Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to establish codes of conduct for social media companies and industry bodies on the treatment of antisemitic content on their platforms.
Answered by Margot James
We treat all hate crime with equal seriousness. There is simply no place for treating victims differently regardless of their race, religion, gender identity, sexuality or disability.
As announced by the Prime Minister in her speech on 6 February, we intend to publish the Government response to the Internet Safety Strategy consultation in the spring. This will include further details about our social media code of practice which will help tackle abusive conduct online.
The Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism's Cyber Hate Working Group has been engaging with industry and one of its achievements is the agreement of a 'Best Practice' document which is published by the Anti-Defamation League and has been signed by all the major companies based in the United States, but does not specifically call for the removal of illegal content within 24 hours.
The Government supports the European Commission's initiative to agree a second generation of this agreement, which commits the signatories to removing illegal hate speech within 24 hours.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent estimate his Department has made of the proportion of BBC content that includes audio description; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
A digitally inclusive society is a key priority for the government, and everyone should be able to enjoy and exploit the benefits and convenience afforded to able-bodied people.
Ofcom is required under the Communications Act (2003) to set targets for the proportion of BBC output that should be audio described. Currently BBC channels (excluding BBC Parliament) are required to audio describe 10% of their programme content (except in the case of BBC News). Ofcom publishes reports on the provision of access services. The latest report shows that BBC channels comfortably exceeded their targets:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/accessibility-research/tv-access-services-2017
As Ofcom’s report shows, broadcasters in the UK already provide a high level of subtitling, signing and audio description which is available for scheduled programming, but there is still room for improvement. Through the Digital Economy Act 2017, the provision of access services (subtitling, signing and audio description) is being extended to on demand services. Ofcom is in the process of consulting to determine the requirements that providers of on-demand programme services will be required to meet which will then be set out by the Secretary of State.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent meetings he has had with educational organisations to discuss arts, music and culture in schools.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many complaints relating to (a) automated and (b) live telesales calls have been received by the Information Commissioner's Office since 2016; how many fines were issued by that Office against offending companies in that same period; and how many of those fines were for the maximum possible amount.
Answered by Margot James
The Information Commissioner's Office is responsible for investigating concerns raised about and taking enforcement action against automated and live telesales calls. The Information Commissioner's Office publish these statistics in their annual report at https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-information/annual-operational-reports-201617/unlawful-marketing-reports-and-concerns/ and on their website at https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/nuisance-calls-and-messages/.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many complaints concerning (a) automated and (b) live telesales calls were received by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in 2016-17; how many fines were issued by the ICO against such offending companies in 2016-17; and how many of those fines were for the maximum possible amount.
Answered by Matt Hancock
In the period from January 2016 to December 2016, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) received (a) 71,192 complaints concerning automated calls and (b) 63,636 complaints concerning live telesales calls.
In the same period, 22 monetary penalties were issued by the ICO against organisations for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. No organisation was fined the maximum monetary penalty of £500,000 by the ICO.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2016 to Question 57400, on what date she plans to publish the results of the call for evidence on the Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We will publish findings and any proposals in due course.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of people employed by her Department are from other EU countries.
Answered by Matt Hancock
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the implications for its policies of the recommendations on improving digital accessibility for disabled people of the Extra Costs Commission, initiated by the disability charity Scope in July 2014.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Government is committed to increasing digital inclusion for all, and are taking steps to increase web accessibility for disabled people. The DCMS-led Council for Digital Inclusion includes members who represent the interests of disabled people. The Government has also published guidance on Gov.UK on making digital services accessible for Government departments, local authorities and anyone else who wants to prepare accessible communications.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps have been taken to assess the effectiveness of the Equality Act 2010 in improving web accessibility for disabled people.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We are committed to increasing digital inclusion for all, and are taking steps to increase web accessibility for disabled people. The Government has published guidance on Gov.UK on making digital services accessible for Government departments, local authorities and anyone else who wants to prepare accessible communications.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much central government funding has been allocated to (a) the London Local Enterprise Partnership and (b) all Local Enterprise Partnerships to support the creative industries in each year since 2011-12.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
All Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), including the London LEP, have access to funding through programmes such as Growth Deals. However, decisions on what to prioritise rightly rest with the LEPs themselves, ensuring a strong business voice to maximise local growth. In London, for example, the LEP is investing £5m in a Digital Skills Programme to ensure young Londoners have the skills they need to access jobs in the capital’s thriving tech sector.