Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department plans to take through the new joint government working group on children’s online safety to assess the impact of digitally-manipulated body images on young people’s mental health.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the UK’s Online Safety Act relevant services will need to prevent children from accessing the most harmful content, including content promoting eating disorders. Ofcom has also proposed in its draft child safety codes that platforms take steps to protect children from depressive content and body image content.
The government recognises that these issues must also be addressed working with our international partners. Once established, the new UK-US working group will facilitate the sharing of expertise and evidence, including from implementation of the UK’s Online Safety Act, on the impact of social media on children’s mental health and well-being.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department plans to take through the new joint government working group on children’s online safety to assess the impact of the illegal sale of IPEDs and anabolic steroids via social media platforms on young people.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK’s Online Safety Act places duties on online platforms to tackle illegal content and protect children’s safety by mitigating risks identified. Platforms will need to put in place proactive measures to prevent the unlawful supply, or offer to supply, of controlled drugs on their services.
The government recognises that these issues must also be addressed working with our international partners. Once established, the new UK-US working group will facilitate the sharing of expertise and evidence, including from implementation of the UK’s Online Safety Act.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help improve mobile phone coverage in (a) Hinckley and Bosworth constituency and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to improving mobile coverage across the UK. Ofcom’s most recent coverage data for the former constituency of Bosworth shows 97% 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile network operators and that 5G is available from at least one mobile network operator outside 88% of premises.
I am aware that Ofcom’s coverage data does not always reflect consumers’ experience of mobile networks at a local level, and I am intent on ensuring Ofcom takes all necessary steps to improve the accuracy of its coverage data.
Alongside this, the Government intends to reform the planning system in a way that will make it easier to build digital infrastructure.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2023 to Question 165420 on Broadband: Leicestershire, what recent progress her Department has made on delivering fast and reliable broadband in (a) Bosworth constituency and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by John Whittingdale - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We continue to make good progress in delivering fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Over 69% of premises in Bosworth can now access a gigabit-capable broadband connection. This is up from 67% in March 2023. Gigabit-capable coverage across Leicestershire has risen from 70% to over 72% in the same period.
On 23 March 2023 Building Digital UK (BDUK) launched a procurement, as part of Project Gigabit, inviting broadband suppliers to bid for a contract to bring gigabit-capable broadband to premises in Leicestershire, including in Bosworth, that are currently not in broadband suppliers' commercial plans.
Leicestershire County Council is also continuing to deliver a GigaHubs project, funded by BDUK, which is due to be completed in March 2024. This project includes the delivery of gigabit-capable broadband to 12 public sector sites in Bosworth that are not due to be covered commercially. To date, a connection has already been delivered to two of these sites; Barlestone CE Primary and Desford Library.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to ensure wider public awareness of broadband social tariffs.
Answered by John Whittingdale - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Ofcom’s latest Affordability Report (April 2023) showed 47% of eligible households were aware of social tariffs, up from 16% in January 2022. While we recognise the progress, more is needed to ensure households know about the support available.
In November, the Government - as part of Help for Households - launched a UK-wide multichannel campaign to publicise social tariffs among eligible households. The campaign partnered with a range of stakeholders - including other government departments, job centres, libraries, local authorities, consumer groups and internet service providers - to maximise the reach of our messaging.
The Government has also provided information directly to libraries, the regional school networks across the UK and via jobcentre work coaches to enable them to provide information directly to those on Universal Credit. In March, the Minister for Digital Infrastructure wrote to all members of the House of Commons to ask them to raise awareness in their constituencies.
We continue to work closely with providers and have called on the industry to do more to promote social tariffs to their eligible customers.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress her Department has made on delivering fast and reliable broadband in (a) Bosworth constituency and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by Julia Lopez
In January 2019, only 0.2% of premises in the Bosworth constituency had access to fast, reliable gigabit-capable broadband (speeds over over 1,000Mbps). That figure has leapt to over 67% today. During the same period, gigabit-capable coverage across Leicestershire has risen from 1.7% to over 70% today.
We are committed to increasing this coverage further through Project Gigabit, the Government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. As part of this, we have begun launching procurements that give subsidies to broadband suppliers to build gigabit-capable infrastructure to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans alone.
Up to 2,900 premises in the Bosworth constituency are likely to be included in our Leicestershire and Warwickshire procurement, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks.
The Bosworth constituency has also made good use of our Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. More than 50 premises in the constituency have claimed and received payment for a voucher through the scheme, with a value of almost £85,000.
Alongside this, Leicestershire County Council is delivering a GigaHubs project, funded by Building Digital UK, which includes 12 sites in the Bosworth constituency. The sites will act as hubs bringing gigabit-capable broadband into the heart of hard-to-reach communities for the first time, making it more commercially attractive for suppliers to deliver gigabit connectivity to the surrounding communities.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress her Department has made on delivering fast and reliable broadband throughout the UK.
Answered by Julia Lopez
Over 74% of premises across the UK can now access gigabit-capable broadband, up from just 6% in 2019.
Project Gigabit is the Government’s £5 billion mission to deliver fast, reliable broadband across the UK. More than £1 billion of public subsidy has been made available to broadband suppliers to extend their gigabit-capable networks to rural and hard to reach parts of the country. To date, we have awarded six contracts in locations from Cornwall to Cumbria, and we have launched a further 15 procurements, which combined will deliver fast, reliable broadband to up to 748,000 premises that would have otherwise missed out.
Support is also available for homes and businesses through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. The voucher scheme provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses in rural areas towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband via local community broadband projects. To date, almost 84,000 vouchers have been used to connect premises to gigabit-capable broadband.