Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Public Switch Telephone Network switch off on businesses across the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The retirement of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and its replacement with Internet Protocol technology, is being led by Openreach and Virgin Media, as the relevant infrastructure owners. Openreach and Virgin Media have publicly set out their plans to withdraw these services by the end of 2025. The migration is likely to affect all fixed exchange lines, of which there are 31.3 million in the UK.
Ofcom estimates that 81% of UK households have a landline service, with 4% of UK adults living in a home with a landline and no mobile phone and 3% of UK households having only a landline without any broadband. The Government, Ofcom, and industry are working to ensure that the needs of vulnerable consumers are considered and Ofcom regularly monitors how communication providers are taking steps to ensure they identify and protect vulnerable customers.
In June 2020, the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a government advisory forum on telecoms policy, launched the ‘Future of Voice’ website. This consumer-facing website is designed to inform the public and businesses of the PSTN switchover process. The website has been developed with the support of telecoms companies, Ofcom and DCMS.
The Government will also continue to work closely with various stakeholders, including the telecoms industry, Ofcom, and other Government departments to ensure the country is prepared for the withdrawal of the PSTN, and will continue to consider the best course of action to prepare for the migration.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of vulnerable people who will be impact by the Public Switch Telephone Network switch off.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The retirement of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and its replacement with Internet Protocol technology, is being led by Openreach and Virgin Media, as the relevant infrastructure owners. Openreach and Virgin Media have publicly set out their plans to withdraw these services by the end of 2025. The migration is likely to affect all fixed exchange lines, of which there are 31.3 million in the UK.
Ofcom estimates that 81% of UK households have a landline service, with 4% of UK adults living in a home with a landline and no mobile phone and 3% of UK households having only a landline without any broadband. The Government, Ofcom, and industry are working to ensure that the needs of vulnerable consumers are considered and Ofcom regularly monitors how communication providers are taking steps to ensure they identify and protect vulnerable customers.
In June 2020, the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a government advisory forum on telecoms policy, launched the ‘Future of Voice’ website. This consumer-facing website is designed to inform the public and businesses of the PSTN switchover process. The website has been developed with the support of telecoms companies, Ofcom and DCMS.
The Government will also continue to work closely with various stakeholders, including the telecoms industry, Ofcom, and other Government departments to ensure the country is prepared for the withdrawal of the PSTN, and will continue to consider the best course of action to prepare for the migration.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Ofcom about the Public Switch Telephone Network switch off; and what plans they have, aside from the Broadband Stakeholder Group website, to ensure that (1) consumers, and (2) businesses, are informed of that switch off.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The retirement of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and its replacement with Internet Protocol technology, is being led by Openreach and Virgin Media, as the relevant infrastructure owners. Openreach and Virgin Media have publicly set out their plans to withdraw these services by the end of 2025. The migration is likely to affect all fixed exchange lines, of which there are 31.3 million in the UK.
Ofcom estimates that 81% of UK households have a landline service, with 4% of UK adults living in a home with a landline and no mobile phone and 3% of UK households having only a landline without any broadband. The Government, Ofcom, and industry are working to ensure that the needs of vulnerable consumers are considered and Ofcom regularly monitors how communication providers are taking steps to ensure they identify and protect vulnerable customers.
In June 2020, the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a government advisory forum on telecoms policy, launched the ‘Future of Voice’ website. This consumer-facing website is designed to inform the public and businesses of the PSTN switchover process. The website has been developed with the support of telecoms companies, Ofcom and DCMS.
The Government will also continue to work closely with various stakeholders, including the telecoms industry, Ofcom, and other Government departments to ensure the country is prepared for the withdrawal of the PSTN, and will continue to consider the best course of action to prepare for the migration.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) Ofcom, and (2) Openreach, about the trials in Salisbury and Mildenhall for migrating customers to fibre and withdrawing copper services.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
We are aware of Openreach’s plans to modernise its telecoms network to deliver telephone services over Internet Protocol technology and migrate customers from copper to fibre broadband. As part of this, it is undertaking trials in Salisbury and Mildenhall to test approaches to migration. Openreach has consulted on its plans for the trials and has publicly set out timings. In addition, Ofcom has consulted on changes to regulations in these areas to allow the trials to go ahead. Openreach hopes to complete full migrations in these areas by the end of 2022.
