Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to formally consult (a) BBC trade union representatives and (b) the wider public on the review of the BBC funding model.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC Funding Review will look at how alternative models could help secure the broadcaster’s long-term sustainability amid an evolving media landscape, increased competition and changing audience behaviour, while reducing the burden on licence fee payers.
We will not be running a public consultation as part of this review, as a formal public consultation will be launched as part of Charter Review itself. Charter Review is the right time for decisions on funding to be made, as only through amending the Charter and associated legislation can the BBC’s funding model be changed for the next Charter period.
As part of the review, we will appoint an expert panel that incorporates a broad range of views from across the sector to support the Government throughout the review. Its role will be to provide advice and external challenge.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 potential impact of trends in the number of journalists on the sustainability of local media reporting.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We are working to support journalism and local newsrooms to ensure the sustainability of this vital industry.
This includes our new digital markets regime, which will help rebalance the relationship between online platforms and those who rely on them – including local press publishers.
Additionally, our support for the sector has included the delivery of the £2 million Future News Fund; the zero rating of VAT on e-newspapers; the extension of a 2017 business rates relief on local newspaper office space until 2025; the publication of the Online Media Literacy Strategy; and the BBC also supports the sector directly, through the £8m it spends each year on the Local News Partnership, including the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has held with (a) BBC management and (b) Ofcom on conducting equality impact assessments on changes to BBC local radio coverage for (i) elderly, (ii) disabled and (iii) black and minority ethnic people.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government remains disappointed that the BBC is planning to reduce parts of its local output. Ministers have met with the BBC on several occasions since the announcement where they have expressed the concerns shared across the House about the BBC’s plans.
While it is up to the BBC to decide how it delivers its services, the Government has been clear with the Chair of the BBC Board and the Director General that the BBC must make sure it continues to provide distinctive and genuinely local radio services, with content that reflects and represents people and communities from all corners of the UK. These services are a key part of the BBC’s public service remit and an example of how the BBC can use its licence fee funding to provide content that is directly relevant to audiences, particularly in areas that may be underserved by the market.
The BBC is editorially and operationally independent, and the decision over whether to proceed with, and consider the potential impacts for audiences of these changes under their public sector equality duty, is for them.
The Government also expects Ofcom, as regulator of the BBC, to ensure the BBC is robustly held to account in delivering its public service duties. As part of this, the BBC will be required to monitor the impact of changes on audiences and publish more information about how it delivers high quality, distinctive content and services for audiences across the UK.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 potential impact of changes to BBC local radio coverage on (i) elderly, (ii) disabled and (iii) black and minority ethnic people.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government remains disappointed that the BBC is planning to reduce parts of its local output. Ministers have met with the BBC on several occasions since the announcement where they have expressed the concerns shared across the House about the BBC’s plans.
While it is up to the BBC to decide how it delivers its services, the Government has been clear with the Chair of the BBC Board and the Director General that the BBC must make sure it continues to provide distinctive and genuinely local radio services, with content that reflects and represents people and communities from all corners of the UK. These services are a key part of the BBC’s public service remit and an example of how the BBC can use its licence fee funding to provide content that is directly relevant to audiences, particularly in areas that may be underserved by the market.
The BBC is editorially and operationally independent, and the decision over whether to proceed with, and consider the potential impacts for audiences of these changes under their public sector equality duty, is for them.
The Government also expects Ofcom, as regulator of the BBC, to ensure the BBC is robustly held to account in delivering its public service duties. As part of this, the BBC will be required to monitor the impact of changes on audiences and publish more information about how it delivers high quality, distinctive content and services for audiences across the UK.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve broadband upload speeds in Easington constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to the independent website thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean upload speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 20 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the national average of 22 Mbps across the UK. These averages are derived from crowd-sourced data and it is worth noting that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.
Almost 99% of premises in the Easington constituency are able to access superfast broadband (>=30Mbps), which meets the vast majority of everyday requirements such as high definition streaming and video calling on multiple devices. This is higher than the national average. I am also pleased to share that 74% of premises in the Easington constituency can access a gigabit-capable connection, which is ahead of the national average of 72%.
Further improvements to broadband speeds in the Easington constituency will be delivered as part of our £5 billion investment in Project Gigabit, which is upgrading and future-proofing network infrastructure for decades to come. Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.
