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1289659

registered interest
date	24/02/2021
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	Broadband
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 his Department are taking to ensure areas designated OFCOM area 2 can access Government schemes to improve their broadband speeds.
tabling member constituency	Broxtowe
tabling member printed	Darren Henry
uin	158228
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2021 answer text <p>The government’s ambition is to deliver nationwide gigabit-capable broadband as soon as possible. We are working with industry to target a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage by 2025 but will seek to accelerate rollout further to get as close to 100% as possible. We expect that approximately 80% of UK premises will be delivered by industry commercially without the need for public subsidy. It will be more difficult to deliver gigabit connectivity to the hardest to reach 20% of the premises, which is why the government has announced £5 billion to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to these premises as fast as possible.</p><p>For their proposed regulation for the 2021-26 period, Ofcom have defined two geographic markets: Area 2, accounting for roughly 70% of premises, where there is already some material commercial deployment by rival networks to BT Openreach or where this could be economic based on information provided to Ofcom by operators; and Area 3 - where Ofcom believes there is unlikely to be material commercial deployment by rivals to BT Openreach.</p><p>Ofcom has not yet officially confirmed the premises in these market areas as they are still under review following a consultation that closed on 8 December 2020. Ofcom expects to publish their final decisions by 31 March 2021.</p><p>DCMS’ £5 billion UK Gigabit programme will prioritise areas that are in the hardest to reach 20% premises in the country and, within that, the c.3% of premises that do not have access to superfast broadband. For this reason, our programme is unlikely to initially prioritise areas that are designated in Ofcom’s Area 2 as this will avoid the risk of crowding out commercial investment, and provide value for public money whilst delivering to those areas most in need.</p><p>However, DCMS will continue to conduct market surveys as part of the UK Gigabit programme, through which telecom operators provide detailed information on their commercial build plans. If it becomes clear that premises in Ofcom’s Area 2 are unlikely to benefit from a commercially delivered gigabit programme within a reasonable timeframe, then DCMS will take this into account when considering eligibility for government schemes.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 05/03/2021 15:44:26 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	4794 label Biography information for Darren Henry

1289697

registered interest
date	24/02/2021
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	Charities: Coronavirus
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 fiscal steps his Department is taking to support charities during the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Woking
tabling member printed	Mr Jonathan Lord
uin	158038
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2021 answer text <p>The Government made a £750 million package of support available, specifically for charities, social enterprises and the voluntary sector. This ensured that charities and other civil society organisations, including those at risk of financial hardship, could continue their vital work during the Covid-19 outbreak. To date, over 15,000 charities have received funding. This includes household names such as St John Ambulance, NSPCC, Age UK, Barnardo’s and the British Red Cross as well as over 8,000 small organisations.</p><p>On top of this, the Government continues to make an unprecedented multi-billion-pound package of support available across the economy to enable organisations to get through the months ahead. Charities continue to access these schemes, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, grants for organisations that have been required to close, including retail and leisure facilities, deferral of VAT bills to the end of June, and government backed loan schemes.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 05/03/2021 15:07:13 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	4090 label Biography information for Mr Jonathan Lord

1287699

registered interest
date	19/02/2021
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	Broadband: Rural Areas
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 his Department is taking to improve home broadband connections for people in (a) rural and (b) semi-rural locations who are continuing to work from home.
tabling member constituency	Fylde
tabling member printed	Mark Menzies
uin	154979
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2021 answer text <ul><li><p>DCMS are working tirelessly to improve home broadband connections. £2.6bn public funding is committed to subsidising the roll-out of broadband infrastructure in harder-to-reach areas through the government's Superfast Broadband programme. The original programme target of 95% was achieved and we have continued beyond this to greater than 96%.</p></li></ul><p><strong> </strong></p><ul><li><p>Over 96.6% of UK premises have access to superfast (30Mbps) broadband, with 5.3 million additional homes and businesses in both rural and semi-rural areas having superfast broadband available for the first time thanks to the government’s investment in the Superfast programme. (Source: ThinkBroadband)</p></li></ul><p><strong> </strong></p><ul><li><p>Blackpool has recently completed an LFFN project, which has enabled the development of a full fibre broadband network throughout Blackpool comprising the re-use of existing Blackpool network assets, the build of an additional 20.678km underground duct infrastructure and the installation of 54.5km of fibre optic cables. The project has enabled business and consumers across the authority access to Gigabit services as part of the deployment of the network.</p></li></ul><p><strong> </strong></p><ul><li><p>The Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, launched in May 2019 acting as the first step towards piloting the “Outside-In” approach identified in the FTIR. The programme was set up to trial the LFFN PSBU delivery mechanism, to provide gigabit capable connectivity to public sector buildings (Hubs), along with vouchers to eligible residential and business premises in rural and remote areas. The RGC programme is combining both demand and supply-side interventions.</p></li></ul><p> </p><ul><li><p>The programme focused on targeting Hubs located within the Final 10% &amp; 20% of least commercially viable areas across the UK identified through DCMS modelling (This was originally only the F10%, however this was altered to the F20% following the Year 2 business case submission to HMT in March 2020).</p></li></ul><p><strong> </strong></p><ul><li><p>The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme was a pilot which has enabled us to test different approaches to stimulate the broadband market and to support the installation of gigabit-capable broadband to homes and businesses; it has been very successful and we're going to build on this success with a new voucher in April, while also taking the opportunity to refine our approach to ensure that we focus support on the hardest to reach premises.</p></li></ul><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 08/03/2021 17:09:00 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	3998 label Biography information for Mark Menzies

