Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation on the level of cold calling from (a) inside and (b) outside the EU.
Answered by Margot James
The General Data Protection Regulation will ensure that data processed within the EU, and the data of European citizens processed outside the EU, is done in accordance with the Regulation's principles.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation on (a) nuisance calls and (b) the ability of nuisance callers to retain and share personal data.
Answered by Margot James
The General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Bill - currently progressing through Parliament - will require organisations to apply the data protection principles. Organisations using personal data to make nuisance calls risks breaching these principles. Organisations may be liable to the new financial penalties and other enforcement action if they are found to be in breach of the rules.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the (a) frequency and (b) viability of large-scale automated ticket reselling of the (a) Digital Economy Act 2017 and (b) other recent steps the Government has taken.
Answered by Margot James
We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market, whilst ensuring there are no unintentional consequences for the operations of the events sector.
The Digital Economy Act 2017 provides the power to create a specific offence, where tickets are purchased electronically, of purchasing more tickets than the maximum permitted, to address concerns over large scale automated ticket reselling. We intend to enact this power via secondary legislation later this year, and will be monitoring its effectiveness once enacted. This measure is in addition to existing measures in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 relating to the information about tickets offered for sale on the secondary market, along with the additional requirement also contained in the Digital Economy Act for ticket sellers to provide a unique ticket number when re-selling a ticket, where one has originally been given.
We recognise that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken earlier this month by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, which we hope will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.
The measures set out above, together with the ongoing enforcement work of the National Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority, and industry’s own initiatives should go a long way to reducing people’s frustrations at the way the ticketing market works.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the steps taken by the Advertising Standards Authority as a result of its investigation into the big four secondary ticketing websites; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market, whilst ensuring there are no unintentional consequences for the operations of the events sector.
The Digital Economy Act 2017 provides the power to create a specific offence, where tickets are purchased electronically, of purchasing more tickets than the maximum permitted, to address concerns over large scale automated ticket reselling. We intend to enact this power via secondary legislation later this year, and will be monitoring its effectiveness once enacted. This measure is in addition to existing measures in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 relating to the information about tickets offered for sale on the secondary market, along with the additional requirement also contained in the Digital Economy Act for ticket sellers to provide a unique ticket number when re-selling a ticket, where one has originally been given.
We recognise that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken earlier this month by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, which we hope will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.
The measures set out above, together with the ongoing enforcement work of the National Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority, and industry’s own initiatives should go a long way to reducing people’s frustrations at the way the ticketing market works.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government has made of the effect on the revenue of the entertainment and sports industries of consumers paying higher prices for tickets purchased through secondary sites and less on further tickets and purchases at music and sports venues.
Answered by Margot James
We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market, whilst ensuring there are no unintentional consequences for the operations of the events sector.
The Digital Economy Act 2017 provides the power to create a specific offence, where tickets are purchased electronically, of purchasing more tickets than the maximum permitted, to address concerns over large scale automated ticket reselling. We intend to enact this power via secondary legislation later this year, and will be monitoring its effectiveness once enacted. This measure is in addition to existing measures in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 relating to the information about tickets offered for sale on the secondary market, along with the additional requirement also contained in the Digital Economy Act for ticket sellers to provide a unique ticket number when re-selling a ticket, where one has originally been given.
We recognise that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken earlier this month by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, which we hope will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.
The measures set out above, together with the ongoing enforcement work of the National Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority, and industry’s own initiatives should go a long way to reducing people’s frustrations at the way the ticketing market works.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring secondary ticketing websites to state that they are (a) secondary sellers and (b) resale market places.
Answered by Margot James
We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We recognise that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry and online platforms need to take actions themselves. The Government therefore welcomes the announcement by Google requiring ticket resellers to be certified before they can advertise through its AdWords platform, and trust that it will be working to ensure its effectiveness, and that it will take action to enforce compliance with the new rules.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a percentage cap on the amount that tickets can be sold above face value on secondary ticketing websites.
Answered by Margot James
The Government has a continuing interest in the area of secondary ticketing, and recognises the process of distributing and buying tickets can often be a cause for public frustration and concern. We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in this area, and will shortly be introducing secondary legislation to make it an offence to purchase more tickets than that permitted by an event organiser online.
An independent review of consumer protection measures was commissioned by the Government in 2015, undertaken by Professor Waterson, which was published in May 2016. The Government published its response to the review on 13th March 2017, which welcomed the Review and accepted all nine recommendations contained in the review in full. Professor Waterson specifically considered the issue of a cap on ticket resale prices, and we agree with his conclusion that it should not be taken forward as it would raise a number of practical considerations and be of limited effect, as it would be extremely difficult to enforce.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 125135, on Housing: Broadband, if she will make initial reports on the effectiveness of the Government's brokered agreement available to (a) the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee and (b) the Scottish Affairs Select Committee inquiry into digital connectivity in Scotland.
Answered by Margot James
The agreement brokered by DCMS between the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Openreach offers full fibre broadband to new builds at no cost to the developer when threshold conditions have been met. Virgin and GTC have similar agreements with the HBF. DCMS’s Barrier Busting Task Force are in the process of measuring the impact of these agreements and will report to the Select Committees once that work is complete.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 125135, on Housing: Broadband, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of that brokered agreement.
Answered by Margot James
The agreement brokered by DCMS between the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Openreach offers full fibre broadband to new builds at no cost to the developer when threshold conditions have been met. Virgin and GTC have similar agreements with the HBF. DCMS’s Barrier Busting Task Force are in the process of measuring the impact of these agreements and will report to the Select Committees once that work is complete.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of reports of poor broadband provision for new housing developments, particularly developments in rural and sub-urban areas.
Answered by Margot James
My Department brokered an agreement in February 2016 between the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Openreach to connect new build developments to superfast broadband, and where possible, ultrafast broadband. Both Virgin Media and the utility provider GTC have made similar agreements with the HBF. Whilst these are voluntary agreements between industry stakeholders, we are monitoring the effectiveness of the agreements closely and, as part of this, reports of poor broadband provision for new housing development. We are prepared to explore further measures, including legislative options if necessary, in order to ensure residents get the connectivity they deserve.