DCMS regularly engages with the telecoms industry, Ofcom, and other Government departments to discuss these upgrades, including Openreach’s trials. Discussions include the impact these upgrades will have on consumers, business and public services. In addition, DCMS has engaged with other Government departments to ensure they are aware of the trials and relevant local government services are prepared.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Intellectual Property Office about the development of guidance similar to “know your customer” guidance for financial services, for wider application under any future online harms legislation.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with organisations on a range of issues, including the challenge of fraud and anonymity online. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.
The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, published in December 2020, sets out expectations on companies to keep their users safe online. This includes a proposed legal duty of care on companies and the appointment of a new communications regulator, Ofcom, to ensure that new laws are enforced.
There are many legitimate reasons why an individual would not wish to identify themselves online. Whistleblowers, victims of modern slavery and survivors of domestic abuse may wish to stay anonymous, to protect their identity online. Our proposals strike the right balance between protecting users’ rights online, while preserving freedom of expression. The Online Safety Bill will be introduced next year.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 to require intermediaries providing commercial services for online businesses to undertake due diligence measures for the verification of the identities of those conducting digital business services.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Her Majesty’s Government has no plans to amend Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 to require intermediaries providing commercial services for online businesses to undertake due diligence measures for the verification of the identities of those conducting digital business services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 25 November that their target for the rollout of gigabit broadband to householders in the UK by 2025 has been revised to 85 per cent, when they estimate 100 per cent of households will have such broadband; and what costs will be saved before 2025 as a result of the new target.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The Government remains committed to delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. Our programme for gigabit-capable broadband has made dramatic progress. More than a third of UK premises now have access to gigabit-capable connections, up from nine per cent when the government took office in July 2019. By next year, more than half of all premises will have access. We are working with industry to target a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage by 2025 but will seek to accelerate rollout further to get as close to 100% as possible.
We remain committed to investing £5bn in bringing gigabit coverage to the hardest to reach areas and will continue to work with suppliers to accelerate this investment.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address regulatory concerns in relation to the fees levied on application developers by major technology platforms.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
We are committed to taking action to protect businesses and users from the potential harms associated with substantial and enduring market power in digital platform markets.
Earlier this year, we accepted all the strategic recommendations of the Furman Review and established the cross-regulator Digital Markets Taskforce to advise on the design and implementation of a new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
On 27 November we confirmed the establishment of a new pro-competition regime for tech giants. A Digital Markets Unit (DMU), housed in the Competition and Markets Authority, will be set up to begin to operationalise the new regime. It will work closely with key regulators, including the ICO and Ofcom, to ensure that the new regime is effective and coherent. The Taskforce has advised us that the DMU should prioritise firms active in particular activities, including app stores. We will consider the expert advice and respond in due course. Government will legislate to put the DMU on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows, following consultation in early 2021.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer from Baroness Barran (HL10058) from 11 November, on what basis they propose to use age assurance as opposed to age verification to prevent children accessing online pornography; what is the difference between the two measures; and what assurance they can give that they are equally effective.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Protecting children is at the heart of our online harms agenda, and wider government priorities. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children than for the typical adult user.
Age assurance is the term used to describe the broad range of technical measures that can be used by a service to establish the age of their users. Age verification is a form of age assurance that provides the highest level of confidence in a user’s age. Currently age verification measures require a user's age to be established through a full identity verification process, for example through passport or credit card data..
We expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including both age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography and to protect them from other harms.
We will be setting out further details on our approach for protecting children, including the use of age assurance, in the full government response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, which will be published this year. We will follow this with legislation, which will be ready early next year.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to encourage the adoption of British Board of Film Classification and Video Standards Council best practice guidelines on voluntary age labelling; and what plans they have to introduce legislation on age labelling if it is not implemented voluntarily.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
While adoption of the British Board of Film Classification’s (BBFC) best practice age ratings by online platforms is currently voluntary, we welcome their adoption by Video on Demand platforms.
For example, Netflix has committed to work towards complete coverage of its content under the BBFC’s ratings and support the BBFC’s drive to encourage other Video On Demand platforms to follow suit. By doing so, industry will provide consumers with well recognised age ratings and consumer advice.
We will keep the evidence for legislation in this area under review and will continue to engage with industry on the issue.