Oral Answers to Questions

John Howell Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Michael Ellis]

Of course a document dating from 1201 is very much worth visiting, and we would encourage visits to the hon. Lady’s constituency in order to do that. It is a matter for Parliament whether documents are hosted here, but we would certainly encourage as many people as possible to visit her constituency to see the wonderful things on offer.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

4. What recent assessment he has made of his Department’s progress towards meeting the universal service obligation on superfast broadband coverage.

[The Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Margot James)]

Superfast broadband is now available to 95% of UK premises, and roll-out will continue to extend coverage to as much of the remaining 5% as possible. By 2020, the universal service obligation will give everyone the legal right to high-speed broadband of at least 10 megabits per second.

[John Howell]

My constituency consists of some small rural villages that, despite being relatively close to London, do not have good internet access. What can be done to help them?

[Margot James]

The Government are taking a range of measures to help my hon. Friend’s villages. The Better Broadband scheme is available right now to anyone who cannot access speeds above 2 megabits per second. In the longer term, our universal service obligation will give everyone a right to broadband speeds of 10 megabits per second or higher by 2020.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Attorney General]

The hon. Lady needs to recognise that the charter of fundamental rights is an EU document—it applies to member states’ application of EU law. When we are no longer members of the EU, it does not make much sense for us to continue to adhere to it. On the substance of her point, the Government have been very clear that we will protect the substantive rights in other places, as we already do to a very large degree through domestic law, the European convention on human rights and in other ways.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

10. What steps the CPS is taking to increase the effectiveness of prosecutions for crimes against disabled people.

[The Solicitor General (Robert Buckland)]

The effects of crimes against disabled people are damaging and wide-ranging, and those crimes have no place in our society. To raise awareness of them, the CPS has revised its public policy statement, and published guides on reporting and recognising hate crime, and a support guide for victims with disabilities.

[John Howell]

What more can disability groups in my constituency do to raise the question of disability hate crime?

[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend is right to talk about the invaluable role played by disability support groups. Third-party reporting, where people with disabilities can have the confidence to report a crime, is invaluable. My advice would be for them to work with the police to make sure that we drive up rates of reporting and the number of prosecutions.