Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will have discussions with local authorities on the long-term effect of the speaking of Welsh of inter-library loan charges for Welsh language books.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities. It is for each local authority to determine operational matters such as its stock management policy, including participation in an inter-library loan service. This is a co-operative and voluntary agreement among libraries which allows books and other materials from one library to be loaned out to a user from another.
Library services providing an inter-library loan service can apply charges for all book titles requested for borrowing from other library services, and are not limited to Welsh language books.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish guidance on the brand advertising exemption from advertising restrictions contained in the Health and Care Bill.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The brand advertising exemption referred to in the government’s 2021 consultation response on less healthy food and drink advertising is not expressly referred to in the Health and Care Bill, as the scope of the restrictions extend only to the advertising of identifiable less healthy food and drink products. This means that brand advertising is out of scope, and provided that there are no identifiable products, food and drink brands can continue to advertise.
It is the government’s intention to work with regulators to ensure that clear guidance is available for businesses to understand all elements of the restrictions and ensure their compliance. This will include providing more detail on brand advertising. We expect this guidance to be made available for consultation later this year. The exact timing is a matter for regulators.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on (a) businesses and (b) employment of the proposed advertising restrictions on products high in fat, sugar and salt.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Prime Minister has made it clear that tackling obesity is a priority for this Government. In July 2020 the Government outlined it’s Tackling Obesity strategy which details a host of measures aimed at empowering people to live the healthier lives they want to live.
The Government proposed various options for restricting HFSS advertising in the 2019 and 2020 consultations targeted at protecting children from being exposed to advertising of unhealthy food products.
Balanced against the priority of protecting children and tackling obesity, we have carefully considered the impact that any restrictions will have on industry and in particular the potential for market distortion or disproportionate effects on key business sectors.
The final policy will be set out in our consultation response due to be published shortly. This will be accompanied by a final impact assessment. We will support businesses, individuals and organisations to prepare for changes to the rules around HFSS advertising.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
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 improve mobile phone coverage in (a) North East Bedfordshire constituency and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the mobile network operators’ (MNOs) Shared Rural Network (SRN) proposal. The proposal would share investment costs between the MNOs and government and increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025. It will be underpinned by a legally binding coverage commitment from each operator.
The Government's in-principle support is subject to detailed negotiations. While this is not yet a done deal, the Prime Minister has made improvements to rural mobile coverage part of his first 100 days pledge. I will continue to work with the sector to make that happen, but I will also explore all possible options to meet our mobile coverage ambitions, including rural roaming.
The exact site deployment plans and timescales will be managed by the MNOs themselves in order for them to best deliver the agreed coverage outcomes. So until the operators’ final radio planning exercise is complete, neither the Government nor the operators will know the precise location or number of new or upgraded masts. However, the operators will be consulting with local communities as their roll out plans become clearer.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
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 improve broadband coverage in North East Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government has made significant progress in North East Bedfordshire, with over £8 million of central government funding allocated to the Bedford and Milton Keynes project area. As a result, 95.9% of premises now have access to superfast broadband - up from 54.3% in February 2012.
There are a range of options available to those in North East Bedfordshire suffering from slow speeds. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is available to those who are not due to receive an upgrade from a publicly funded rollout programme. Small to medium sized businesses can claim a voucher worth up to £2,500, and residents can claim a voucher worth up to £500 as part of a group project to offset the costs of installing gigabit-capable infrastructure. Increased funding is available to rural premises.
In addition to this, the government has pledged £5 billion to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to the most difficult to reach areas of the UK.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department is making on determining a permanent memorial to mark the Sikh contribution to the First World War.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
UK Government are not organising a memorial however the Sikh community have plans in place to unveil a permanent memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire in the autumn.