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1731924

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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions his has had with Openreach on plans for full-fibre broadband rollout (a) nationally and (b) in Essex; and whether there has been any change in the speed of the rollout plans since 4 July 2024.
tabling member constituency	Basildon and Billericay
tabling member printed	Mr Richard Holden
uin	7567
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/10/2024 answer text <p>OpenReach has announced commercial plans to deliver full-fibre broadband to 25 million premises in the UK by 2026 and 30 million by 2030.</p><p>As part of Project Gigabit, Building Digital UK has signed a framework agreement with Openreach, with a value of up to £800 million, to provide around 312,000 hard-to-reach premises with access to gigabit-capable broadband.</p><p>Essex has been included within a call-off under this framework, which we plan to award in the coming months with delivery to commence in late-2025. According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, over 82% of premises in Essex have access to gigabit-capable connection, including 64% with full-fibre.</p> answering member constituency Rhondda and Ogmore answering member printed Chris Bryant question first answered 15/10/2024 12:31:02 answering member 1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant
tabling member	4813 label Biography information for Mr Richard Holden

1731361

registered interest
date	04/10/2024
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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of households in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England that do not have (i) broadband and (ii) mobile internet access.
tabling member constituency	Mid Cheshire
tabling member printed	Andrew Cooper
uin	7053
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2024 answer text <p>According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, 0.3% of premises in the Mid Cheshire constituency, 0.7% in Cheshire and 0.6% in England overall do not have access to broadband speeds in excess of the legal Universal Service Obligation (USO) of 10Mbps.</p><p>Ofcom publishes mobile coverage data for premises through its Connected Nations Reports and does not distinguish between households and other premises.</p><p> </p><p>Ofcom’s most recent coverage reporting reports that 127,447 (0.5%) premises across England do not have indoor 4G mobile coverage from any mobile network operator (MNO). This falls to 10,382 (0.04%) premises for 4G outdoor coverage.</p><p> </p><p>Ofcom data does not enable us to make an assessment of the number of premises in Cheshire that do not have coverage from any MNO.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Rhondda and Ogmore answering member printed Chris Bryant question first answered 14/10/2024 13:43:43 answering member 1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant
tabling member	5195

1716468

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many premises were able to access a gigabit-capable broadband connection in each constituency in the period between March 2019 and March 2024.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Sir Chris Bryant
uin	25182
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>Constituency-level statistics detailing the percentage of premises with access to a gigabit-capable connection over this period are available from the independent website <a href="https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=1&amp;council=2https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=1&amp;council=2" target="_blank">Think Broadband.com</a>.</p><p> </p><p>As of March 2024, over 81% of premises across the UK are able to access a gigabit-capable connection, up from just 6% in March 2019.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 15/05/2024 08:48:54 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

1695791

registered interest
date	13/03/2024
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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether broadband access is classed as an essential utility.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	18501
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>There is no standard definition of what constitutes a utility, with gas, water, electricity, and telecoms all regulated differently. The UK telecoms market features strong competition both at wholesale and retail levels which sets it apart from gas, water and electricity, which are regulated in such a way as to address competition concerns. However, the Government recognises that access to the internet is increasingly essential for full participation in society.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has taken action to ensure as many people as possible are able to access the internet. Since 2021, we have worked closely with telecoms operators to ensure social tariffs are available across 99% of the UK. Available to nearly 5 million households on Universal Credit as well as other means tested benefits, social tariffs are available from 28 individual providers (including BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone) and start at £10 per month.</p><p> </p><p>Over 80% of the UK can now access gigabit-capable broadband from at least one provider, and the Government is investing £5 billion via Project Gigabit to bring fast, secure and resilient connections to those parts of the country unlikely to be reached by commercial roll-out.</p><p> </p><p>In March 2020, The Broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) came into effect, giving consumers the right to request a decent broadband connection of at least 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. The USO is applicable in situations where access to decent broadband will cost more than £54 per month, the property isn’t due to be connected by an existing government scheme within 12 months and the cost of connection does not exceed a reasonable threshold of £3,400.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 21/03/2024 09:35:40 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

