Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of (a) small businesses, (b) large corporations and (c) Government departments and agencies reported breaches of cyber security in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matt Warman
In 2020, 43% of micro businesses, 62% of small businesses and 75% of large businesses had identified cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Figures for the last 4 years are taken from the Cyber Security Breaches Survey.
| Micro (1-9 staff) | Small (10-49 staff) | Large (250+ staff) |
2020 | 43% | 62% | 75% |
2019 | 28% | 40% | 61% |
2018 | 40% | 47% | 72% |
2017 | 38% | 52% | 68% |
The survey aims to account for all the types of breaches or attacks that organisations might face including accidental breaches, as well intentional and recorded cyber attacks that did not get past an organisation’s defences. This only measures the breaches or attacks that organisations have themselves identified so the figures reported may underestimate the full extent of the problem.
The total number of cyber incidents affecting central government departments is not held centrally. However, since its creation in 2016 the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has continued to provide assistance to central government departments and agencies to secure their networks and develop their departmental security strategies. This includes the deployment of the NCSC’s Host-Based Capability tool to over 35,000 government devices in the past year, which helps to collect and analyse technical metadata to help government departments understand the threat they face, and ongoing engagement with government departments and agencies as part of the Active Cyber Defence service.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) small and medium-sized enterprises and (b) other businesses have signed up to the Cyber Essentials Scheme.
Answered by Matt Warman
A total of 44,443 Cyber Essentials certificates have been awarded to organisations. The breakdown is as follows:
Micro 9,559
Small 14,423
Medium 9,068
Large 7,116
Some of the older certificates do not have an organisation size recorded, which is why the combined total above does not add up to 44,443.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many businesses have enrolled on the Cyber Essentials Scheme in Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
From 2016 until the end of April 2020, 26 Cyber Essentials certificates have been awarded to businesses in the Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency. This is an estimate, as there is incomplete location data for some historical certificate entries.
A total of 44,443 certificates have been awarded to organisations across the UK.
A search function to find organisations with Cyber Essentials certificates is available at www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberessentials/search.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
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 it his policy to discontinue plans for a Festival of Britain and reallocate funding allocated to that purpose to supporting entertainment businesses during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department remains committed to delivering Festival 2022 which will showcase the UK’s unique strengths in creativity and innovation and celebrate our place in the world in the 21st century. Festival 2022 will be an opportunity to invest in DCMS sectors as commissioning is expected to start later this year.
In the meantime, the Government has already set out a package to support public services, people and businesses through this period of disruption caused by COVID-19.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to meet with representatives of the Hacked Off group on legislative proposals to independently regulate newspapers (a) print and (b) online media.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government is committed to a free and independent media. DCMS ministers and officials regularly meet with a range of stakeholders to discuss a range of issues, and will consider any proposals put forward with regard to regulation of print and online media.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that rural areas have access to new superfast broadband infrastructure.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government’s Superfast programme has invested more than £1.8bn of public money to provide over 96% of UK premises with access to superfast broadband. BDUK continues to work closely with Local Authorities and Devolved Administrations to deliver through the programme. This also includes identifying further premises in rural areas that do not yet have access to Superfast broadband.
This Government will also deliver on its promise to commit £5bn of public money to make sure the hardest to reach areas will be connected with gigabit-capable connectivity. With this funding, we can deliver world class connectivity in rural areas at the same time as it is deployed to our cities, to ensure that a connected, 21st century Britain is a reality for all communities across the UK.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to minimise (a) the digital divide and (b) digital exclusion particularly among older people.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The UK Government recognises the vital importance of digital skills at all levels - from the basic digital skills people need to make the most of being online, to the general digital skills increasingly needed in every job, through to the high level digital skills for the growing number of specialist digital roles across the economy. As nearly all future jobs will require digital skills we are taking action across the entire education and training pipeline.
The UK Government recognises that, although we live in an increasingly online world, a significant part of the population remains digitally excluded Government is committed to helping elderly people acquire basic digital skills as part of our broader strategy to reduce digital exclusion as outlined in the Digital Strategy.
Government is addressing the digital divide through a number of initiatives.
We are funding the Future Digital Inclusion programme delivered through Online Centres based in libraries and other community spaces. This supports some of the hardest to reach groups in society, including older people. Over the last five years, the programme has supported over 1.3 million adult learners to engage with digital technology and develop their basic digital skills in community settings.
Through its £400,000 Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, the Government is supporting three pilot projects aimed at addressing the digital exclusion of older and disabled people. One pilot, led by Uttlesford Council for Voluntary Service, is developing “smart homes” for elderly people to improve their digital skills, supported by their peers and younger ‘digital buddies’.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to roll-out gigabit broadband (a) in Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency and (b) throughout Scotland.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government has made good progress in the constituency of Linlithgow and East Falkirk, with over £50 million of central government funding allocated to the Rest of Scotland project area. As a result, superfast coverage in the constituency now stands at 97.3% - up from 46.5% in March 2012 and compares favourably to the UK average of 96.5%. Full fibre coverage stands at 11.8%, above the Scottish average figure of 8.8%. In total, the government has invested over £100 million in improving Scotland’s broadband infrastructure.
There are three government funded Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) projects taking place in Scotland - Tay Cities, Shetlands Council and Highlands Council. Almost £12 million of central government funding is being invested to upgrade public sector assets with gigabit-capable infrastructure. These upgrades will then stimulate the market to invest commercially in the surrounding communities.
The Scottish Borderlands area is also a priority for the government’s £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, which is upgrading public sector sites in rural areas with gigabit-capable networks. This programme also offers vouchers for rural customers, which can be used to contribute towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable infrastructure.
In addition, the government has pledged £5 billion to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to the most difficult to reach areas of the UK, including communities in Scotland.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to include in the Online Harms Bill provisions to tackle the potential risk of problem gambling to children of online gaming.
Answered by Matt Warman
As problem gambling is not commonly associated with user-generated content, we do not anticipate that it will be addressed through the Online Harms regulatory framework.
However, the government is aware of concerns that entertainment products, such as some video games, could encourage gambling-like behaviour. We have committed to review the Gambling Act 2005 to make sure it is fit for the digital age, and to tackle issues surrounding loot boxes. We will announce further details in due course.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people who use online platforms are aware of the nature and volume of their data that is retained by the companies responsible for those platforms as a result of that use.
Answered by Margot James
We take both the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. Our new data protection legislation is going to make our laws fit for the digital age in which an ever increasing amount of data is being processed. Organisations will need to be clearer with people how their data will be used and ensure that any consent obtained is clear, unambiguous and purposeful. It will empower people to take control of their data, strengthening their rights to move or delete personal data.