Alongside direct Government investment, we have created a competition-friendly environment in areas where deployment is commercially viable. As a result, there is now a thriving market of over 80 providers investing nearly £35 billion rolling out gigabit broadband all over the UK.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason average download speeds in Easington constituency are below the regional and national average; what steps she is taking to improve broadband upload speeds in Easington constituency; and how much funding has been allocated to upgrading broadband infrastructure in (a) Easington constituency, (b) the North East and (c) nationally in each of the last five years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to the independent website thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the North East regional average of 96 Mbps and the UK average of 95. These averages are derived from crowd-sourced data and it is worth noting that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.
Further improvements to broadband speeds in the Easington constituency will be delivered as part of our £5 billion investment in Project Gigabit, which is upgrading and future-proofing network infrastructure for decades to come. Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.
In addition to our Project Gigabit procurements, we are providing additional support through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme to support rural communities across the UK with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. Through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and its previous iterations, we have issued over 100,000 vouchers worth more than £214 million.
Projects under the previous Superfast Broadband Programme in the North East covering Durham, Northumberland and Newcastle benefitted from UK Government funding of £24 million, alongside £24 million from the local authorities, £2 million European funding and £26 million from suppliers, to upgrade over 170,000 premises to superfast speeds over the lifetime of the programme. BDUK also delivered a Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) project in the North of Tyne area, with more than £5.8 million in government funding.
At national level, spend through BDUK on broadband in each of the last five years is as follows:
£m | Year | ||||
18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | |
Nationally | 38.6 | 29.9 | 9.6 | 10.0 | 12.5 |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been allocated to upgrading broadband infrastructure in (a) Easington constituency, (b) the North East and (c) nationally in each of the last five years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to the independent website thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the North East regional average of 96 Mbps and the UK average of 95. These averages are derived from crowd-sourced data and it is worth noting that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.
Further improvements to broadband speeds in the Easington constituency will be delivered as part of our £5 billion investment in Project Gigabit, which is upgrading and future-proofing network infrastructure for decades to come. Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.
In addition to our Project Gigabit procurements, we are providing additional support through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme to support rural communities across the UK with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. Through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and its previous iterations, we have issued over 100,000 vouchers worth more than £214 million.
Projects under the previous Superfast Broadband Programme in the North East covering Durham, Northumberland and Newcastle benefitted from UK Government funding of £24 million, alongside £24 million from the local authorities, £2 million European funding and £26 million from suppliers, to upgrade over 170,000 premises to superfast speeds over the lifetime of the programme. BDUK also delivered a Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) project in the North of Tyne area, with more than £5.8 million in government funding.
At national level, spend through BDUK on broadband in each of the last five years is as follows:
£m | Year | ||||
18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | |
Nationally | 38.6 | 29.9 | 9.6 | 10.0 | 12.5 |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve average download speeds in the Easington constituency; and whether she will take steps to increase download speeds in Easington constituency to the (a) North East and (b) UK average.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to the independent website www.thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the average of 96 Mbps in the North East, and UK average of 95 Mbps. It should be noted that these estimates are derived from crowd-sourced data and that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.
I am pleased to share that almost 99% of premises in the Easington constituency can already access superfast broadband and just over 74% of premises can access a gigabit-capable connection. This is higher than the national averages of over 97% and 72% for superfast and gigabit-capable, respectively.
We are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to enable hard-to-reach communities across the UK to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. Project Gigabit is focused on connecting homes and businesses that are not included in broadband suppliers’ commercial rollout plans.
The constituency of Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.
Eligible premises in Easington can also receive gigabit-capable connections through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. We recently announced an increase in the value of these vouchers so that new projects can receive as much as £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband in rural and particularly hard-to-reach areas.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason the Gambling Commission has not yet published annual statistics for society lotteries.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Gambling Commission’s production and publication of the most recent Industry Statistics for the period April 2020 to March 2021, including the latest full year statistics for society lotteries, has been affected by the impact of Covid-19, the lack of and quality of data submissions from some lottery operators and resources required for the consequential quality assurance.
The Gambling Commission will next publish these statistics, covering the period April 2020- March 2021, in November 2022, which is in line with regular twice-yearly publication cycles.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the compliance of her Department's staff working from home with the Working Time Regulations 1998.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Staff at DCMS work a standard 36 or 37 hour week and paid overtime is allowed on an exceptional basis in priority areas. Staff are encouraged to discuss their working hours with their Line Manager and, where they may be working beyond their standard hours, to record their hours of work with managers keeping oversight. A flexi time sheet template is made available for individuals to use to record their hours; records are not held centrally. Managers are responsible for ensuring employees are working their hours and not working excessive hours in line with Regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and this requirement has not been different where staff have been working from home. There are currently no staff at DCMS who have chosen to opt out of the Working Time Directive.