Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether Ofcom has had recent discussions with telecommunications companies on tackling online (a) misinformation and (b) disinformation.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom will have regular discussions with firms within its regulatory remit, details of those meetings are a matter for Ofcom as the independent regulator.
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom will have responsibility for regulating in-scope companies to ensure they are effectively taking action against illegal disinformation online and disinformation which intersects with the Act’s named categories of harmful content to children. These duties will come into force once Ofcom has completed its consultation and publication of the relevant Codes of Practice.
The Act also updates Ofcom’s statutory media literacy duty to require it to take tangible steps to prioritise the public's awareness of and resilience to misinformation and disinformation online. These duties are already in force.
It is a matter for Ofcom to decide what information to publish in the discharge of its regulatory responsibilities.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of India about the large-scale online organisations identified by the BBC's Scam Interceptors programme, which seek to defraud UK internet users and which operate out of Kolkata.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are developing stronger partnerships with countries across the world to build the global response to this vile threat and tackle fraudsters wherever they are based. We are hosting the inaugural Global Fraud Summit in March, which will convene key allies to spearhead a coordinated diplomatic and law enforcement approach to tackling fraud internationally.
We are also engaging with the Government of India directly to see what more can be done, including on law enforcement collaboration and sharing best practice on fraud prevention.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of Pension Credit in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up, the Department launched a nationwide marketing and communications campaign in April 2022.
This campaign has included advertising on national TV; in regional and national newspapers (including Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph); on local and national broadcast radio (stations such as Capital Birmingham, Free Radio Birmingham and Coventry, Greatest Hits Radio Coventry and Heart West Midlands); on medical centre and Post Office screens across Great Britain; as well as advertising on buses and digital street displays. Online marketing activity also included promotion of Pension Credit on social media, via internet search engines and sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their friends and family are likely to visit.
There is a strong indication that the campaign has had a positive impact and has resulted in an unprecedented number of Pension Credit applications. The number of claims received in the financial year 2022-23 was more than 80% higher than over the same period the year before.
Latest available figures also show that more households were receiving Pension Credit in August 2023 than in May 2022 – at the beginning of the campaign.
The Department is also continuing to build on this success through various creative no-cost media campaigns to boost awareness of the benefit through broadcast, radio and print media. We are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including other Government Departments, Councils, and charities, asking for their support to raise awareness through their networks and channels.
Asked by: Paul Bristow (Conservative - Peterborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department is taking steps to help support British citizens in Sudan to return to the UK in the context of the recent telecoms blackout.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Due to the security situation the British Embassy in Sudan has temporarily closed. The consular support we can provide is severely limited as we have no in-person presence. However we continue to provide tailored remote consular assistance to British nationals still in Sudan, communicating through our telephone consular helpline, Travel Advice updates and consular teams. British nationals who require assistance can call us 24/7. We call on Sudan's warring parties to restore vital communications and internet services.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure residents in (a) rural and (b) urban areas benefit equally from improved access to all broadband providers.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government continues to remove barriers to broadband roll out, including making considerable legislative changes and publishing non-statutory guidance to encourage fibre deployment. As well as changes to the Electronic Communications Code, all new build homes are required to have gigabit-ready physical infrastructure installed, and gigabit-capable connections where these can be provided within a cost cap. The Department continues to work closely with both local authorities and operators to support the rollout of digital connectivity across the UK and has published the Digital Connectivity Portal, extensive guidance for local authorities and operators to help facilitate broadband deployment. We also continue to work with the Department for Transport to trial a more flexible street works permitting system.
Alongside this, Project Gigabit is the government’s flagship £5 billion programme to enable hard-to-reach communities, left out of commercial delivery plans, to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband.
Some of the hardest to reach parts of the UK are rural communities and therefore Project Gigabit will level-up mostly rural and remote communities across the UK. Most of our delivery volume will come through local and regional contracts and subsidies to suppliers to extend their gigabit-capable networks to premises that will not otherwise be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans. These contracts require the supplier to offer wholesale access to their network for other internet service providers to use, facilitating fair, open access to the infrastructure government is subsidising.
Most urban and suburban areas are already well served or part of commercial rollout plans, however, to reach our ambition of nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030, we recognise that pockets of poor connectivity in urban areas left out of commercial plans need to be tackled.
Work is ongoing to find solutions and define an appropriate course of action to ensure these premises are not left behind, solutions for these premises may involve working with suppliers and local authorities to enable commercial delivery rather than using public subsidy.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help prevent young people being groomed via the internet to commit crime.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We are committed to keeping children safe online and are delivering a number of initiatives that support that objective. For example, we are investing up to £145m over three years in our County Lines Programme to crack down on the county lines gangs exploiting our children and young people. Through this Programme we are developing a better understanding of how to disrupt online activity that is aimed at recruiting and exploiting children and young people.
The Online Safety Act 2023 is a key piece of legislation to keep children safe. There are a number of priority offences in the Act which relate to child criminal exploitation such as drug related offences, sexual exploitation and weapons and firearms supply offences. Technology companies must take proactive measures and use systems and processes to remove and limit people’s exposure to related content.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he is taking to support efforts to restore telecommunications and internet connectivity in Sudan; what assessment he has made of the potential additional atrocity risks associated with recent disruptions to telecommunications and internet connectivity in that country; and whether he is taking any steps to increase satellite monitoring of areas of that country where atrocity risks may be higher.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK strongly condemns the persistent blackouts occurring in Sudan and calls for an immediate resumption of telecommunications and internet connectivity. These cause immense harm by making it even more difficult for the world to see what is really happening in Sudan. They also exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, as millions of people rely on online payments for food and other essentials. Since the outbreak of conflict, we have enhanced our atrocity risk monitoring by funding open-source investigation experts to use satellite and social media to verify and preserve information relating to attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the closure of over 1,000 pharmacies since 2015; and what assessment they have made of the impact of pharmacy closures in deprived areas.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There were 10,613 pharmacies on 31 January 2024 providing National Health Services in England. The Department monitors changes to the market closely to understand patient access to NHS pharmaceutical services. Access remains good, with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking distance of a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas of the country. We have seen more closures in the more deprived areas, but that is largely what we would expect as there are more pharmacies in those areas.
The law requires that every three years, local authority Health and Wellbeing Boards undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments to understand if provision is sufficient to meet local population needs. Contractors can apply to open a pharmacy where there is a gap or a need for improved access to services, or if they can make a case for providing other benefits to the local communities.
When their usual local pharmacy closes, patients can choose to access any of the remaining pharmacies nearby. Patients can also choose to access NHS pharmaceutical services remotely through any of the approximately 400 internet pharmacies in England, which are contractually required to deliver medicines to patients’ homes free of charge.
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: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) literacy levels, (b) learning disabilities, (c) internet access and (d) the (i) length and (ii) number of communications on the accessibility of her Department's communications to farmers.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
During the agricultural transition we are supporting farmers and land managers with varying rates in literacy and internet capabilities through the changes. The October 2023 Farmer Opinion Tracker (published 7 February 2024) found farmers on 74% of holdings said they either had all or most of the information they need for business planning; or that they knew where they could find information.
We test the readability and users’ understanding of content language via user research panels made up of farmers and in consultation with farming membership bodies and charities.
To further ensure our offer is accessible we have provided free support to over 18,000 farmers through the Farming Resilience Fund. The support has included group workshops, one-to-one advice from experts and farm visits.
We have also funded the Farming Advice Service which provides free, confidential advice both in person and over the phone to help farmers and land managers in England understand farming policy and their legal requirements.