Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 economic effect of Cineworld's decision to close its cinemas affecting up to 6,000 UK jobs.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government deeply regrets the unfortunate news of Cineworld’s temporary closure and is in direct and regular contact with the screen industry, including distributors and exhibitors, as well as through the BFI Screen Sector Task Force.
The government has supported cinemas through the VAT cut on tickets and concessions, business rates holiday and Bounce back loans. Independent cinemas are also eligible for a share of £30m from our unprecedented £1.57bn Culture Recovery Rund, and funding has started to be allocated already.
We recognise that cinemas need an incoming stream of new releases to show and we are supporting production by establishing a £500 million in a UK-wide Film and TV Production Restart Scheme to help get productions back up and running again. This will support the creation of new content which can be released into cinemas of all sizes.
Cinemas up and down the country are open for business and Covid secure - we urge the British public to support their local cinema and save jobs by visiting and enjoying a film in accordance with the guidance.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will adopt a list of specific high-value datasets similar to the European Commission’s Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information which was entered into force on 16 July 2019.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK Government Licensing Framework is designed to support our drive to open up access to publicly held information and datasets, promoting transparency and enabling wider economic and social gain.
The Framework mandates the Open Government Licence, a set of terms and conditions which facilitate the re-use of a wide range of public sector information free of charge, as the default licence for Crown bodies, and recommends it for other public sector bodies. It is our policy that public sector information should be licensed for use and re-use free of charge under the Licence, with only a few exceptions.
In the global recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, open data and sharing of best practice will be more vital than ever. Data will underpin our future resilience and future economy, and further detail will be set out in our National Data Strategy, which we are aiming to publish later this year.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to publish the National Data Strategy for the UK in 2020.
Answered by John Whittingdale
This government is committed to delivering an ambitious, pro-growth National Data Strategy. In the global recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, data will be more vital than ever, underpinning our future resilience and future economy. We aim to publish the strategy in 2020.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 potential benefits to (a) partially sighted and (b) blind people of (i) e-readers and (ii) other digital reading materials; and what steps her Department is taking to increase access to those materials.
Answered by Matt Warman
The UK Government recognises that, although we live in an increasingly online world, a significant part of the population remains digitally excluded, and as a Government we are actively committed to tackling digital exclusion. In the Digital Strategy, we committed to enabling people in every part of society - irrespective of age, gender, physical ability, ethnicity, health conditions, or socio-economic status - to access the opportunities of the internet.
In addition, most public libraries offer the loan of e-books and e-audio books, with some also making available the loan of e-book readers and other technology to enlarge the print. A number of local authorities use their website to communicate the services available to visually impaired people from their libraries.
Libraries Connected has developed the Six Steps Promise with the Royal National Institute for the Blind and Share the Vision to ensure libraries can support people with reduced vision. The promise includes:
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 benefits of e-readers and other digital reading materials to partially sighted or blind people; and what steps her Department takes to promote access to these materials.
Answered by Matt Warman
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries of Thursday 15 November 2018, Official Report, column 545, whether his Department’s proposed Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom will include measures to tackle misleading advertising of fibre broadband.
Answered by Margot James
We are currently developing our Statement of Strategic Priorities (SSP) and will consult on it in due course.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries of Thursday 15 November 2018, Official Report, column 545, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the misleading advertising of fibre broadband.
Answered by Margot James
The 2017 Digital Strategy set out that Government would work with regulators and industry to ensure that the advertising of broadband reflects the speeds that consumers can expect to receive and accurately describes the technology used.
Since the Digital Strategy was published, the ASA has implemented new guidance, which states that speed claims should be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds.
The ASA also reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. In June, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review (JR) of the ASA's decision. The next stage is for the Administrative Court to make a substantive decision on the JR.
The Government remains committed to working with regulators and industry to ensure that consumers receive clear, concise and accurate information in order to make informed choices about their broadband, particularly as the rollout of new technologies like full fibre broadband increases.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries of Thursday 15 November 2018, Official Report, column 545, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the statement that using the term fibre in advertising for part-copper broadband is misleading advertising.
Answered by Margot James
The 2017 Digital Strategy set out that Government would work with regulators and industry to ensure that the advertising of broadband reflects the speeds that consumers can expect to receive and accurately describes the technology used.
Since the Digital Strategy was published, the ASA has implemented new guidance, which states that speed claims should be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds.
The ASA also reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. In June, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review (JR) of the ASA's decision. The next stage is for the Administrative Court to make a substantive decision on the JR.
The Government remains committed to working with regulators and industry to ensure that consumers receive clear, concise and accurate information in order to make informed choices about their broadband, particularly as the rollout of new technologies like full fibre broadband increases.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the announcement made by the Prime Minister in January 2018, when his Department plans to complete its assessment of the modifications required to the online liability regime in the UK.
Answered by Margot James
As part of the Internet Safety Strategy, DCMS has been reviewing the liability that intermediaries have for illegal content that they host. We will set out out plans in the winter in the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many social media companies complied with the September 2018 deadline to supply data to support the publication of the first Annual Transparency Report.
Answered by Margot James
We have engaged with a number of companies who have supplied information which we are using to inform our future approach to transparency reporting. Further details of this work will be set out in our forthcoming Online Harms White Paper.