Broadband
Public Accounts Committee scrutinises broadband rollout programme
The National Audit Office published a critical report into the Government’s rural broadband programme recently. Criticisms included the lack of competition in the supplier process, questions about the transparency of the main supplier, less private sector contributions than expected and the whole programme being delayed by 22 months. Following this, the Public Accounts Committee which scrutinises public spending, called BT, INCA, TalkTalk and UK Broadband as well as the civil servants who are playing a leading role in the Government’s programme to answer questions.
The Committee primarily focused on the issue that BT had become the only supplier in the programme and suggested that the Government had failed to ensure competition and value for money and that it should have aimed higher instead of settling for one supplier and limited coverage.
A longer summary has been provided to the Broadband Subgroup. Please email admin@ispa.org.uk if you would like to become a member.
Rural broadband meeting between Maria Miller, BT and community-led broadband schemes
Maria Miller held a meeting with BT and community-led rural broadband schemes. A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said it was a constructive meeting in which it was agreed that all parties would work together, along with local authorities, to ensure that projects applying for the Rural Community Broadband Fund could co-exist happily alongside the wider rural broadband scheme, led by BT.
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Parliamentary Questions
Labour questions BDUK progress and costs
Helen Goodman MP asked Ed Vaizey MP a series of questions about Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).
Firstly she asked whether his department would publish the data showing where the last 10% of the country not included in the BDUK roll out will be. Mr Vaizey responded that this data is held by the local authorities who are responsible for the contracts, and who may make information available by agreement with their supplier.
Ms Goodman also asked about the cost to the public purse of people seconded to local authorities to help with the roll-out of broadband. Mr Vaizey confirmed that BDUK had not seconded any people to local authorities.
Ms Goodman then asked what the total cost of external consultants employed by BDUK between September 2012 and June 2013 was and what the total cost until 2017 was anticipated to be. Mr Vaizey responded that the cost between September and June was approximately £5.95 million, and that further spend on consultants would depend on the outcome of the review announced in the spending review which aims to give BDUK greater operational freedom and equip it with the commercial skills that it needs.
In answer to Miss Goodman’s question about how much BDUK required in annual funding to carry out its responsibilities, Mr Vaizey confirmed that BDUK’s administration funding was £9.8 million in 2013-14 and £5.9 million in 2014-15.
Ms Goodman followed this with a question about how much funding DCMS is providing through BDUK for the broadband roll-out, to which Mr Vaizey responded that BDUK had been allocated £530 million for the Rural Broadband Programme, £150 million for the Super Connected Cities Programme, £150 million for the Mobile Infrastructure Project and a further £250 million announced as part of the spending review in June.
In response to a final question from Ms Goodman about the Super Connected Cities Programme, Mr Vaizey confirmed that no funds have yet been spent by cities on the programme, but funding was expected to be made available in the autumn.
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Superfast Broadband Rollout
In response to questions from Chi Onwurah MP, Alun Cairns MP, and Huw Irranca-Davies MP about the broadband roll out, Mr Vaizey confirmed that central and local Government had committed to invest £1.6 billion in the broadband programme, so that 95% of UK premises will have access to superfast broadband by 2017, and 99% by 2018. He confirmed that the Department had spent £9.7 million to date to support project rollout and added that the pace of take up of superfast broadband was currently at 50,000 connections per week.
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Super-Connected Cities
In answer to a question from Steve McCabe MP, Mr Vaizey said the government were undertaking market testing of a scheme to distribute connections vouchers to SMEs to help them pay for the cost of connecting to high-speed and high quality broadband and that if successful, this scheme would be made available to all cities in the Super Connected Cities programme.
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Broadband in Sunderland
In reply to a question from Julie Elliott MP about broadband in Sunderland, Mr Vaizey stated that the Communications Infrastructure Report 2012 showed that 86% of customers in Sunderland have access to broadband services with speeds above two megabits per second.
