Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with Ofcom to ensure that alcohol advertising is regulated across the range of relevant media including (a) television, (b) radio, (c) cinema and (d) internet-based and other digital media.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State has received no recent representations, including from the Scottish Government, about widening the scope of the Communications Act 2003 to include alcohol advertising, its statutory regulation or making it a devolved matter. The Secretary of State has also had no recent discussions with Ofcom regarding alcohol advertising.
There are already very stringent regulations in place for the marketing of alcohol in traditional forms of media, including radio, TV, and cinema, and online, as well as in relation to sports promotion, through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes of practice for advertising. If new evidence emerges that clearly highlights major problems with the existing codes of practice, then the ASA has a duty to revisit the codes and take appropriate action.
As part of the Online Advertising Programme the government is currently reviewing how online advertising is regulated in the UK, including legal but harmful content, such as alcohol advertising. The consultation closed on 8 June and will help us determine how to tackle such harms. We hope to publish a Government response in due course.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what further steps she plans to take to strengthen the regulation of alcohol marketing and alcohol advertising in Great Britain.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State has received no recent representations, including from the Scottish Government, about widening the scope of the Communications Act 2003 to include alcohol advertising, its statutory regulation or making it a devolved matter. The Secretary of State has also had no recent discussions with Ofcom regarding alcohol advertising.
There are already very stringent regulations in place for the marketing of alcohol in traditional forms of media, including radio, TV, and cinema, and online, as well as in relation to sports promotion, through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes of practice for advertising. If new evidence emerges that clearly highlights major problems with the existing codes of practice, then the ASA has a duty to revisit the codes and take appropriate action.
As part of the Online Advertising Programme the government is currently reviewing how online advertising is regulated in the UK, including legal but harmful content, such as alcohol advertising. The consultation closed on 8 June and will help us determine how to tackle such harms. We hope to publish a Government response in due course.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what representations she has received in support of providing a statutory basis for the regulation of alcohol marketing and alcohol advertising in Great Britain.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State has received no recent representations, including from the Scottish Government, about widening the scope of the Communications Act 2003 to include alcohol advertising, its statutory regulation or making it a devolved matter. The Secretary of State has also had no recent discussions with Ofcom regarding alcohol advertising.
There are already very stringent regulations in place for the marketing of alcohol in traditional forms of media, including radio, TV, and cinema, and online, as well as in relation to sports promotion, through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes of practice for advertising. If new evidence emerges that clearly highlights major problems with the existing codes of practice, then the ASA has a duty to revisit the codes and take appropriate action.
As part of the Online Advertising Programme the government is currently reviewing how online advertising is regulated in the UK, including legal but harmful content, such as alcohol advertising. The consultation closed on 8 June and will help us determine how to tackle such harms. We hope to publish a Government response in due course.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what representations she has received on widening the scope of the Communications Act 2003 to include alcohol marketing and alcohol advertising.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State has received no recent representations, including from the Scottish Government, about widening the scope of the Communications Act 2003 to include alcohol advertising, its statutory regulation or making it a devolved matter. The Secretary of State has also had no recent discussions with Ofcom regarding alcohol advertising.
There are already very stringent regulations in place for the marketing of alcohol in traditional forms of media, including radio, TV, and cinema, and online, as well as in relation to sports promotion, through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes of practice for advertising. If new evidence emerges that clearly highlights major problems with the existing codes of practice, then the ASA has a duty to revisit the codes and take appropriate action.
As part of the Online Advertising Programme the government is currently reviewing how online advertising is regulated in the UK, including legal but harmful content, such as alcohol advertising. The consultation closed on 8 June and will help us determine how to tackle such harms. We hope to publish a Government response in due course.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which projects have received funds from Project Gigabit.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
To date, Project Gigabit funding has been contracted for the following projects:
Superfast Extension Programme: Scottish Government R100, Northern Ireland Project Stratum, and Connecting Cheshire Superfast Broadband Phase 3.
