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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will take steps to tackle fake news by extending current regulation and guidance on the prominence given to public service broadcasters in printed television guides to (a) such guides and similar information provided online and (b) the operation of voice assistants when they asked for news headlines.

The Government takes the issue of fake news and disinformation very seriously. The Public Service Broadcasters are our best protection against disinformation and it is important that high quality public service content including news content is widely accessible to viewers. That is why under the Digital Economy Act 2017, Ofcom are required to publish a report which looks at the ease of finding and accessing PSB content across all platforms. Ofcom will consult on this issue soon and the final report must be published before December 2020.