Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
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 prepare for the situation in which companies licensed by Ofcom to broadcast throughout the EU are unable to do so after the UK leaves the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
We understand the importance of broadcast licensing arrangements for the sector. As stated by the Prime Minister in her Mansion House speech earlier this year, we are seeking to strike a unique deal with the EU, which would allow for continued cross-border broadcasting post EU Exit. We are committed to working with the broadcasting sector to understand their needs and concerns, and will work hard to negotiate the right future relationship with the EU over the coming months.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what training his Department has provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil servants on devolution and inter-governmental relations; how many such courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such training courses in each of the last five years.
Answered by Margot James
Extensive training is provided through Civil Service Learning, the Policy Profession and the UK Governance and Devolution Team in the Cabinet Office.
In addition to this, the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport’s (DCMS) in-house Devolution team provides complementary learning through:
Information on take-up of this training offer over the past five years is not held by the Department.
Training for DCMS senior civil servants and fast stream civil servants is provided centrally by Cabinet Office.
Since its release in November 2016, ten DCMS civil servants have undertaken the online training for the course 'devolution and intergovernmental working;' DCMS have hosted four civil servants from devolved administrations through the Interchange Programme; and two DCMS civil servants have been out on Interchange to devolved administrations since 2017/18.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what translation arrangements his Department has put in place to enable efficient and accurate handling of Welsh language correspondence from (a) MPs and (b) the general public.
Answered by Margot James
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport receives very low numbers of correspondence in Welsh. Because of the low numbers involved, the Department uses an external translation service on an ad-hoc basis when we receive any such correspondence.
The Department's commitment to answering Welsh correspondence, in the language that it is written, is the same as for correspondence written in English. That is, within 20 working days of receipt.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department plans to spend on projects relating to the UK leaving the EU in the next five years; and if he will list the projects to which that funding has been assigned.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
HM Treasury has already allocated departments nearly £700 million to prepare for Brexit: £412m for DIT, FCO and DExEU over the parliament at Autumn Statement 2016 and nearly £300m across a number of departments from the Reserve in 17/18. My Department received £9m of this funding in 17/18.
At Autumn Budget 2017 HM Treasury made another £3bn of additional funding available over 18/19 and 19/20 – £1.5bn in each year. We are currently working with HM Treasury to determine our allocation for 18/19 with the aim to agree this soon.
Departmental allocations for 19/20 will be agreed later on in the year and decisions on funding in 20/21 and beyond will be decided at the next Spending Review. This is because requirements in these years will be heavily affected by what is agreed in our negotiations with the EU.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department’s policy is on tackling the use of hate speech on online gaming platforms.
Answered by Margot James
On 11 October the Government set out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Internet Safety Strategy green paper considers options for working with online platforms, game publishers, game developers and with agencies such as the Video Standards Council Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games.
Through the Strategy consultation we have sought views on a number of online safety initiatives, including working with the video games industry to share guidance and best practice to help ensure their consumers can have a safe and enjoyable experience online. The Strategy also highlighted the announcement made by Home Secretary to create an Online Hate Crime Hub that will ensure that victims of online hate crime have their cases effectively and efficiently investigated.
The consultation closed in December and we are now analysing the responses. A government response will be published in due course. Details of Ministerial meetings can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will include online gaming platforms in the UK Government’s code of practice for social media providers and if she will bake the code legally binding.
Answered by Margot James
On 11 October the Government set out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Internet Safety Strategy green paper considers options for working with online platforms, game publishers, game developers and with agencies such as the Video Standards Council Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games.
Through the Strategy consultation we have sought views on a number of online safety initiatives, including working with the video games industry to share guidance and best practice to help ensure their consumers can have a safe and enjoyable experience online. The Strategy also highlighted the announcement made by Home Secretary to create an Online Hate Crime Hub that will ensure that victims of online hate crime have their cases effectively and efficiently investigated.
The consultation closed in December and we are now analysing the responses. A government response will be published in due course. Details of Ministerial meetings can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with online gaming platform providers on the creation of a voluntary code of conduct for online gaming; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
On 11 October the Government set out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Internet Safety Strategy green paper considers options for working with online platforms, game publishers, game developers and with agencies such as the Video Standards Council Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games.
Through the Strategy consultation we have sought views on a number of online safety initiatives, including working with the video games industry to share guidance and best practice to help ensure their consumers can have a safe and enjoyable experience online. The Strategy also highlighted the announcement made by Home Secretary to create an Online Hate Crime Hub that will ensure that victims of online hate crime have their cases effectively and efficiently investigated.
The consultation closed in December and we are now analysing the responses. A government response will be published in due course. Details of Ministerial meetings can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with online gaming platform providers on strengthening user guidelines to ensure that hate speech is removed and that offending users are banned.
Answered by Margot James
On 11 October the Government set out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Internet Safety Strategy green paper considers options for working with online platforms, game publishers, game developers and with agencies such as the Video Standards Council Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games.
Through the Strategy consultation we have sought views on a number of online safety initiatives, including working with the video games industry to share guidance and best practice to help ensure their consumers can have a safe and enjoyable experience online. The Strategy also highlighted the announcement made by Home Secretary to create an Online Hate Crime Hub that will ensure that victims of online hate crime have their cases effectively and efficiently investigated.
The consultation closed in December and we are now analysing the responses. A government response will be published in due course. Details of Ministerial meetings can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with online gaming platform providers on ensuring that moderators identify and remove hate speech and ban offending users.
Answered by Margot James
On 11 October the Government set out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Internet Safety Strategy green paper considers options for working with online platforms, game publishers, game developers and with agencies such as the Video Standards Council Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games.
Through the Strategy consultation we have sought views on a number of online safety initiatives, including working with the video games industry to share guidance and best practice to help ensure their consumers can have a safe and enjoyable experience online. The Strategy also highlighted the announcement made by Home Secretary to create an Online Hate Crime Hub that will ensure that victims of online hate crime have their cases effectively and efficiently investigated.
The consultation closed in December and we are now analysing the responses. A government response will be published in due course. Details of Ministerial meetings can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what amount of her Department's annual expenditure is allocated to work relating to the UK's exit from the EU.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The UK's exit from the European Union is clearly of fundamental importance to the Government. Due to the complex and cross-cutting nature of this work, we cannot quantify the Department's specific annual expenditure as it encompasses so many different aspects of the Department's work