Political Monitor 30/04/2021

30 April 2021

Ofcom

Ofcom have realised their report on Adult’s Media use and Attitudes. The report examined adult’s media literacy, examining how people access the internet at their relative understanding. The key results include:

• 6% of households did not have access to the internet at home as of March 2021 a decrease from 11% in March 2020.
• 1% of adults aged 18+ had access to the internet at home but did not use it.
• 46% of adults who remain offline say they find the internet too complicated, for 42% the internet holds no interest, and for 37% a lack of equipment is a barrier.
• The Pandemic has been a catalyst for the change with older individuals having to embrace new technology to access services and stay connected.
• The minority who remained offline because it was either too complicated, not needed or too expensive.
• Smart phones were the most likely device to be used to go online, used by 85% of internet users. 10% of internet users only used a smartphone to go online
• Most internet users were not aware of all the ways companies can collect their personal data.

Broadband

Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband: a platform for growth report

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) have released a report commissioned by Openreach examining the digital divide and impact of Covid on the UK workforce and the benefits of full fibre post-covid. The research follows Cebr’s research in 2019 “Full fibre broadband: A platform for growth”. The key findings include:

• During the pandemic, on average UK adults spent over 4 hours per day online in April 2020. In addition, internet traffic doubled over the course of 2020.
• The number of adults consumers using video calling at least once a week doubled from 35% to 71%.
• £59 billion boost to UK productivity by 2025 powered by nationwide roll out of full fibre broadband. With nearly 2million people working from home.
• 88% of employees would like to continue working from home in some capacity. 47% would like to work from home often or always.
• FTTP could bring back 1 million back in the work force through remote working. These new workers would boost productivity by £25bn.

Cyber

National Security and Investment Act

The National Security and Investment Act has now passed its final stages and has received Royal Assent. Despite attempts from the House of Lords to toughen up the scrutiny arrangements for the new framework, the Government and House of Commons stood firm and ultimately rejected the proposals from the House of Lords. A call to discuss the implication of the Act for ISPA members will take place on May 12th. For more information, please email elly@ispa.org.uk

G7 Declaration

The Secretary of State for DCMS, Oliver Dowden hosted tech leaders from the G7 including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and EU. The G7 leaders discussed how the G7 can work together to agree an ambitious vision of the role of tech across the world. The G7 signed a joint declaration containing a series of shared principles including:

• Internet safety
• Digitizing trade
• Digital competition
• Data free trade
• Digital Technical Standards
• Diversity across Tech

Government responds to 5G diversification report

The Government has published its response to the House of Commons Science Committee’s report on 5G diversification and wider lessons for critical and emerging technologies. Within the Government’s response:

• Highlighted the plans already in place including establishing test facilities for new suppliers, funding a range of Open RAN trials through the DCMS 5G Test bed and Trials Programme and established the Diversification Taskforce.
• Recognised the benefits and challenges of moving away from the older 2G and 3g technologies and is clear progress can be made on reducing reliance on these. The Government expects to set out next steps this summer to provide operators, suppliers and users with clarity and confidence about the long-term UK technology road map.
• Government will consider several policy options to help facilitate the entry of new suppliers.
• Government believe the UK is well placed to drive the development and deployment of Open Ran and other open technologies.
• Government is actively working to facilitate 5G deployment and will consider opportunities to promote diversification through connectivity and R&D incentives.
• Ofcom’s role following Royal Assent of the Telecommunications (Security) Bill, will include identifying and reduce the risk of security compromises, prepare for their occurrence, requirements to inform other providers of a ‘security compromise’.
• The Government did not commit to a report on the require scale and specifications on the National Telecoms Lab.
• The Government did not commit to a White Paper setting out its assessment of the current extent of and future potential for global and technological divergence, the anticipated consequence of such divergence and how it intends to address the challenges this poses. Instead, Government committed to the Integrated review for the UK to be more active in shaping the open international order of the future and highlighted that DCMS is preparing a Digital Strategy and a National Data Strategy which will complement the BEIS Innovation Strategy to be published in the summer.

Online Safety

Communications and Digital Committee – Freedom of Expression online

The Lord’s committee heard from Katy Minshall, head of UK public policy at Twitter and Richard Earley, UK public policy manager at Facebook. The key points during the session included:

• Katy Minshall stated platforms should work towards safety by design. Twitter has a feature encouraging users to think before they post and are trialing prompts to prevent the sharing and posting of harmful content.
• Richard Earley emphasised that promoting harmful content is not in the long-term interests of platforms or their advertiser-funded business model. Facebook has worked on their algorithms to ensure divisive content is limited.
• Facebook are encouraging users to create their own safe spaces on the platform.
• Mr Earley called for extensive consultation from Government before legislating on legal but harmful content.

Online Scams: Consumer Protection

During a Westminster Hall debate on Online Scams, Ruth Edwards MPs (Con) called on internet platforms to do more to verify businesses who buy adverts to their site. Edwards asked the Government for an update on their plans to tackle online scams and to set out a timetable for action. Home Office Minister, Victoria Atkins set out the work the Government is doing to prevent online scams including the important role of the National Cyber Security Centre, launching a new gov.uk page to keep the public safe online and working with banking, telecoms, and accountancy partners.

Which? research has found Google and Facebook are failing to take action to remove online scams with 34% of victims who reported a scam on google said the advert was not taken down while 26% of victims who report and advert on Facebook said the advert was not removed.

Subgroup news

 Broadband

• ISPA attended a GigaTag meeting covering the initial draft of the report. While ISPA cannot share the draft report with members but would be happy to answer questions individually.

Cyber

• ISPA attended a monthly session with DCMS on the Telecoms Security Bill and wider Telecoms Security Framework. The DCMS impact survey is open until next Friday and members are encouraged to complete it. For more information, please email policy@Ispa.org.uk
• ISPA has organised a call with DCMS on May 12th to discuss the National Security and Investment Bill. For more information, please email elly@ispa.org.uk