Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Scully and Michael Fabricant

Wednesday 3rd May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Last year, during the Eurovision song contest, Russian agents attempted to interfere with the voting for Ukraine. This year, we are hosting the Eurovision song contest. What is the Department doing to ensure that the integrity of the voting will be maintained?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Paul Scully)]

The Government are always aware that there are a number of possible threats to our systems and events. I am not able to discuss the details, but those at the National Cyber Security Centre are world experts at understanding attacks and providing an incident response for the most serious. We want to make sure that all organisations are aware, so we can keep that resilience in our voting process.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Scully and Michael Fabricant

Tuesday 3rd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

When I was in business years ago, it came to something when Ríkisútvarpið in Iceland and Nederlandse Omroep Stichting in Holland paid quicker than the BBC. What can my hon. Friend do to ensure that large businesses pay smaller businesses quickly and on time?

[Paul Scully]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We will be strengthening the Small Business Commissioner’s powers. We already have a tough approach to large companies that do not comply with the payment practices and reporting duty. We are strengthening and reforming the prompt payment code and moving administration to the Small Business Commissioner. The business basics fund competition encourages SMEs to utilise payment technology and boost productivity, and the winners will be announced in April.