Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will commission research on the implementation of laws on the right to be forgotten in European countries.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Under the UK’s data protection legislation, people have the right to request organisations to erase their personal data, for example when its use is no longer necessary. The right to be forgotten is not absolute and organisations may refuse a request where they need to retain it, for example to comply with a legal obligation or for reasons of public interest in the area of public health. The UK’s legislation on the right to be forgotten is identical to the legislation which applies in EU countries under the EU GDPR. If a person is dissatisfied with the way that an organisation has considered their request for erasure, they can complain to the data protection regulator, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.
We have no plans to commission research on the implementation of laws on the right to be forgotten in European countries.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of whether her Department's broadband connectivity targets will be met by 2025.
Answered by Paul Scully
Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Its objective is to level up the UK by giving hard-to-reach areas access to gigabit-capable internet speeds and, coupled with broadband suppliers’ commercial delivery, support the government’s target of nationwide gigabit-capable broadband by 2030.
Today, more than 73% of UK premises have access to gigabit-capable broadband, up from just 6% in January 2019. We are on track to achieve our milestone target of 85% by the end of 2025.
Building Digital UK has set out the baseline trajectory to meet this target, and publishes quarterly updates on the progress of Project Gigabit.