Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs on the potential impact of the merger of BBC World News and the BBC News Channel on democracy in (a) the UK and (b) African countries.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government strongly supports the BBC’s mission to bring high quality and impartial news to global audiences in some of the most remote places in the world, particularly where free speech is limited.
The BBC’s proposal to merge BBC News and BBC World News forms part of their plan announced on 26 May to build a digital-first organisation, and means they will continue providing a 24-hour news channel for the UK and overseas.
We recognise that in the current fiscal context, the BBC, like other organisations, is facing difficult financial decisions. However, the BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, and decisions on service delivery are a matter for them.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with representatives of UEFA on (a) making an assessment of the suitability of the Fortuna Arena for hosting and (b) steps to help ensure the security of fans at the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League Final.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The safety of fans at the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League Final will be the responsibility of the stadium owners and UEFA. All relevant UK bodies (including the Sports Ground Safety Authority and the UK Football Policing Unit) will engage with the appropriate organisations to assist with security planning if a UK team is involved.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the budget of the BBC World Service as part of the UK's efforts to counter Russian disinformation in African states.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government strongly values the work of the BBC World Service and its independent and impartial broadcasting. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine means that BBC World Service channels are playing an increasingly valuable role in challenging disinformation emanating from the Kremlin.
The Secretary of State has made it clear to the BBC in her letter confirming the final licence fee settlement that it should continue to make a substantive investment from the licence fee into the World Service to ensure that it continues to effectively reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world - in English and through its language services.
As set out in the Framework Agreement the BBC should continue to agree objectives, priorities and targets for the World Service with the Foreign Secretary, as well as the languages in which the World Service is to be provided, and any changes to these matters. The World Service’s Spending Review settlement for the period 2022 to 2025 from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will be confirmed shortly.
In addition on 24th March the government announced an additional £4.1m of funding for the BBC World Service, to support its Ukrainian and Russian language services. We are not considering providing any further additional funding at this time.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 support social enterprises affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government recognises the important social and economic contribution that social enterprises are making across the country.
Social enterprises continue to benefit from the unprecedented package of support made available by the government, including Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Many will also have benefited from government grants where they have been required to close non-essential retail.
In addition to cross economy measures the Government made available a £750 million package of funding, specifically for charities, social enterprises, along with unlocking an additional £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts. This funding has helped over 13,000 organisations continue to deliver vital services for those most affected by the pandemic.
We continue to monitor sector health closely. The government is committed to working with social enterprise representatives to support a strong and resilient sector.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to provide additional funding through the School Games Organiser scheme for additional work with schools in 2021-22 to improve levels of pupil physical activity following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Physical education (PE) and school sport plays an important role in supporting children and young people to be physically active, particularly during the current COVID-19 restrictions. The Department is working with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care on how to support better PE, sport and physical activity provision for all children and young people. This is part of our continuing work to deliver our joint school sport and activity action plan, published in 2019.
I can confirm that the School Games Organisers are now fully funded for the 2021/22 financial year. Funding beyond that point will be subject to future Government Spending Review decisions.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of making an announcement on School Games Organiser funding with a short period remaining before the previous funding round will end on (a) the efficacy of programmes for pupil health and wellbeing, (b) additional costs for participant schools and (c) staff job security.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Physical education (PE) and school sport plays an important role in supporting children and young people to be physically active, particularly during the current COVID-19 restrictions. The Department is working with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care on how to support better PE, sport and physical activity provision for all children and young people. This is part of our continuing work to deliver our joint school sport and activity action plan, published in 2019.
I can confirm that the School Games Organisers are now fully funded for the 2021/22 financial year. Funding beyond that point will be subject to future Government Spending Review decisions.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to announce School Games Organiser funding from October 2021.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Physical education (PE) and school sport plays an important role in supporting children and young people to be physically active, particularly during the current COVID-19 restrictions. The Department is working with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care on how to support better PE, sport and physical activity provision for all children and young people. This is part of our continuing work to deliver our joint school sport and activity action plan, published in 2019.
I can confirm that the School Games Organisers are now fully funded for the 2021/22 financial year. Funding beyond that point will be subject to future Government Spending Review decisions.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 adequacy of existing regulations to tackle the use of automated bots to bulk purchase gaming consoles and computer components upon release, circumventing retailer policies against bulk purchasing and enabling immediate resale at prices higher than the Manufacturer’s Recommended Retail Price.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We know that bulk purchasing for the purpose of reselling at profit through automated bots is a concern for some members of the games industry and their customers. Officials have discussed reports of games console scalping with the trade association for the video games industry, Ukie, who have been considering for example whether there is any additional advice games companies could provide to consumers.
The UK has an extensive framework of consumer protection law to ensure people get a fair deal when buying goods and services. For example, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 protect consumers when they make online purchases of goods, services or digital content from business traders. This includes rights of redress should there be a problem with a product, rules around clear labelling and pre-contractual information, and protection from unfair contractual terms.
However, these rules do not generally extend to guaranteeing the price for the product, nor its availability. Traders are generally able to set their own prices, so long as the price is clear and not misleading and the firm is not abusing a dominant position.
More broadly, as a government we want the UK to be a society in which technology works to the benefit of all citizens. For this to be the case, we must ensure we have the right rules in place to unlock these benefits while also protecting people from harm. That’s why we will pursue a pro-tech approach to regulating digital technologies, which will promote competition and innovation and build public trust through greater safety and security for users of digital tech.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 potential merits of establishing (a) a DBS checking process and (b) safeguarding guidance for e-sports coaching.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government recognises the value of esports which has the potential to develop as an area of real national strength in the UK, building on our world-class video games, entertainment and sports sectors.
To deliver on this, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recently hosted the first government roundtable with the esports industry, discussing a range of issues including the importance of safeguarding to ensure young people can engage with esports safely.
Safeguarding will be a key area of consideration as the government builds on the roundtable, developing plans over the next few months to support the growth of a safe and inclusive esports sector in the UK.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the New York Times report, entitled How YouTube Radicalised Brazil, published 11 August 2019, if she will make an assessment of whether YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has played a role in increasing (a) radicalisation and (b) misinformation.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government recognises the importance of algorithms as part of the responsible deployment of digital technologies. To this end, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) established the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) in November 2018. The Centre provides government with independent, expert advice on measures needed to enable/ensure safe, ethical and innovative uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data-driven technologies. The Centre’s 2019/20 Work Programme is focused on delivering two major reviews, including one on online targeting. The Targeting Review is investigating how data is used to shape people’s online environments via the personalisation and targeting of messages, content and services online. Interim findings were published in July 2019, alongside a literature review, and the Centre will publish its final recommendations this December.
In addition, the Online Harms White Paper sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. This will make companies more responsible for their users’ safety online. The government expects companies to proactively engage in looking at tech solutions, including ensuring their algorithms do not inadvertently cause harm. We are working closely with social media platforms to encourage and promote responsible behaviour ahead of the implementation of the online harms regulatory framework.