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Ofcom
Ofcom published a set of supporting documents to its consultation on the Approach to Setting LLU and WLR Charge Controls, which was published on 11 July following the Fixed Access Market Reviews.
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Internet safety
Parliamentary Questions
Internet Pornography and age verification
John Leech MP asked a question on the work between the Authority for Television on Demand (ATVOD) and UK financial institutions and card companies. The Minister for Communications, Ed Vaizey MP and Damian Green MP, Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice said they welcomed that the organisations were exploring the possibility of blocking card payments to websites operating from outside the EU allowing under 18s in the UK to access hardcore pornography. Mr Green added that ATVOD had provided a report on this area to the UKCCIS executive board on 8th July, and that the Government was working with UKCCIS to look at how age verification processes could be implemented.
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Age ratings for Online Videos
In reply to a question from Baroness Benjamin about what steps the Government are taking to prevent young children from watching highly sexualised music videos online, Lord Gardiner replied that the Government were asking the industry to develop solutions by the end of the year so that more online videos carry advice about their age-suitability and content. He said it was important that age ratings were tagged and incorporated into the meta data of the content file so that parental content control software could recognise them.
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Parental involvement
Baroness Uddin asked a question on how the Government’s work on children’s online safety is being relayed to parents who may not own a computer or be computer literate. Schools Minister, Lord Nash, responded that the Government was working with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) and that through UKCCIS, the biggest internet service providers have committed to launch a multi-million pound awareness campaign aimed at parents in the New Year.
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Communications Data
Annual reports from the Interception of Communications Commissioner, the Intelligence Services Commissioner and the Chief Surveillance Commissioner
The annual reports from the Interception of Communications Commissioner, the Intelligence Services Commissioner and the Chief Surveillance Commissioner have been released. These reports check that public authorities, and the Secretaries of State where they sign-off covert activity, are in accordance with Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), and the Intelligence Services Act 1994. In general the reports show a high degree of compliance with the law, but that there have been a small number of errors and instances where the law has not been applied correctly.
The Interception of Communications Commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, stated that the error rate was very low when compared to the volume of communications data requests made and that the ‘greatest scrutiny occurs within the public authorities themselves’. He praised the SPoC process for the acquisition of communications data, as a ‘robust safeguard.’ Sir Paul Kennedy, who has now laid down his position as Commissioner concluded by his final report by providing support to the Home Office’s proposal for a Communications Data Bill by stating that “as a nation we have enormous advantages, including in particular the integrity of those who work in our security services and law enforcement agencies, and we need to listen to them, especially when they say that changes need to be made to try to retain our present capacity.”
Similarly, the Intelligence Services Commissioner, Sir Mark Waller, reported that he was satisfied that the intelligence services and Ministry of Defence had acted properly in exercising their powers. He said that there were few errors and the vast majority were due to human fallibility such as a failure to renew an authorisation in time. He flagged up one error which MI5 had failed to pick up, commenting that while this was a simple administrative oversight and no unlawful activity had occurred, the error was still extremely serious as it was missed by so many people. He concluded that ‘because of the layers of checks, assurances and oversight, it would take an enormous conspiracy at all levels to undertake unlawful activity.’
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Intelligence and Security Committee clears GCHQ of illegal activity in connection with the US PRISM programme
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) released a statement on GCHQ’s alleged involvement in the PRISM programme and declared that GCHQ had not acted illegally. The investigation was launched in response to stories in the media that GCHQ had acted illegally by accessing communications content via the NSA’s PRISM programme. The ISC reports that it scrutinised GCHQ’s access to the content of communications, the legal framework governing that access, and the arrangements GCHQ had with overseas counterparts for sharing such information.
The investigation concluded that GCHQ’s actions were in line with the Intelligence Services Act 1994 and in each case where GCHQ sought information from the US, a warrant for interception, signed by a Minister, was already in place, in accordance with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
The Foreign Secretary, William Hague MP, welcomed the findings, saying: ‘I see daily evidence of the integrity and high standards of the men and women of GCHQ. The ISC’s findings are further testament to their professionalism and values.’
