Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason he is piloting age ratings only for music video by artists signed to British music labels.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
This is the industry's pilot and they have decided to run it with UK labels only. I am delighted to see that labels Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music and platforms YouTube and Vevo are all taking part. I hope this pilot is successful and that more labels and platforms will start to use trusted age ratings in due course.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much has been spent on advertising or advertising agencies for the Super Connected Cities project; and whether that spending is in addition to or separate from the £150 million project budget.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
We are advertising the Broadband Connection Voucher scheme in order to ensure as many small and medium sized businesses as possible can benefit from up to £3k to help with the costs of getting superfast broadband. To the end of September we have spent £234k on advertising. This spending is part of the £150million project budget.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many junction boxes (a) have been and (b) will be installed under BT's Broadband Delivery UK rollout programme.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government’s target for superfast broadband for 95% of UK premises by 2017. It is for suppliers to determine the optimal design of their network to deliver the target. The number of structures (cabinets) built is commercially sensitive information under the terms of the contracts and therefore not available for publication.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of junction boxes that will need to be installed for superfast broadband to be rolled out to 95 per cent of premises.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government’s target for superfast broadband for 95% of UK premises by 2017. It is for suppliers to determine the optimal design of their network to deliver the target. The number of structures (cabinets) built is commercially sensitive information under the terms of the contracts and therefore not available for publication.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on the Mobile Infrastructure Project.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Mobile Infrastructure Project currently has 135 sites in acquisition stage, with options for site locations under investigation. There are 15 sites where planning applications have been submitted, 2 sites are being built, and to date 2 sites have gone live in Weaverthorpe, North Yorkshire, and North Molton in Devon, providing coverage to over 200 premises each.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the Super Connected Cities Programme budget has been spent to date.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
To the end of September 2014 £20.17m has been spent from the £150m Super Connected Cities budget, which includes budget transfers to the devolved administrations of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the budget for the Mobile Infrastructure Project has been spent to date; how many sites have been built under that project; and what the completion date for the project is.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Mobile Infrastructure Project currently has 135 sites in acquisition stage, with options for site locations under investigation. There are 15 sites where planning applications have been submitted, 2 sites are being built, and to date 2 sites have gone live in Weaverthorpe, North Yorkshire, and North Molton in Devon, providing coverage to over 200 premises each. The project has so far spent £3.87 million.
The Government is committed to taking mobile coverage to as many premises as possible. Therefore the project will continue beyond March 2015 to ensure as many communities as possible benefit.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with children's privacy campaigners.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ministers have not held any recent discussions on this matter. The Government has introduced a new system of independent self-regulation of the press that protects press freedom whilst offering real redress when mistakes are made. This is a matter for independent press self-regulators. The Government has no plans formally to review the law in this particular area.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and the Secretary of State for Education about the protection of children from unwarranted press intrusion.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ministers have not held any recent discussions on this matter. The Government has introduced a new system of independent self-regulation of the press that protects press freedom whilst offering real redress when mistakes are made. This is a matter for independent press self-regulators. The Government has no plans formally to review the law in this particular area.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department pays the London living wage to cleaners working in its London office.
Answered by Helen Grant
DCMS does not have any direct employees who are paid less than the rate defined by the Living Wage Foundation as a living wage. DCMS is not responsible for setting pay levels for contracted workers. This is a matter for the organisations who employ them. However, we actively encourage employers to ensure that the living wage is paid and we would monitor these when contracts are being negotiated.