Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of commercial radio in the UK.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government strongly supports a vibrant radio sector, including national and local commercial stations as well as community stations and the BBC, which between them provide a rich variety of choice for listeners across the UK.
The UK’s commercial radio sector now accounts for approximately 55% of radio listening in the UK, according to figures published by RAJAR for Quarter 4 2023, with 39 million people tuning in to national or local commercial stations at least once a week. This compares to 42% of radio listening and 34 million listeners in Quarter 4 2013. The growth in commercial radio listening over the past 10 years is thanks to the investment the sector has made to develop and grow new services and its ability to adapt what it offers to listeners on digital radio or via internet-connected devices such as smart speakers.
The measures in the Media Bill to reduce regulatory burdens on commercial radio and to secure protections for the carriage of radio on smart speaker devices are intended to help support and secure commercial radio’s long-term future.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2024 to Question 10015 on Bowman Combat Radio System, what the delivery date is for Bowman 5.7.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Bowman ComBAT Infrastructure and Platform (BCIP) 5.7 project delivery dates are subject to ongoing discussions and pending approvals in 2024. It would be prejudicial to commercial negotiations to reveal the Department’s budget for the BCIP 5.7 project.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2024 to Question 10015 on Bowman Combat Radio System, what the budget is for the Bowman 5.7 project.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Bowman ComBAT Infrastructure and Platform (BCIP) 5.7 project delivery dates are subject to ongoing discussions and pending approvals in 2024. It would be prejudicial to commercial negotiations to reveal the Department’s budget for the BCIP 5.7 project.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is her Department's policy to ban the promotion and advertisement of vaping products (a) in sports venues and (b) on sports kits.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 outline restrictions on the marketing and promotion of vapes, and are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/507/contents/made
This includes a ban on advertising on television, radio and through information society services, such as internet advertising or commercial email. We also work closely with the Advertising Standards Authority, which investigates advertising on social media platforms.
There are no current plans to ban the promotion and advertisement of vaping products in sports venues and on sports kits. The Government’s response to the recent smoking and vaping consultation sets out our plan to introduce legislation as soon as possible. The legislation will introduce measures to crack down on youth vaping by restricting flavours, point of sale, and packaging for vaping products.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the draft Media Bill, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposals to remove requirements on local analogue radio services to feature local music on (a) up and coming artists, and (b) the music industry.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Provisions in the Media Bill will update the regulatory framework for commercial radio, to reflect the significant evolution in the radio sector over recent years. In particular, the changes will make it easier for local commercial stations holding analogue licences to adapt their services in response to listener preferences, while ensuring that protections for local news and information remain, recognising that these services are fundamental to the public value of radio.
The provisions also reflect the huge growth in the radio sector over the last twenty years. In that time, the Government has put in place funding and legislation to support the development of digital radio, including enabling the rollout of small-scale DAB across the UK, and this has provided opportunities for a number of new local services to broadcast - many of which regularly feature local music. Community radio has also grown significantly since its inception in 2005, with more than 300 stations providing hyperlocal services to communities throughout the UK.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level of competition between the BBC and the commercial radio sector.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC has responsibilities set out in its Charter to avoid unnecessary adverse impacts on the market, including on the commercial radio sector. It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of the BBC, to hold the BBC to account on this.
However, commercial radio now represents a majority (54% as of Q3 2023, according to RAJAR data) of radio listening in the UK, with BBC stations accounting for 44%.
The Government is currently undertaking the Mid-Term Review of the BBC’s Charter, which will look at how the BBC and Ofcom assess the market impact of the BBC in an evolving marketplace, and how that relates to the wider UK media ecology, including the commercial radio sector. We will publish the results of the review in due course.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Radio Policy 2021 Grant.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Radio Policy 2021 Grant was a temporary scheme to help smaller commercial stations deal with the significant fall in revenues experienced due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on advertising and sponsorship income. The scheme enabled those stations that qualified to defray a portion of their transmission costs, and therefore to continue to broadcast.
The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives. The department and its public bodies deliver all grant funding in line with the Government Functional Standard GovS 015: Grants.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Audio Content Fund 2021.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Audio Content Fund pilot, which operated between April 2019 and April 2022, supported independent audio producers to provide high quality public service content for commercial and community radio stations across the UK. In 2020/21, its core funding was supplemented by two additional rounds to help fund further content to support the public during the coronavirus pandemic.
The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives.
A full independent evaluation of the impacts of the Audio Content Fund, including these additional rounds, was published in February 2023.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect on the availability of low and fixed-price tariffs for energy consumers of the proposed closure of the Control Weather System Switch operated by SSEN.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
While the setting of tariffs is a commercial matter for suppliers, customers on default tariffs are protected by Ofgem’s price cap.
The phase-out of the radio teleswitch service (RTS) for Economy 7 and 10 meters is a matter for Ofgem and electricity suppliers. I understand that suppliers are required to contact customers to arrange to upgrade their meter and replace it with a smart meter, so that they can continue to access the same tariffs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to ban vaping advertising.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government currently has no plans to legislate to ban the advertising of vaping products.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising in the UK. The ASA already has rules in place that prohibit adverts for nicotine-containing vapes not licensed as medicines from appearing on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and periodicals, online, and in commercial emails and text messages. Only a small number of nicotine-containing vaping adverts are permitted, and the ASA requires all vaping advertising to be socially responsible and not be placed in media targeted at under-18s or in media where more than 25% of its audience is under-18.