Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ban the advertising of nicotine products in (a) Formula One and (b) other sports; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of nicotine advertising on public health.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Vaping can play a role in helping adult smokers to quit, but the Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years and one in five children having now used a vape. This is extremely worrying given the unknown long-term health impacts and the addictive nature of the nicotine contained in vapes.
Collectively, the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, the Communications Act 2003, the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising, and the Broadcast Code outline restrictions on the marketing and promotion of vapes. This includes a ban on advertising on television, radio, and through information society services, such as internet advertising or commercial email.
It is still concerning, however, that vapes are still being marketed and advertised to children, including in sports settings. As the Government stated during the Commons Committee Stage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, we have committed to explore the steps we can take to further restrict vape advertising and sponsorship, and we will revert with further updates on proposals for the Report Stage.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support local journalism.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting local and regional newspapers and other news outlets as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. They play an essential role in holding power to account, keeping the public informed of local issues and providing reliable, high-quality information.
Amid an evolving media landscape and changes in consumer behaviour, we are working to support journalism and local newsrooms to ensure the sustainability of this important industry. We are introducing a new, pro-competition regime for digital markets. The regime, which aims to address the far-reaching power of the biggest tech firms, will help rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely. This will make an important contribution to the sustainability of the press.
Additionally, our support for the sector has included the delivery of a £2 million Future News Fund, the extension of a 2017 business rates relief on local newspaper office space until 2025; the publication of the Online Media Literacy Strategy; and our work through the Mid-Term Review of the BBC Charter to encourage greater collaboration and transparency from the BBC in the local news market and other markets in which it operates. The BBC also supports the sector directly, through the £8m it spends each year on the Local News Partnership, including the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
We are also reducing regulatory burdens on commercial radio providers, and strengthening requirements on the provision of local news through the Media Bill to ensure commercial radio continues to provide high quality local journalism.
We continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining news journalism.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a full advertising ban on companies promoting vaping products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health advice is clear, if you don’t smoke, don’t vape and children should never vape. Advertising of vapes is already restricted by existing regulations. This includes a ban on advertising on television and radio, and through internet advertising, or commercial email. However, products can still be promoted elsewhere, such as on digital billboards.
Whilst we are not currently planning on making any further changes to the rules regarding vape advertising, we are taking action to protect children from the harms of vaping by taking new regulation making powers that can be used to limit vape flavours, how vapes are packaged, and where and how they can be displayed in retail settings. Collectively, these actions will reduce the appeal and accessibility of vapes to children, whilst ensuring vapes remain an effective smoking cessation tool for adult smokers.
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.