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Parliamentary Questions
Communications Data Bill
Minister for Security, James Brokenshire MP, answered questions from John Robertson MP and Julian Lewis MP on communications data. He said that the Government ‘remain committed to ensuring that the police and intelligence agencies have the information they need to catch criminals’, but that they were trying to ‘strike an effective balance between keeping the public safe and protecting civil liberties’. He confirmed that under the current system, it is the communications providers rather than police who retain communications data, and safeguards are in place for the requests that are made. He added that it was clear that, in about 95% of serious organised crime cases, and in virtually every terrorism investigation, the use of communications data has been extremely important.
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International Cyber Security
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, Alistair Burt MP, responded to a question from Frank Roy MP about how the UK was progressing the international debate on cyber security other than through participation in the UN Group of Government Experts. Mr Burt replied that the UK is developing a National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) which will become the main channel for developing the international cyber security debate. He added that the UK were working with the South Korean Government, who are holding the 2013 International Cyber Space Conference, to discuss these issues.
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Labour raises concern about ISPs selling customer data
In an Adjournment Debate on new media and personal data, Shadow Communications Minister, Helen Goodman MP, raised several concerns around the use of personal data by Internet Service Providers. In particular, she referred to the Sunday Times report from 12th May indicating that a provider had the personal data of 27 million mobile to Ipsos MORI. The report suggested that Ipsos MORI had then had a meeting with the Metropolitan police to discuss selling on this data to them, thereby offering the police a larger range of data than is allowed under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). Goodman argued that this practice raised concerns about data protection and went on to praise the EU Commission proposals to update the data protection regulations, including requiring explicit consent, ‘the right to be forgotten’ and personal notifications of data security breaches. She further criticised the Government for not embracing the proposal more fully, accusing them of ‘weakening people’s rights’ and being ‘in hock to big business’, and suggesting that they should tax new media companies ‘properly’ in order to provide protection for citizens.
In response, Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey MP, highlighted that the Sunday Times article was not entirely accurate as Ipsos MORI did not sell the data on to the Metropolitan police. He said the ICO had seen examples of Ipsos MORI’s data and could confirm that they were not sufficiently detailed to enable individuals to be identified. He added that the ICO’s ‘Anonymisation: managing data protection risk code of practice’ provided useful information for organisations on how anonymisation techniques can be used to safeguard individual privacy.
Vaizey said that while the Data Protection Act does not prohibit the sale of personal data, it is something about which individuals should be informed, and that companies were often not suitably clear about this in their terms and conditions. He agreed that there should be ‘much simpler terms and conditions specifically designed for an online age covering the essentials necessary to giving informed consent.’
Vaizey highlighted that the ICO’s powers had recently been strengthened, as demonstrated by the possibility that Google will face a significant fine from the ICO if it breaks privacy laws. He went on to discuss the issues of e-privacy and cookies, suggesting that most people did not object to the use of cookies, but that they ‘want to feel they have given their consent for tracking behaviour.’
In response to Goodman’s accusations that the Government were not supporting the Commissions data protection proposals, Vaizey insisted that they supported updating the regulations, but had ‘legitimate concerns about some of the detail’, particularly ‘the right to be forgotten’. He argued that telling someone they had the right to be forgotten on the internet raised ‘a huge amount of expectation’, particularly when there is little clarity around whether this can genuinely be achieved.
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BIS launches consultation on the Competition and Markets Authority
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills has launched a consultation setting out how the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which replaced the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission, will work in practice, and how it will interact with businesses and individuals across the range of its powers and responsibilities. The consultation covers guidance on cost recovery in telecoms price control references; mergers; market studies and market investigations; administrative penalties; transparency and disclosure. Views on the consultation documents are welcomed and a second tranche of documents will be released in September.
