Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether there is a requirement for telephone providers to have a 15 pence service charge for calls made to the police on the non-emergency 101 number.
Answered by Margot James
There is no obligation on telecom service providers to supply the 101 service free of charge as is the case with 999/112 under the 2003 Communications Act. Calls to 101 cost 15p from a mobile device or landline phones, from anywhere in the country and regardless of duration. Calls are free from payphones. The public have always paid to contact the police by telephone for non-emergencies and the 15p cost of the call goes to the telephony providers to cover the cost of carrying the calls. The police and government receive no money from calls to 101.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2018 to Question 178225 on Nuisance calls, what steps the Government is taking to reduce levels of vishing.
Answered by Margot James
The Home Office holds responsibility for the Joint Fraud Taskforce, while DCMS is responsible for policy on tackling nuisance calls.
The Joint Fraud Taskforce is working with industry to tackle Card Not Present Fraud, including fraudulent purchases made over the telephone. Since September 2016 the Government has been running the Take Five fraud awareness campaign designed to urge the public and businesses to take time to consider whether a situation they find themselves in is genuine. Specific advice on phone scams and vishing can be found at www.takefive-stopfraud.org.uk
There are existing measures that make it mandatory for all direct marketing firms to display their calling line identification - making it easier for people to identify direct marketing calls, and choose whether to accept them. In addition, Government has recently legislated in the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018 to further restrict direct marketing by placing a ban on cold calls offering to settle personal injury or payment protection insurance claims if the claimant has not chosen to ‘opt-in’.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department will respond to the consultation on taking tougher action against directors whose companies are responsible for breaches of legislation in relation to nuisance calls and electronic messages.
Answered by Margot James
The Government's consultation which sought views on tackling nuisance calls and messages by taking action against rogue directors, was open for 12-weeks from 30 May to 21 August 2018. We have analysed the responses to the consultation and will be publishing the Government's response shortly.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on measures to tackle vishing.
Answered by Margot James
The Government takes all types of fraud extremely seriously, including vishing. The Home Office holds responsibility for the Joint Fraud Taskforce and Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime where fraud should be reported. Action Fraud has produced guidance on its website to help individuals and organisations prevent fraud.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 independent review of full-time social action, published in January 2018, whether the Government plans to allocate money raised from dormant accounts to fund youth full-time social action programmes.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government recently announced that £90m of dormant assets will support disadvantaged and disengaged young people access employment.
The Big Lottery Fund (BLF) is named in the dormant assets legislation as the distributor of this money and Government is working closely with them to develop plans and their funding programme. There will be an open engagement process with young people, youth organisations, businesses and others later in spring to inform this work.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 Government's Digital Charter, published on 25 January 2018, if he will outline his Department's definition of harmful content; and how that definition differs from the Government's definition of (a) hate speech and (b) hate crime.
Answered by Margot James
The Internet Safety Strategy, which forms part of the Digital Charter, will address a wide range of harms, relating both to behaviours and content, which can be experienced online by users. In her speech on 6 February 2018, the Prime Minister confirmed that we would be bringing forward the Government response to the consultation to the measures proposed in the green paper in the spring.
Hate crime is defined in law as any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's actual or perceived committed by reason of the victim's race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity. In legislation there are some specific hate crime offences, and provision for enhanced sentences. While some hate speech is illegal under various pieces of legislation, hate speech does not necessarily constitute hate crime, e.g. if it targets other groups. These offences can take place online and offline.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2017 to Question 7068, how much EU funding the UK creative sector received in each of the last three years; and what the regional distribution of that funding was.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The UK's creative sector benefits from a range of EU schemes such as Creative Europe, Erasmus+, the Economic Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). The Government does not hold information on all EU funding by sub-sector. We are working closely with stakeholders to ensure that our ongoing funding commitments best service the UK’s interests.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans she has made to replace EU funding to the UK creative sector once the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Leaving the EU means we will want to take our own decisions about how to deliver the policy objectives previously targeted by EU funding. We are working closely with stakeholders to review all EU funding schemes in the round, to ensure that any ongoing funding commitments best serve the UK‘s national interest.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will conduct an audit of EU funding to the UK creative sector.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Leaving the EU means we will want to take our own decisions about how to deliver the policy objectives previously targeted by EU funding. We are working closely with stakeholders to review all EU funding schemes in the round, to ensure that any ongoing funding commitments best serve the UK‘s national interest.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will establish an inquiry into the sustainability of local and regional news provision.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Local and regional news is a crucial source of information for communities and a vital part of a healthy democracy. I understand local and regional news providers are facing challenges at the moment, as they adapt to new technology and a changing media landscape.
Earlier this month, we introduced a business rates relief for local newspapers in England. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-case-for-a-business-rates-relief-for-local-newspapers
The BBC is also working in partnership with the local news industry to support local journalism. Following consultation with providers of local journalism across the UK, the BBC in partnership with the News Media Association, will take forward a range of measures working with local media. More information is available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/bbc-news-media-association-partnership
As I set out at the Westminster Hall debate on local and regional news, on 30 March 2017, I do not believe a single inquiry is appropriate at this stage. The business rates relief and the BBC initiative are currently being implemented and we must see how these work in practice. However as I said during the debate, we are keeping this matter under constant review: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2017-03-30/debates/B069F48A-DFC6-48A8-A1BD-BA9AB827E5E9/LocalAndRegionalNews