Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in the US Administration on deepfake videos.
Answered by Margot James
Ministers have regular discussions with their US counterparts on a wide range of issues, but have not discussed the specific issue of deepfake videos. However, UK officials have discussed the wider issue of online manipulation with their US counterparts on a number of occasions. We are working closely with a range of partners including the US to tackle disinformation, whatever its source or intent. The Government recognises the potential challenges artificial intelligence and digitally manipulated content such as deepfakes may pose and we are considering these issues carefully as part of work to tackle online manipulation and disinformation.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to improve media literacy.
Answered by Margot James
Government believes that Media Literacy is vital to ensuring citizens can critically appraise information and navigate the online news environment. This is an important part of government’s response to disinformation and in supporting the sustainability of high quality journalism. To this end, as recommended in the Cairncross Review and announced in the Online Harms White Paper, the government will develop a new online media literacy strategy. This will be developed in broad consultation with stakeholders, including major digital, broadcast and news media organisations, the education sector, researchers and civil society. This strategy will ensure a coordinated and strategic approach to online media literacy education and awareness for children, young people and adults.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with his Finnish counterpart on media literacy and tackling disinformation.
Answered by Margot James
Ministers have had no recent discussions with their Finnish counterpart about media literacy and disinformation. However officials have discussed these issues bilaterally with Finland on a number of occasions, most recently on 8 May, as well as in multilateral fora. The UK is working closely with like-minded international partners, including EU Member States, to develop coordinated responses to disinformation and limit its harmful impact on our societies.
The Government believes that media literacy and ensuring citizens can critically appraise information online is key to long-term success in building resilience to disinformation and other online harms. As announced in the Online Harms White Paper, the Government will develop a new online media literacy strategy. This strategy will be developed in broad consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, and will ensure a coordinated and strategic approach to online media literacy education and awareness for children, young people and adults.
We are aware that a number of European partners, including Finland, have developed media literacy strategies to tackle disinformation. The UK will continue to engage with these partners to share best practices and ensure that our response to disinformation is as effective as possible.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
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 of disinformation in the media on the integrity of the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Answered by Margot James
We have seen no evidence of successful interference in UK democratic processes, but we are not complacent. The Online Harms White Paper sets out our expectations for tech companies to take proportionate and proactive measures to minimise the spread of misleading and harmful disinformation.
The Government is working closely with industry, civil society and international partners to do what is necessary to prevent the use of online disinformation to undermine our democratic values and processes. Ahead of the European Parliament elections DCMS has been working closely with analytical teams across government and beyond to monitor for any disinformation campaigns so that we can be ready to respond to them quickly and effectively.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
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 with the Minister for the Cabinet Office on the effect on democracy of the prevalence of deepfake videos.
Answered by Margot James
We have seen no evidence that deepfakes, or other, techniques have been used to successfully interfere in the UK’s democratic processes. We actively engage with international partners, civil society, and industry to tackle disinformation and propaganda. This includes identifying and promoting technical solutions that can be used to detect false content, including deepfakes.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the economic effect of broadband blackspots in (a) the London Borough of Enfield and (b) the Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Margot James
The Department has not conducted a specific analysis of the economic impact of poor broadband connectivity in either the London Borough of Enfield or the Enfield North constituency.
The Department has analysed the impacts of superfast broadband, including the economic impact. Our 2013 UK Broadband Impact Study and an evaluation in 2015 of the UK's National Broadband Scheme are both available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-broadband-impact-study--2 and www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-national-broadband-scheme-an-independent-evaluation.
We have published a further independent evaluation of the Department’s superfast programme, which has provided superfast broadband access to over 4.85 million homes and businesses across the UK, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-economic-impact-and-public-value-of-the-superfast-broadband-programme.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the amount spent by gamblers on fixed-odds betting terminals in Enfield North constituency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Neither the Department nor the Gambling Commission hold information concerning the number of Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals and, therefore spend, on Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals in individual constituencies.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the roll-out of superfast broadband in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) the London Borough of Enfield.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Enfield North constituency has 43,183 premises and we estimate from the available supplier data that coverage will reach around 99.3% by the end of commercial roll-out, or approximately 42,800, will have access to superfast broadband.
The Government is encouraging the commercial sector to extend coverage across cities. BT has announced £50 million of investment in new commercial coverage, much of which will be aimed at London, and Virgin Media has announced a demand led investment programme of £3 billion over the next few years. There are also many other active suppliers in London.
As a result of commercially-led delivery and public funding in areas which are not commercially viable, superfast broadband coverage across the UK now reaches 90% of premises, providing access to speeds of more than 24Mbps. Coverage is on track to increase to 95% of premises by December 2017. Furthermore, the Government is committed to a Universal Service Obligation, so all premises in the country will have access to broadband at a speed of 10Mbps with the mechanism to do this, the Digital Economy Bill, in place by the end of this Parliament.