Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the BBC’s compliance with the impartiality clauses in its charter.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC has a duty to deliver impartial and accurate news coverage and content under its Royal Charter. As such, the Government has been clear that the BBC must place a firm emphasis on impartiality and maintaining the highest editorial standards.
The Government welcomes that the BBC accepted the findings and recommendations of the Serota Review and has committed to reform through its 10 point Impartiality and Editorial Standards Action Plan. The BBC now needs to demonstrate clear and continued progress as the plan is embedded into business as usual.
The Government established Ofcom as the independent regulator of the BBC in 2017. Ofcom is responsible for holding the BBC to account against its impartiality responsibilities. It remains a priority for the Government to work with Ofcom to deliver an effective and proportionate regulatory framework that holds the BBC to account while maintaining its creative freedom and operational independence.
A key focus of the Government’s Mid-Term Review of the BBC is to look at the regulatory and governance measures which can enable progress on impartiality, more accountability for editorial standards, including the handling of complaints, and a BBC that represents the breadth of the audience it was established to serve.
Our work on the Mid-Term Review is ongoing. The Charter specifies that the review must take place between 2022 and 2024, and we will publish our findings and conclusions in due course.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether providers will be prohibited from charging those in adult social care settings extra charges for powercut-resistant telephones after the end of the analogue network.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom has issued guidance on how telecoms companies can fulfil their regulatory obligation to ensure that their customers, including those in social care settings, have access to the emergency services in the event of a power cut following the transition from analogue to digital telephony. This guidance states that providers should have at least one solution available that enables access to emergency organisations for a minimum of one hour in the event of a power outage in the premises, and that the solution should be suitable for customers’ needs and should be offered free of charge to those who are at risk as they are dependent on their landline.
Ofcom’s power resilience guidance does not distinguish between types of user, however they have issued additional guidance which states that providers should take steps to identify vulnerable consumers and engage in effective communications to ensure all are protected in the migration process.
Although migration is an industry led initiative, the government is clear that the PSTN migration should not be used as an opportunity for providers to raise their prices or otherwise exploit vulnerable consumers with disproportionate costs for the necessary upgrades.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the digital telephone system will replicate the ability of the analogue system to provide stable emergency communications in the event of power outages.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration is industry-led. The Government and the independent telecoms regulator, Ofcom, are working together to ensure customers are protected.
Ofcom places a regulatory obligation on communications providers to take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations for their customers. Ofcom has issued guidance explaining how providers can fulfil this regulatory obligation during power outages, stating that at least one solution must be available for a minimum of one hour that enables access to emergency organisations in the event of a power cut. Any solution must be made available free of charge to customers who providers determine are reliant on their landline to make emergency calls during a power cut.
Alongside this, the emergency services have access to a number of resilient communications systems to coordinate emergency response activity via mobile networks. This includes the current Airwave system, and they will make use of the Emergency Services Network (ESN) once transition has completed.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
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 help ensure that the digital telephone network will replicate the ability of the analogue telephone network to provide stable emergency communications in the event of power outages.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration is industry-led. The Government and the independent telecoms regulator, Ofcom, are working together to ensure customers are protected.
Ofcom places a regulatory obligation on communications providers to take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations for their customers. Ofcom has issued guidance explaining how providers can fulfil this regulatory obligation during power outages, stating that at least one solution must be available for a minimum of one hour that enables access to emergency organisations in the event of a power cut. Any solution must be made available free of charge to customers who providers determine are reliant on their landline to make emergency calls during a power cut.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the average length of delay in initiating the investigation of complaints submitted to the Information Commissioner under section 50(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is; and what steps he is taking to tackle that delay.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) is regulated and enforced independently of Government by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO is dealing with rapidly growing numbers of complaints; currently it receives around 100 new complaints a week. The ICO responds to all FOI complaints with an email acknowledging receipt, which sets out current expected timescales for a response. All complaints are triaged: investigations into relatively simple cases usually commence within 30 days of receipt, while more complex cases may take up to 7 months to be allocated to an ICO officer for investigation.
The ICO is taking steps to increase its resources in this area so that these cases are dealt with as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring a high quality of response.