Gigahubs Programme: Department for Education, National Health Service (Scotland), Highlands Council, Welsh Government, Oxfordshire County Council, Dorset Council, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Full Fibre Northern Ireland.
In addition, almost 1,500 projects have received funding through the Project Gigabit voucher scheme.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what representations her Department has received from the Scottish Government on the potential merits of additional devolution of powers to and further input from Scotland.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
My Department has not received any formal representations from the Scottish Government on this matter.
The UK Government is committed to devolution and to working constructively with the devolved administrations.
My Department ensures it receives input from, and its work is impactful in Scotland, both with the Scottish Government and directly with an increasing proportion of DCMS staff based in Scotland. Regular formal and informal engagement takes place with the administration and other Scottish bodies and organisations.
I look forward to continuing the valued and positive working relationship that we have with the Scottish Government. It supports and strengthens our digital, media, creative, cultural and sport sectors which benefits people in both Scotland and across the UK.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2021 to Question 58990, on Broadband: Banff and Buchan, what estimate her Department has made of the geographical coverage of 4G mobile data across (a) Scotland and (b) the UK; and what estimate her Department has made of the average 4G coverage in each parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom is responsible for measuring 4G coverage and provides data at constituency level. Ofcom’s Connected Nations summer update report, shows that 44% of the Scottish landmass had 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile network operators (MNOs), with 81% from at least one operator. Comparatively, the UK has 69% coverage from all four MNOs, and 92% from at least one operator.
Scotland will benefit significantly from the £1 billion Shared Rural Network which will see 4G geographic coverage from all four operators rise to a minimum of 74% and coverage from at least one operator increase to 91%. On 29 June we released further details of how this world leading programme will benefit both the people who live and work in Scotland, and at a regional level across the UK.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many premises in Banff and Buchan constituency are not connected to superfast broadband.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to data from the latest Ofcom Connected Nations report (Summer 2021), there are 6,753 premises that are unable to access superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps in the constituency of Banff and Buchan. The latest data from Thinkbroadband shows that 85% of premises in Banff and Buchan can access superfast broadband (>30Mbps), up from 74% in October 2016.
Superfast broadband coverage across Scotland will be extended further through the ‘Reaching 100%’ (R100) programme. The first funding commitment from the UK Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit was announced in the summer to enable upgrades to gigabit speeds for over 5,000 premises which were within scope for superfast coverage via R100. The government will continue to work with the Scottish Government to extend gigabit coverage as far as possible through Project Gigabit.
Communities and businesses in rural areas not in line for commercial coverage or government-funded projects to provide gigabit coverage are also eligible for immediate help with the costs of installing gigabit through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme as part of Project Gigabit.
Those premises unable to access speeds of at least 10Mbps are likely to be eligible for support via the Universal Service Obligation, which gives every eligible premises the legal right to request a decent, affordable broadband connection, providing download speeds of at least 10 Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how her Department defines a rural area when determining the eligibility of premises for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Project Gigabit, and therefore the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, is designed to be responsive to the market so that we focus taxpayers' money on places that are too expensive to build on a commercial basis.
The voucher scheme is designed to target government subsidy towards those living and working in the hard to reach, commercially unavailable areas of the country and we are reliant upon independent sources of reference. In terms of the rural classification, this is defined using agreed standard measures according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) or equivalent.
For premises in England and Wales, rural is defined as those premises with the classifications D1-F2 inclusive as defined within the Office for National Statistics publication "The 2011 Rural-Urban Classification For Small Area Geographies”.
Ruralility for premises in Northern Ireland are based on classifications E-H inclusive as defined by the “Review of the Statistical Classification and Delineation of Settlements”, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
For premises in Scotland, rurality is determined by classifications 3-8 inclusive, as defined within Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2013-2014.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Scottish Government and (b) social media platforms on tackling abuse online.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
Scotland Office officials and officials from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have been working closely with officials in the Devolved Administrations, including in the Scottish Government, throughout the development of proposals regarding the now published draft Online Safety Bill, and will continue to engage throughout the legislative process.
The new regulatory framework will hold platforms to account for tackling harmful content and behaviours online.