1286289

registered interest
date	11/02/2021
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	Broadband: Wales
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 much funding he plans to allocate to Wales under the UK Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme.
tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
tabling member printed	Ben Lake
uin	153339
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2021 answer text <p>The UK Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme launched in May 2019, with voucher and public sector site elements.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Through RGC, the UK government has continued the roll-out of gigabit capable full-fibre in Wales, with nearly £3.7m committed:</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>a) 351 connected (£646k) and 932 pipeline (£1.79m) rural vouchers</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>b) £1.25m to for 103 public sites in 11 Local Authority areas - Welsh Government will oversee the project that covers public sites in Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, Powys, and Swansea.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In addition to rural vouchers, in Wales there was the previous gigabit voucher scheme with 562 connected (£1.24m) and 66 pipeline (£147k).</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In addition to the RGC public site project, in Wales there are a number of other Local Full Fibre Network Challenge Fund projects that are connecting public sites with nearly £24.5m committed:</p><p><strong> </strong></p><ul><li><p>across North Wales with the six local authorities for 350 public sites</p></li><li><p>in Pembrokeshire for 70 public sites</p></li><li><p>along the South Wales Strategic Road Network</p></li><li><p>across the Cardiff Capital Region with the ten local authorities for 174 public sites</p></li></ul><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 01/03/2021 16:04:06 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1286435

registered interest
date	11/02/2021
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	Broadband: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether projects funded by the Rural Gigabit Connectivity vouchers, but not submitted by 19 February 2021, will still be eligible for new Gigabit Broadband Vouchers from April 2021.
tabling member constituency	Tonbridge and Malling
tabling member printed	Tom Tugendhat
uin	153298
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2021 answer text <p>Since May 2019, eligible homes and businesses in rural areas that are part of a group project have been able to benefit from the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme funded by the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme. Voucher funding is a grant to individual residents and small businesses and is therefore committed when a voucher is issued to a beneficiary, at which point their supplier has 12 months to provide a connection. The Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is due to close on March 31 2021, by which point all voucher requests must be received.</p><p>Due to the success of the voucher scheme, and in line with the government’s ambition to provide access to gigabit-capable broadband to the hardest-to-reach communities in rural areas across the UK, a new gigabit broadband voucher is being developed as part of the UK Gigabit programme. This will target the hardest to reach areas which are least likely to benefit from commercial rollout. The government expects the new voucher to go live in April 2021 and, along with further details of the voucher, a new eligibility checker will be published in order to help consumers identify if they are eligible for a voucher. BDUK will also work with suppliers to help them transition existing projects, where they are eligible, to the UK Gigabit programme so that communities do not miss out on the opportunity for government funding to enable their access to gigabit capable connections.</p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 02/03/2021 16:55:03 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	4462 label Biography information for Tom Tugendhat

1285253

registered interest
date	09/02/2021
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	Broadband: Scotland and Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has had discussions with his counterparts in the Scottish and Welsh Governments on the implementation of the Outside-In programme in Scotland and Wales.
tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
tabling member printed	Ben Lake
uin	151800
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/02/2021 answer text <p>Matt Warman, Minister for Digital Infrastructure, met with Paul Wheelhouse Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands - Scottish Government on 16 December 2020, to discuss the UK Gigabit programme and the implementation of the Outside-In programme in Scotland.</p><p>He highlighted that UK government has started the roll-out of gigabit capable full fibre in Scotland with more than £22m invested already in a number of projects including:</p><p>a) The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme with over £4.9m committed</p><p>b) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £4.3m in the Highlands for 152 public sites</p><p>c) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £1.9m in Unst and Yell (Shetland) for 21 public sites</p><p>d) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £5.9m in Tay Cities for 228 public sites</p><p>e) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £1.4m in Dumfries and Galloway for 35 public sites</p><p>f) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £2.1m for NHS Scotland for 51 public sites</p><p>g) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £2m in the Highlands for 37 public sites (in addition to the Local Full Fibre Network sites above)</p><p>Similarly the UK government has also started the roll-out of gigabit capable full-fibre in Wales with more than £29m committed in a number of projects including:</p><p>a) Support to the Superfast Wales project, which is delivered by the Welsh Government, and has provided almost 733,000 properties across Wales with access to fast fibre broadband. The contract intervened where the Private Sector had no plans to do so (at the time of procurement). The current phase, which runs to June ‘22, will reach up to 39k more prems.</p><p>b) The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme with over £3.8m committed</p><p>c) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £8m in North Wales with 6 local authorities for 350 public sites</p><p>d) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £1.2m in Pembrokeshire for 70 public sites</p><p>e) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £12m to the Welsh Government for the South Wales Strategic Road Network project</p><p>f) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £3.16m to the Welsh Government for the Cardiff Capital Region project for 174 public sites in the ten authorities in SE Wales</p><p>g) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £1.25m to the Welsh Government for 103 public sites in 11 Local Authority areas</p><p>The UK government, through BDUK, has commenced regular collaborative engagement with Scottish and Welsh Government Officials on the planning for the UK Gigabit programme. They have set up a number of workstreams to ensure the optimal mix of approaches to Outside-In in Scotland and Wales is achieved.</p><p>The Minister also met with Lee Waters MS, the Deputy Minister for Economy &amp; Transport on 1 May 2020, to discuss the Shared Rural Network. They discussed the benefits of the programme and acknowledged that the SRN was positive but Mr Waters had some concerns about the length of time for the full benefits of the programme. Both ministers agreed to meet again in the near future to discuss how they can collectively create an environment in which they can accelerate developments whilst maximising existing resources and infrastructure to reduce overall cost on the public purse. The Minister is committed to continue working collaboratively with his Scottish and Welsh counterparts on the implementation of the Outside-In programme in Scotland and Wales.</p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 18/02/2021 16:57:14 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake