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1732128

registered interest
date	07/10/2024
answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept id	216
answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 for gaming services.
tabling member constituency	Ashford
tabling member printed	Sojan Joseph
uin	7669
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/10/2024 answer text <p>The Online Safety Act has been designed to be technology neutral and applies to all services which support user-to-user interactions online, including game services. Where gaming services fall in scope, they will need to take appropriate measures to protect their users against illegal harms and harms to children.</p> answering member constituency Enfield North answering member printed Feryal Clark question first answered 10/10/2024 11:23:29 answering member 4822 label Biography information for Feryal Clark
tabling member	5247

1713028

registered interest
date	23/04/2024
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of prohibiting the practice of intentionally rendering commercial videogames inoperable when support ends.
tabling member constituency	St Ives
tabling member printed	Derek Thomas
uin	23259
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government recognises recent concerns raised by video games users regarding the long-term operability of purchased products. Video games publishers must comply with existing consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs).</p><p>The CPRs protect consumers from being given false or misleading information by businesses. If consumers purchased a game on the understanding that it would continue to be playable, even when support ends, then the CPRs may provide recourse.</p><p>Under the CRA, consumers have clear rights when buying digital content, such as video games, supplied in digital form. Any digital content the consumer has paid for must be as described and of a satisfactory quality. If digital content does not meet these requirements, the consumer is entitled to a repair or replacement, or a price reduction or refund if the fault cannot be fixed. The CRA has a time limit of up to six years after a breach of contract during which a consumer can take legal action.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 26/04/2024 08:58:31 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4532 label Biography information for Derek Thomas

1690185

registered interest
date	19/02/2024
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the growing market for peer-to-peer trading on platforms such as Steam, which allow for games to be uploaded to people that are located nearby, and what steps they are taking to regulate that market.
tabling member printed	Lord Foster of Bath
uin	HL2536
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>Platforms including Steam allow users to trade games from one personal computer to another over a local area network. Default settings on Steam are for transfers only to be enabled in and out of personal computers where a user’s own account is logged in. In order to be in receipt of a game file transfer, users must opt in to share with other users.</p><p>As a trader operating an online platform which facilitates the sale and supply of gaming products to consumers, Steam has legal responsibilities under consumer law.</p><p>The transfer of data over any network needs to be done securely. HM Government is working with software vendors to set minimum standards which should be expected when delivering secure software. All technology should be built in line with the Secure by Design principles available on the National Cyber Security Centre’s website.</p><p>All online platforms likely to be accessed by children must conform with the children’s code and apply measures to protect the data rights of children. For example, children’s geolocation data should not be shared by default and children’s accounts should have the highest privacy settings enabled by default.</p><p>The Government continues to monitor this market and will consider any emerging evidence on this issue.</p> answering member printed Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay question first answered 01/03/2024 14:21:25 answering member 4728 label Biography information for Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay
tabling member	214 label Biography information for Lord Foster of Bath

1681433

registered interest
date	19/12/2023
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of challenges within the video games industry.
tabling member constituency	Warwick and Leamington
tabling member printed	Matt Western
uin	900901
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2024 answer text <p>The Government is committed to the success of the UK games sector and we work closely with industry to support its future growth.</p><p>This includes the £13.4 million UK Games Fund supporting new IP and talent and generous video games tax reliefs.</p><p>However, we are also focused on building a talent pipeline through the Creative Careers Programme, T-Levels and bootcamps, and local skills improvement plans. Additionally, we have worked closely with industry to deliver guidance on loot boxes, and developed a video games research framework to inform future policy making.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 11/01/2024 16:49:46 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4617 label Biography information for Matt Western

1645722

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the advanced screen and performance technology research facilities announced in the creative industries sector vision on video game development studios.
tabling member constituency	Warwick and Leamington
tabling member printed	Matt Western
uin	190189
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>The recently published Creative Industries Sector Vision sets out the Government’s ambition to maximise the potential of the creative industries. It details our plans to grow these industries by an extra £50bn and create a million extra jobs by 2030, and build a pipeline of talent and opportunity for young people through a Creative Careers Promise.</p><p>The Sector Vision was developed in partnership by government and industry, and includes £77 million in new government spending on top of the £233 million of existing public funding since the 2021 Spending Review, including specific measures to support the UK’s thriving video game industry.</p><p>The Sector Vision announced an additional £5 million investment in the UK Games Fund (UKGF), to provide content funding to high-potential UK games studios, allowing them to develop their intellectual property, boosting their ability to attract investment and reach their next stage of growth.</p><p>The Create Growth Programme (CGP) supports a range of creative businesses, including video games companies. As a result of £10.9 million in additional funding announced in the Sector Vision, the CGP will be expanded to cover 12 English regions outside of London, supporting over 2,000 creative businesses to access private investment and scale up.</p><p>The Sector Vision also announced an additional investment of at least £50 million in the next wave of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Creative Industries Clusters programme. This funding will be used to identify and support at least six new clusters specialising in creative subsectors, building on the existing nine clusters supported by this programme. One of the existing clusters includes InGAME, a research and development (R&amp;D) centre for the video games industry led by Abertay University.</p><p>The Convergent Screen Technologies and performance in Realtime (CoSTAR) will establish a new national R&amp;D infrastructure for the next generation of screen and performance technologies, including virtual production.</p><p>Additionally, over 200 creative companies across the UK have received a share of £10 million of innovation funding from the first round of Innovate UK’s Creative Catalyst programme. Of these projects, approximately 10% are innovation projects based directly with the UK games sector.</p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Sir John Whittingdale grouped question UIN 190190 190191 190192 question first answered 27/06/2023 10:35:19 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4617 label Biography information for Matt Western

1645723

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the create growth programme announced in the creative industries sector vision on video game development studios.
tabling member constituency	Warwick and Leamington
tabling member printed	Matt Western
uin	190190
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>The recently published Creative Industries Sector Vision sets out the Government’s ambition to maximise the potential of the creative industries. It details our plans to grow these industries by an extra £50bn and create a million extra jobs by 2030, and build a pipeline of talent and opportunity for young people through a Creative Careers Promise.</p><p>The Sector Vision was developed in partnership by government and industry, and includes £77 million in new government spending on top of the £233 million of existing public funding since the 2021 Spending Review, including specific measures to support the UK’s thriving video game industry.</p><p>The Sector Vision announced an additional £5 million investment in the UK Games Fund (UKGF), to provide content funding to high-potential UK games studios, allowing them to develop their intellectual property, boosting their ability to attract investment and reach their next stage of growth.</p><p>The Create Growth Programme (CGP) supports a range of creative businesses, including video games companies. As a result of £10.9 million in additional funding announced in the Sector Vision, the CGP will be expanded to cover 12 English regions outside of London, supporting over 2,000 creative businesses to access private investment and scale up.</p><p>The Sector Vision also announced an additional investment of at least £50 million in the next wave of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Creative Industries Clusters programme. This funding will be used to identify and support at least six new clusters specialising in creative subsectors, building on the existing nine clusters supported by this programme. One of the existing clusters includes InGAME, a research and development (R&amp;D) centre for the video games industry led by Abertay University.</p><p>The Convergent Screen Technologies and performance in Realtime (CoSTAR) will establish a new national R&amp;D infrastructure for the next generation of screen and performance technologies, including virtual production.</p><p>Additionally, over 200 creative companies across the UK have received a share of £10 million of innovation funding from the first round of Innovate UK’s Creative Catalyst programme. Of these projects, approximately 10% are innovation projects based directly with the UK games sector.</p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Sir John Whittingdale grouped question UIN 190189 190191 190192 question first answered 27/06/2023 10:35:19 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4617 label Biography information for Matt Western

