Political Monitor 04/09/2020

4 September 2020

Broadband

Ministers call on councils to help deliver digital connectivity ambitions

Last week, Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman and Local Government Minister Simon Clarke, wrote to local authorities setting out how they can help boost gigabit broadband rollout and 5G mobile coverage. The ministers urge councils to follow new Government advice on land access and valuations so deals granting access for new infrastructure such as 5G masts and full fibre broadband cabinets on public land can be reached quicker and with reasonable rents attached. The move follows numerous attacks against digital infrastructure during lockdown and increased opposition to some local planning applications for phone masts.

Government releases latest data on devices dispatched to local authorities during Covid-19.

The Government has published information about how many laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers have been delivered to dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts. The equipment was available to care leavers, young people with a social worker and disadvantaged year 10 pupils. The latest figures show that as of 27th August 2020, the Department for Education has dispatched 220,494 laptops and tablets and 50, 984 4G wireless routers.

UK broadband speeds among the slowest in Europe

The UK has ranked 47th in a study of the average broadband speeds of 221 countries and territories, dropping 13 places since last year and becoming the slowest European country for broadband speed. According to Ofcom only 10% of UK households have access to fibre broadband, compared to 80% in many other developed countries.

Cyber Security

Government announces call for views on amending the NIS regulations

The Government have called for views on the Network and Information Systems Regulations (NIS Regulations) which came into force in 2018. The NIS Regulations apply to operators of a number of essential services including digital infrastructure services as well as to online marketplaces, online search engines, and cloud computing services (as digital service providers). The implementation and enforcement of the NIS Regulations is supported by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

In May 2020, the Government published its first Post-Implementation Review of the NIS Regulations which can be found here.  The review sought to evaluate how effective the NIS Regulations have been in achieving their original objective of improving security standards across critical UK sectors. The current Call for Views is seeking feedback from industry, particularly from organisations in scope of the NIS Regulations, on the initial draft of the legislation. Respondents are invited to provide answers to these questions using the online survey tool here.

Government announce 5G spectrum auction will go ahead in 2021

This week, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced the completion of the four-year £350 million infrastructure programme to clear the 700 MHz spectrum band. Clearing this portion of spectrum in the 700MHz frequency means that new data capacity is released for mobile operators. DCMS said the new capacity space was much needed with 5G data use set to grow substantially as it becomes more available across the country. The clearance would also increase capacity for 4G networks and enable them to better connect rural communities. Following this announcement, DCMS Minister, Matt Warman, confirmed during his speech at London Tech Week, that Britain’s delayed 5G spectrum auction will go ahead in January.

Online Safety

Age Appropriate Design Code comes into force

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced that the Age Appropriate Design Code or ‘Children’s Code’ had come into force this week. The code applies to organisations providing online services and products likely to be accessed by children up to age 18 and sets out 15 standards for designers around how they should comply with data protection law. The code will require digital services to automatically provide children with a built-in baseline of data protection whenever they download a new app, game or visit a website. All the major social media and online services used by children in the UK will need to conform to the code. The regulator is calling on organisations to get in touch to highlight the extra help they may need to understand the new code.

Written Question

Chris Elmore MP (Lab) asked what discussions the Department for International Trade (DIT) has had with DCMS on the compatibility of the proposed UK-US trade deal with the UK Government’s proposed legislation on online harms. DIT Minister Greg Hands replied that DIT was working closely with DCMS to consider any interaction between trade policy and Online Harms policy in future trade agreements. Hands stated that nothing in the US trade deal would affect the Government’s commitments to Online Harms legislation.

Written Question

Mary Kelly Foy MP (Lab) asked how many children and young people have been identified as victims of child sexual abuse since the Online Harms White Paper was published in April 2019; and what steps are being taken to protect vulnerable children while the Government produces its full response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation. Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins MP said that from April 2019 to March 2020, the NCA and UK policing had safeguarded and protected around 8,300 children in relation to online child sexual abuse. Atkins continued that as well as the Online Harms response due this Autumn, the Government will also publish an interim code of practice on child sexual exploitation and abuse, setting out steps that companies can take now to prevent and tackle this crime. Atkins said the Home Office has met with the Internet Watch Foundation, children’s charities, the tech industry and other parties to understand the online threat to children during the pandemic.

Ofcom

Ofcom publishes telecoms complaints data

Ofcom have published the complaints recorded about the largest telecoms providers for Q1 this year. Despite this report covering complaints received at the beginning of lockdown, when the business operations were being affected by coronavirus, the volume of complaints received about fixed broadband and pay-monthly remained broadly the same as in the previous quarter. The main drivers of complaints across fixed broadband providers were faults, service and provisioning issues (34%), complaints handling (30%) and issues relating to billing, pricing and charges (18%).

ISPA events

ISP Business Model Webinar Series

If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up to the ISP Business Model Summit event which this year will take place over a series of 3 separate webinars exploring areas of growth for ISPs. These include case studies from industry experts on the following topics:

All webinars will be held at 2pm. If you would like to RSP, please email admin@ispa.org.uk