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Written Question
Arts: Free Movement of People
Tuesday 5th November 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential economic effect on the UK creative arts sector of travel restrictions after the UK leaves the EU.

Answered by Nigel Adams

The UK’s creative industries and arts sectors are huge success stories and the UK's decision to leave the EU will not change that.

We have maintained a dialogue with these sectors on Brexit, and we know that the movement of people is a key issue for them; both for access to international talent and activities such as touring and collaborating. We understand also that the circumstances of individual trips to the EU are significantly varied, and that changes based on our leaving the EU will be different for each organisation or professional. We will continue our engagement to ensure a growing understanding of the impacts across the sector.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Brexit
Tuesday 9th July 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what preparations his Department is making for the UK leaving the EU without an agreement; and how much funding has been allocated to those preparations.

Answered by Margot James

As a responsible Government, we’ve been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of no deal for nearly three years. We are putting in place a range of mitigations, which include assessing and reducing the risk of disruption to personal data flows to and from the UK in the event of a no deal through legislation, public and private sector communications and preparations for adequacy decisions from the EU.

The Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as £412m over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Autumn Statement 2016); £286m of additional funding for 2017/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 2017/18); over £1.5 billion for 2018/19 (Supplementary Estimates 2018/19); and over £2 billion for 2019/20 (Main Estimates 2019/20).

This funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work, given the significant overlap in plans in many cases.


Written Question
Council of Europe
Friday 24th May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what funding the Government provides to representatives from the British Youth Council who sit on the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

As a ‘major contributor’ to the Council of Europe, the UK pays over €32 million annually, which includes a contribution to the European Youth Foundation.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Sick Leave
Wednesday 22nd May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.

Answered by Margot James

During the period 01/04/2018 - 31/03/2019, a total of 16 employees (1.0% of the total employees employed in the department for the same period) took sickness absence for reasons relating to stress. This sickness absence accounted for 10.1% of total sickness absence taken in the Department, and cost the Department approximately £70,130.

The department has implemented a number of policies to provide support for staff suffering from stress, including:

  • Early referral to occupational health experts
  • Extensive training for managers and employees - including on disability and mental health awareness, well-being, resilience and stress.
  • A Stress Assessment and Reduction Plan toolkit which can be used by line managers to identify and manage stress when required

DCMS has sought to promote an environment where individuals feel comfortable to talk openly about stress and mental health.The Department is a signatory to the ‘Time to Change Pledge’ and raises awareness of mental health and coping strategies through national campaigns such as the ‘Time to Talk’ day and the Mental Health Awareness Week. The department also organises ‘Mindfulness’ sessions for employees.


Written Question
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Brexit
Monday 20th May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many staff in his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other departments or (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU, have since returned to his Department.

Answered by Margot James

No DCMS employees were transferred or seconded to work in other departments in preparation for the UK leaving the EU. Our employees also did not complete work for other Government departments from within DCMS.


Written Question
Social Media: Information Warfare
Tuesday 19th February 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

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 31 January 2019 to Question 908935 on Social Media: Information Warfare, when he plans to publish the White Paper on Online Harms White Paper.

Answered by Margot James

The joint DCMS-Home Office Online Harms White Paper will be published in the coming weeks.


Written Question
Social Media: Disinformation
Tuesday 12th February 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

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 31 January to Written Question 908935 on Social Media: Information Warfare, which organisations from (a) the tech industry (b) civil society and (c) academia his Department has held discussions with on disinformation on social media.

Answered by Margot James

Details of ministerial meetings are published as part of government transparency data. However, we do meet regularly with a range of stakeholders to discuss disinformation. Full details about such meetings, including minutes are kept confidential, to allow full and frank discussions between parties.


Written Question
Social Media: Disinformation
Tuesday 12th February 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

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 31 January to Written Question 908935 on Social Media: Information Warfare, what assessment has his Department has made of the effect of disinformation on social media on the efficacy of political elections.

Answered by Margot James

Maintaining a free, open and accessible media is a long-term priority for the UK and the Government will continue to work to constrain the effects of disinformation through all mediums. The Government itself is not directly responsible for overseeing the integrity of conduct of elections, and rightly not, but we continue to work with the Electoral Commission to strengthen and secure our democratic processes.


Written Question
Social Media: Disinformation
Tuesday 12th February 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

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 31 January to Written Question 908935 on Social Media: Information Warfare, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of disinformation on social media on the efficacy of news reporting.

Answered by Margot James

The Internet has greatly enhanced the public’s access to news and political engagement, but it has also created unforeseen challenges to the accuracy of information. Government is committed to maintaining a news environment, both online and offline, where accurate content can prevail and high-quality media has a sustainable future. The Cairncross Review into press sustainability was published on 12th February 2019 and considered the roles of tech platforms, digital advertising, media literacy and subsidisation. The Government will now assess Dame Frances' recommendations and respond later in 2019.


Written Question
Social Media: Information Warfare
Thursday 31st January 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to tackle the spread of disinformation on social media.

Answered by Margot James

Disinformation will be one of the harms addressed in the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper, which will set out legislative and non-legislative measures to ensure platforms take adequate steps to protect their users. We are considering all options available to us.

As the White Paper is finalised, we continue to have regular and robust dialogue with these companies on their progress to tackle this critical issue.

We are also working across academia, civil society and internationally to expose and build resilience to disinformation. This includes a media literacy roundtable hosted by Ministers today.