1149955

registered interest
date	16/10/2019
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance, if any, they intend to offer to the Video Standards Council on the age-rating system for video games.
tabling member printed	Lord Storey
uin	HL159
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2019 answer text <p>The Video Standards Council (VSC) is an independent body, designated under the Video Recordings Act 1984 to issue statutory age ratings for video games in the UK. Although the VSC’s classification decisions are therefore rightly independent of the Government, we do require it to meet certain operating standards, including regularly consulting the public on its classification standards and maintaining an Advisory Panel of experts in fields such as child and adolescent mental health.</p><p> </p><p>We are in frequent dialogue with the VSC about their work and on how we can ensure that children are better protected from inappropriate content. This includes working with them on a call to industry to adopt PEGI ratings for every online game.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/10/2019 16:27:11 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

1086514

registered interest
date	11/03/2019
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many video games businesses have breached the Competition and Markets Authority’s set of Principles for Online and App-based Games since 2014; and how many of those businesses were British games companies.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Liam Byrne
uin	230633
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/03/2019 answer text <p>We are not aware of such data being published by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).</p><p> </p><p>As an independent non-ministerial department tasked with promoting competition and protecting consumers, the CMA is looking at a wide range of consumer issues in digital markets, including apps and terms and conditions. This includes international co-operation through ICPEN and other networks.</p><p> </p><p>The CMA's Principles for Online and App-based Games set out the steps companies need to take in order to comply with relevant consumer legislation. The CMA retains an interest in in-app purchases and will take further action if necessary.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 15/03/2019 09:50:36 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

1050268

registered interest
date	28/01/2019
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support the UK video games industry.
tabling member constituency	Romford
tabling member printed	Andrew Rosindell
uin	213262
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2019 answer text <p>The video games industry is a great success story and we are committed to promoting its growth. Companies in the sector have received £230 million from the UK’s video games tax relief since its introduction in 2014, supporting 480 video games productions that together account for over £1 billion investment in the UK. The UK Games Fund, launched in 2015 with £4 million DCMS support, has further helped 75 businesses and 170 graduates, and has been provided with an additional £1.7 million from government to extend the fund to 2020.</p><p> </p><p>The Creative Industries Sector Deal, published in 2018, also includes a Creative Scale-Up Programme piloting support for early stage creative businesses operating in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and the West of England. The programme is designed to make creative businesses - including games start-ups - better placed to access finance through a programme of intensive business support and investor eco-system development.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 04/02/2019 17:31:46 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	1447 label Biography information for Andrew Rosindell

1045976

registered interest
date	22/01/2019
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Video Games
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what safeguards his Department has put in place to prevent vulnerable people being exploited by the gaming industry.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	211244
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/01/2019 answer text <p>The Gambling Act 2005 sets out licensing objectives which underpin the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. They include the protection of vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.</p><p>All operators providing gambling facilities to consumers in Great Britain must be licensed by the Gambling Commission and comply with licence conditions. These include requirements to prevent underage gambling, to intervene when a customer shows signs of being at risk of harm and to offer the facility to self-exclude. Operators may also be required to make tools available to help players manage their gambling, such as setting time or spend limits.</p><p>In May last year the Government published its <em>Review of Proposed Changes to Gaming Machines and Responsibility Measures,</em> which set out a package to strengthen protections further. The response can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures</a></p><p> </p><p>As promised in the Review, the Government has passed legislation to reduce the maximum stake limit on B2 machines from £100 to £2. This will come into effect on 1 April 2019. Alongside this we announced action to strengthen safeguards online, including the rollout of GAMSTOP, the online multi-operator self-exclusion scheme. The Gambling Commission has consulted on tightening age and identity verification requirements and will publish a response shortly. It will also launch a call for evidence on gambling on credit and a consultation on customer interaction.</p><p> </p><p>The Review also announced measures to strengthen protections on gambling advertising, including significant new guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people, tougher sanctions for operators in breach of advertising codes, and a major advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness of risks around gambling.</p> answering member constituency Eastleigh answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 29/01/2019 18:00:42 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord