Research Briefing
Last August, I blogged highlighting that the Government’s superfast broadband programme had extended fibre broadband to 2 million premises. This August, the Government has trumpeted the fact that it has now extended fibre to a further million premises, taking the total to 3 million since 2010. MPs will debate this and other issues related to
Debate Pack
This debate pack has been compiled ahead of the debate on Superfast Broadband Rollout to be held on Monday 12 October 2015 at 3pm in the Commons Chamber. This is a Backbench Business Committee debate. Debate packs are produced quickly after the announcement of parliamentary business. They are intended to provide a summary or overview of the issue being debated and identify relevant briefings and useful documents, including press and parliamentary material. More detailed briefing can be prepared for MPs on request to the Library.
Debate Pack
This debate pack has been compiled ahead of the debate on Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy to be held on Thursday 10 September 2015 at 3pm in Westminster Hall. The Member in charge of the debate is Rt. Hon. Mr Alistair Carmichael MP. Debate packs are produced quickly after the announcement of parliamentary business. They are intended to provide a summary or overview of the issue being debated and identify relevant briefings and useful documents, including press and parliamentary material. More detailed briefing can be prepared for MPs on request to the Library.
Research Briefing
Internet use is transforming almost every aspect of our public, private and work life. More than three quarters of the UK population use the internet daily, up from just 35% of people in 2006. Two thirds of people now own a smartphone, using it for nearly two hours every day to browse the internet, access
Research Briefing
A reformed Common fisheries Policy took effect from 1 January 2014 following on from several years of negotiation. The key reforms to the CFP, include a phased in ban on discarding fish (effective as of 1 January 2015); a legally binding commitment to fishing at sustainable levels; and increasingly decentralised decision making, taking place at regional rather than pan-European level. This note covers the proposals for reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), negotiations and decisions implementing the reforms.
Research Briefing
Ofcom auctioned radio spectrum needed for 4G mobile devices in 2013, raising £2.34 billion (less than Treasury forecasts). This briefing summarises the details of the auction, potential interference with digital television and future plans for the 700 MHz lot of spectrum.
Debate Pack
This debate pack has been prepared for the Westminster Hall debate on Superfast broadband rollout on Wednesday 24 June at 2.30pm. It sets out the current situation with regard to broadband access and coverage and provides an overview of the Government’s broadband policy for the UK. It focuses on the delivery of broadband targets and funding in England as the devolved administrations have their own delivery programmes. In addition, appendices found at the bottom of this page provide detailed data on broadband speeds and superfast availability by region and parliamentary constituency, including maps.
Research Briefing
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, earlier this year warned that net neutrality—“a key element of the openness that underpins the Web and the broader Internet”—is under threat. And while internet activists cheered the announcement in February this year that the US telecommunications regulator had approved a plan to govern the internet
Research Briefing
Net neutrality is the concept that all information and services should have equal and open access online without regard to content, destination or source. Both net neutrality—and the associated concept of the ‘open internet’—are considered to be founding principles of the World Wide Web. Concerns that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are looking to circumvent net neutrality principles—deciding how fast data will be transmitted and at what quality—have led to campaigns to explicitly legislate for net neutrality. Without net neutrality campaigners fear a two-tiered service with fast and slow lanes could develop. In the past few years, the EU and other countries have attempted to explicitly legislate to ensure Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operate in a net neutral fashion.
Research Briefing
This House of Commons Library Standrad Note summarises the negotiations and decisions taken over UK fishing quota agreements for 2015 made under the reformed Common Fisheries Policy.
Research Briefing
This Bill would make changes aimed to strengthen the law on the recovery of the proceeds of crime. It would make amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to update existing offences. It would also provide for a new offence of participating in the activities of an organised crime group and make changes to Serious Crime Prevention Orders and gang injunctions. The Bill would provide for the seizure and forfeiture of substances used as drug-cutting agents. It would also amend the offence of child cruelty, create a new offence relating to the possession of ‘paedophile manuals’ and amend the law on Female Genital Mutilation. The Bill would create a new offence of unauthorised possession of a knife or other offensive weapon in prison and confer extra-territorial jurisdiction on the courts in respect of certain terrorism offences.
Research Briefing
Following the Government’s aborted plans to sell parts of the Public Forest Estate in 2010, it signalled its intention to establish, via primary legislation, a new public body to manage the forestry estate. No legislation has yet been forthcoming and environmental groups are concerned that this has left the nation’s forests unprotected. The introduction of
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