Departmental Computers
Culture Media and Sport
Francis Maude (Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office (Also Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster), Cabinet Office; Horsham, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield of 12 January 2010, Official Report, column 861W, on departmental computers, for what reason websites featuring tobacco content are banned; if he will give examples of the types of tobacco sites which are banned; and whether the internet ban includes the Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) website.
Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Sport), Department for Culture, Media and Sport; Bradford South, Labour)
The filtering software used by my Department has a standard range of categories that are blocked by default. Filtering is switched off for those categories that are directly related to the work of my Department, currently tobacco remains blocked. The tobacco category covers tobacco promotional websites such as
The Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) website was inadvertently covered by this category by default. It has been unblocked.