBC bitesize in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The department does not hold this information. The BBC may hold more information on this topic.
Page 115 of the BBC’s Annual Report for 2019-20 sets out some information on how the BBC has performed on its public purpose to support learning for people of all ages. The report also states that the BBC offered 14 weeks of educational programmes and lessons during the summer term and that, by the end of the term, the BBC had published nearly 2,000 curriculum-led ‘Bitesize Daily Lessons’ online.
Further, on 5 January 2021, the BBC also announced its education offering for the UK’s third national lockdown. The announcement included three hours of primary school programming each week day on CBBC, and at least two hours of secondary school content each day on BBC 2. It also included an expansion of BBC bitesize online content for primary and secondary school pupils. The full announcement can be found on the BBC website here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2020/bbc-launches-biggest-education-offer-ever
I also refer the Hon Member to my answer to PQs 136489 and 136491 where I set out Ofcom’s figures for the education provision by Public Service Broadcasters collectively.