Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Danczuk and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Thursday 21st April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

The hon. Gentleman’s point about universities is very well made. Universities play an increasingly important role in local cultural provision. That is something that they themselves have driven, and it is very welcome. They are very important partners.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Ind)]

2. What progress is being made on implementation of the Leveson inquiry recommendations.

Communications Infrastructure and Flooding: North West

Debate between Simon Danczuk and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Tuesday 9th February 2016 Westminster Hall

[Mr Vaizey]

My hon. Friend is quite right to bring me to account and ensure that I return to the subject matter in hand, but I wanted to mention the review because it will take telecoms resilience into account. I will go on to talk about that in more detail in a minute, but it is important to note that that work is in addition to that of the ministerial recovery group, which was established to ensure that local areas continue to receive co-ordinated support as they rebuild after the winter’s flooding.

Let me turn to what happened with telecoms infrastructure as a result of the floods. It is the case that it was affected badly in places, so my hon. Friend’s point was well made. Indeed, as the hon. Member for Rochdale pointed out, telecoms is essential to all our small businesses as well as to us all in our lives, so any disruption has a major impact on our ability to go about our lives and run our businesses. It is interesting to note that the main disruption was caused not by the telecoms network being taken out, but by power failures in the region. However, flooding did affect two key infrastructure sites: one was at the BT exchange in York and the other was at a Vodafone site—actually it was at a Cable & Wireless site, which is owned by Vodafone—in Leeds. The flooding in York on 27 December affected about 50,000 fixed-line and 46,000 broadband customers and there were knock-on impacts on mobile operators whose networks went through the exchange. BT brought the system back online within 24 hours and it worked with the fire service to protect the exchange, because Storm Frank was on its way.

The flooding at the Vodafone site, which also happened on 27 December, disrupted 999 services for a matter of hours as well as some emergency services communications. I stress that I was in touch with both companies throughout the incidents and the national alert for telecoms was invoked several times. That process brings together representatives from the UK’s major communications providers with Government bodies to ensure that everyone across the industry and Government has the latest information on what is happening.

In relation to Rochdale, there were four separate incidents that involved damaged cables. Two were quite complex, technical cable repairs that involved several thousand connections. The other two were located under carriageways, one of which was not damage caused by flooding per se but damage to a BT cable caused by other contractors. Obviously, it takes time to locate the exact point of the cable break and such repairs require permission from the local council to dig up the carriageways and various permits from councils in connection with access to manhole covers, putting traffic-light controls in place and so on.

[Simon Danczuk]

For the record, Rochdale Council was excellent in meeting those requirements and it acted as soon as it was contacted by BT Openreach. However, BT Openreach was lax in calling for the authority to take action.

[Mr Vaizey]

I note what the hon. Gentleman says and I will respond to him imminently.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Danczuk and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Thursday 11th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

I agree with my hon. Friend. We really need much greater openness about the payment practices of businesses. Knowing who are good payers and bad payers is essential in deciding with whom to trade. We will therefore bring forward legislation to require large and listed companies to publish their payment practices and performance. We will also work with business groups to strengthen the prompt payment code.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

There have been a number of attempts to amend the Deregulation Bill to reform retransmission fees for public sector broadcasters in the UK. Will the Minister look at the report published on Monday, which argues that reform could provide millions of pounds for the creative industries in the United Kingdom? Does he agree that the reform of retransmission fees should be included in the Deregulation Bill?

[Mr Vaizey]

The hon. Gentleman is referring to ITV’s report, which calls for ITV to be allowed to charge fees to other platforms. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will have read the brilliant speech given by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at the Royal Television Society earlier this week, when he said—I can almost quote it from memory, it was that good—that he will take a “long, hard look” at retransmission fees.

Regional Newspapers

Debate between Simon Danczuk and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Wednesday 5th December 2012 Westminster Hall

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) for securing this important debate, and I am more than happy to put on record that he made an excellent speech.

I had not intended to speak about my local newspaper, but I cannot help feeling that a precedent has been set. I now feel obliged to talk at some length about the Rochdale Observer and the Manchester Evening News. They are both part of Trinity Mirror group, which I would argue is one of the fairer and more balanced publishers in the United Kingdom.

The reporting on the Rochdale Observer is second to none: community news, local sport, profiling of businesses and events. Its features on the history of Rochdale are fantastic, and the excellent recipes by a local restaurateur, Andrew Nutter, are spot on; I have attempted some of them on occasion and failed miserably. There is a great variety of news, stories and features for people to enjoy, and that must be celebrated. However, the paper also brings national news to local level. It provides a review of regional and sub-regional news, but what it does best, obviously, is provide news for the town—down to district level, whether in Littleborough, Milnrow or Newhey. It provides real focus, even to street level on occasion.

Most importantly, the role that the paper plays in democracy should not be underestimated. We occasionally talk about the editor of the Rochdale Observer, Gerry Sammon, as Rochdale’s answer to Rupert Murdoch, which is a little unfair as he is much more reasonable, amiable and friendly than that—and very fair. The paper provides scrutiny of the council, MPs and other private and public organisations. It is the people’s champion in Rochdale, giving local people a voice. Like my colleagues I buy the paper every week, and always turn first to the letters pages, to see what Rochdalians have to say about the events of the day. The paper also gives support to campaigns. The hon. Member for Burton mentioned charitable work, which is important, and the Rochdale Observer does that; but it runs other campaigns too. One was about shopping locally. It was a fantastic campaign to urge Rochdalians to shop in the town centre and make the most of it.

The paper has also harnessed technology—something that has been touched on in the debate. The newspaper is published twice weekly but the website provides breaking news on an hourly basis. It also provides wider reach to people who might not pick up the newspaper. As to social media the paper has embraced Twitter exceptionally well. I follow Twitter when I am in Parliament; I follow Chris Jones, one of the local government journalists on the paper, who tweets from the full council meeting, so I can find out instantly what is going on there.

[Mr Vaizey]

I hope that the hon. Gentleman does not mind me intervening on his speech, and I welcome him to the Chamber as a new Member of Parliament. On the subject of digital media and local newspapers, is he aware that when I tried to get a link to him and his campaign priorities the Rochdale website does not take me to the page? Does he agree that he must impress on Rochdale’s Rupert Murdoch the need to maintain links to news stories about the new local MP?

[Simon Danczuk]

Absolutely. The message will have been received, I have no doubt. I will check Twitter shortly after I sit down to see whether the paper has picked up on that point.