Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport written question – answered at on 5 September 2022.
John Nicolson
Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment the potential impact of the mis-selling of fibre broadband products on consumers; and if she will make a statement.
John Nicolson
Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact for consumers of copper and cable products being sold as fibre products.
John Nicolson
Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make representations to ofcom on the potential impacts of the mis-selling of fibre products on consumers; and if she will make a statement.
Matt Warman
Minister of State
In 2017, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK's regulator of advertising, reviewed consumer understanding of the term ‘fibre’ as used in broadband advertising (particularly for part-fibre services such as Fibre to the Cabinet) and any impact the use of this term has on consumers’ transactional decisions. The ASA engaged with stakeholders and received a range of responses from providers of part-fibre and full-fibre broadband services, consumer organisations and other regulators.
The ASA published their findings in November 2017 and concluded by stating the following:“It is not possible to conclude that the word ‘fibre’, as currently used in part-fibre advertising, is likely to mislead and misinform consumers.”
Both the ASA and ofcom are independent regulators and such matters relating to industry rules on advertising and broadband speed claims are a matter for their discretion.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.
Ofcom Web Site http://www.ofcom.org.uk
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
