Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether individuals volunteering as part of the UK vaccination effort will be eligible for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
To qualify for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal recipients must be in an eligible public sector role in a frontline emergency service. This does not include volunteers in the Samaritans. Equally, volunteers in the UK vaccination effort are not eligible for the Medal.
The Government does however recognise the extraordinary contributions made by people across communities in response to the pandemic, and notes the outstanding work of Samaritans’ volunteers.
The Prime Minister has announced that the government will establish a UK Commission on COVID Commemoration to consider the appropriate way to remember those who have lost their lives and to recognise those involved in the unprecedented response across all critical sectors. The Government will set out the Commission membership and terms of reference in due course.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has in place for the oversight of private companies' use of live facial recognition technology.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The use of biometric data (including facial images) by private companies to identify individuals is regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Under the legislation, data processing must be fair, lawful and transparent. Individuals who consider their data has been misused can make complaints to the Information Commissioner's Office, the independent regulator of the legislation.
To ensure a safe use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in all sectors, the government tasked the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) to produce a Snapshot briefing paper looking at the uses and potential implications of facial recognition technology’s deployment in the UK. The paper was published on 28 May and we are considering its findings.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has plans in place for allocating the cost of removing and replacing Huawei equipment in the event that its installation is prohibited.
Answered by Matt Warman
On 28 January, the Government announced the final conclusions of the Telecoms Supply Chain Review in relation to high risk vendors. It was announced that equipment from high risk vendors should be excluded from the core parts of the 5G and full fibre networks that are critical to security, and their presence limited to 35% in the rest of the network. We expect the cost of meeting restrictions on the presence of equipment from high risk vendors to be met by the operators using that equipment.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the announcement by his Department on 20 February 2020 of a £65 million package for 5G trials, what the Government's policy is on security in the telecommunications supply chain in respect of those trials; and what decisions have been made in respect of the identity of the suppliers that will provide the infrastructure for those trials.
Answered by Matt Warman
The recent announcement of a new £65 million package of 5G trials forms part of the DCMS £200 million 5G Testbeds and Trials programme. That included £35 million for nine winning projects from our rural and industrial 5G competitions, and a new £30 million open competition - 5G Create - that will launch in due course.
The Programme ensures that each of our projects has a security strategy in place that identifies and mitigates security risks and is proportionate for R&D environments. Testbeds are encouraged to employ nationally recognised standards and best practice security approaches. This includes identifying and mitigating supply chain risks and taking steps to manage High Risk Vendors. None of the successful projects announced as part of Industrial 5G and Rural Connected Communities will use equipment from high risk vendors. We will publish guidance in due course for our 5G Create competition when it launches.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much Huawei equipment analysis has been installed by UK 5G carriers since March 2019.
Answered by Matt Warman
Huawei’s presence in the UK is subject to detailed, formal oversight through the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre and its oversight board. The recent conclusions of the Telecoms Supply Chain Review set out clear limits on the role of Huawei, as a High Risk Vendor, in the UK telecoms market. The Government examined the full range of threats and risks when making its decision on the use of high risk vendors in the UK telecoms networks.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to help ensure that (a) website owners' and (b) providers' compliance with GDPR protects the privacy of their (i) customers and (ii) users.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) strengthen the obligations on organisations to process individuals’ data fairly, lawfully and transparently and to keep it safe and secure. It also strengthens individuals’ rights to seek to access, rectify or delete their data.
This legislation is regulated and enforced by the independent Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO has issued comprehensive guidance for organisations on how to comply with the legislation and is also working closely with specific sectors to address areas of risk.
If individuals have concerns about the way online services are processing their data, they may wish to complain to the ICO. The ICO has a range of corrective powers and sanctions to enforce the GDPR, including:
issuing warnings and reprimands;
imposing a temporary or permanent ban on data processing;
ordering the rectification, restriction or erasure of data; and
suspending data transfers to third countries.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 the BBC on the proposed removal of free television licences for people aged over 75.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Since the BBC took its decision, I have met with the Chairman of the BBC Board and the Director-General of the BBC and I have asked them to do more to help the most vulnerable groups affected by the decision.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that social media companies respect freedom of speech when regulating content.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is committed to upholding free speech, and legislation is already in place to protect these fundamental rights. However, this freedom cannot be an excuse to cause harm or spread hatred.
The Online Harms White Paper sets out the Government's proposals for making the UK the safest place to be online. The proposed independent regulator will have an obligation to protect users' rights online, particularly rights to privacy and freedom of expression. It will ensure that the new regulatory requirements do not lead to a disproportionately risk averse response from companies that unduly limits freedom of expression, including by limiting participation in public debate.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that large technology companies are complying with regulations on personal data.
Answered by Margot James
The Data Protection Act 2018 poses strict obligations on organisations to ensure that UK citizens’ data is processed safely and securely. Organisations which fail to comply with the new legislation may be investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office and subject to increased fines.
It is essential that people are confident their personal data will be protected and used in an appropriate way. The Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR is in place to ensure that companies who collect and use data do so appropriately with an appropriate legal basis.