Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to (a) remove and (b) limit access by young people to websites which promote suicide.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government is committed to making the UK the safest place in the world to go online. We are developing world-leading laws to introduce a new duty of care on online companies towards their users. The duty of care will be overseen by an independent regulator who will set clear standards and have strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance.
Government has also formed a partnership of suicide prevention experts funded by social media companies to support people and improve research. This work will create an evidence base around suicide and self-harm content online and produce best practice guidelines and standards for industry on how to respond to harmful content online.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to bring forward legislation to hold to account the management of social media companies that do not take reasonable steps to identify and respond to child abuse on their platforms.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In the Queen’s speech on December 19 2019, the Government confirmed plans to develop legislation to improve internet safety. This is a complex and difficult task and we are working hard to get the proposals right. DCMS and the Home Office are working at pace to commence the legislative process and introduce a Bill once Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department monitors the cash held by its subsidiaries in offshore bank accounts; and how frequently those subsidiaries report those balances to his Department.
Answered by John Whittingdale
DCMS monitors the commercial bank balances of its Arm’s-Length Bodies (ALBs) held outside of the Government Banking Service (GBS) via quarterly returns and this is reported to HM Treasury. The returns include any cash held in offshore accounts.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the level of (a) harassment and (b) discrimination in the music sector.
Answered by Nigel Adams
No such assessment has been undertaken. This government believes that harassment and discrimination are unacceptable - whether in the music industry or any other sector. Everyone has the right to feel safe at work and people can only thrive when they operate in a respectful and tolerant environment so that they can make the most of their talents.
We welcome the work undertaken by the Incorporated Society of Musicians, the Musicians Union and others within the sector to help address this issue through offering support, guidance and monitoring.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, under (a) which scheme and (b) what criteria the company Hacker House Ltd was awarded a grant of £100,000 in January 2019.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
In February 2019, following an open competition, Hacker House Limited was awarded grant funding under the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund. The Fund is designed to provide grant funding to organisations working to increase the number and diversity of individuals pursuing a career in the cyber security profession and encourages a market-led approach to sustainable growth of the cyber retraining ecosystem.All applications were assessed against criteria outlined in guidance documentation available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-security-skills-immediate-impact-fund. The criteria included demonstration of an effective and sustainable approach to train and place individuals into UK cyber security employment.Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, by what date his Department plans to have brought forward legislative proposals to extend the scope of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to cover relationships between sports coaches and 16-17 year olds in their care.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We continue to work with my colleagues at the Ministry of Justice, who are responsible for the Sexual Offences Act 2003, to ensure that sports coaches are included as a ‘position of trust’. The safeguarding of young people is one of my top priorities, and I want to see this legislative change happen as soon as possible.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has spent on promoted content on (a) Twitter, (b) Facebook and (c) Instagram in each month since June 2017.
Answered by Margot James
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) uses these platforms and other social media channels to communicate with specific target audiences on Government approved campaigns.
DCMS has spent £5,078 since June 2017 which amounts to 0.00169% of the overall communications spend across Government this year.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing publisher liability for social media companies.
Answered by Margot James
We are currently developing options for increasing the liability online platforms have for illegal content on their services. Applying publisher standards of liability to all online platforms could risk real damage to the digital economy. We will be carefully considering the options and consequences of change, and will set out our approach as part of the online harms and safety joint DCMS and Home Office White Paper on online harms which will be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether has made any representations to social media companies on the standard of contracted-out services they have employed to moderate abusive and illegal content; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with social media companies on a range of issues including safeguarding. Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of organising a summit of media organisations to examine the issues of representation of people with visible differences in the media.
Answered by Margot James
We are committed to improving diversity in all its sectors. This is particularly important in the media which should reflect everyone in society, including those with visible differences. My department will continue to support the sector's steps towards this goal, by recognising the value of initiatives such as Project Diamond, and working closely with media organisations and Ofcom in relation to this matter.