1694219

registered interest
date	06/03/2024
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	Broadband
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 her Department has made of the potential impact of open access fibre networks on broadband rollout targets.
tabling member constituency	Southend West
tabling member printed	Anna Firth
uin	17437
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/03/2024 answer text <p>As set out in the 2018 Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, the Government believes competition is the best way to rapidly increase the deployment of gigabit-capable networks, including full fibre, across the UK. Companies are free to decide their own business model, for example whether they run only as a network operator, only as an internet service provider or if they operate as a vertically integrated business. Companies are also free to decide which companies they partner with. Some companies have decided to be open access, while others have adopted other models.</p><p>While the Government has not conducted research specifically on the impact of open access fibre networks on broadband rollout targets, the current pro-competition approach has been successful in increasing gigabit-capable networks in the UK from less than 10% coverage in 2019 to more than 80% coverage today. More than 100 companies with various business models across the UK helped with this rapid rollout - the fastest rate in Europe. Consumers also benefit from competitive broadband prices. In difficult to reach areas which might not be commercially viable, the government has invested £5bn to incentivise the rollout of gigabit capable networks.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 15/03/2024 09:44:06 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4936 label Biography information for Anna Firth

1690057

registered interest
date	19/02/2024
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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure residents in (a) rural and (b) urban areas benefit equally from improved access to all broadband providers.
tabling member constituency	North Shropshire
tabling member printed	Helen Morgan
uin	14697
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>The Government continues to remove barriers to broadband roll out, including making considerable legislative changes and publishing non-statutory guidance to encourage fibre deployment. As well as changes to the Electronic Communications Code, all new build homes are required to have gigabit-ready physical infrastructure installed, and gigabit-capable connections where these can be provided within a cost cap. The Department continues to work closely with both local authorities and operators to support the rollout of digital connectivity across the UK and has published the Digital Connectivity Portal, extensive guidance for local authorities and operators to help facilitate broadband deployment. We also continue to work with the Department for Transport to trial a more flexible street works permitting system.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside this, Project Gigabit is the government’s flagship £5 billion programme to enable hard-to-reach communities, left out of commercial delivery plans, to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband.</p><p> </p><p>Some of the hardest to reach parts of the UK are rural communities and therefore Project Gigabit will level-up mostly rural and remote communities across the UK. Most of our delivery volume will come through local and regional contracts and subsidies to suppliers to extend their gigabit-capable networks to premises that will not otherwise be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans. These contracts require the supplier to offer wholesale access to their network for other internet service providers to use, facilitating fair, open access to the infrastructure government is subsidising.</p><p> </p><p>Most urban and suburban areas are already well served or part of commercial rollout plans, however, to reach our ambition of nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030, we recognise that pockets of poor connectivity in urban areas left out of commercial plans need to be tackled.</p><p> </p><p>Work is ongoing to find solutions and define an appropriate course of action to ensure these premises are not left behind, solutions for these premises may involve working with suppliers and local authorities to enable commercial delivery rather than using public subsidy.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 27/02/2024 11:17:34 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4934 label Biography information for Helen Morgan

1674000

registered interest
date	29/11/2023
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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of households in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England that do not have (i) broadband and (ii) mobile internet access.
tabling member constituency	Coventry North East
tabling member printed	Colleen Fletcher
uin	4442
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2023 answer text <p>Ofcom collects coverage data as part of its reporting requirements, most recently published in its Connected Nations summer update, with data for the period to April 2023. Ofcom provides coverage data for premises, and we are unable to break this down between households and other premises.</p><p> </p><p>Ofcom estimates that around 30,000 premises in the UK (0.1%) and 13,000 premises in England (less than 0.1%) lack access to either a fixed broadband network with ‘decent broadband’ (at least 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload speed) or good indoor 4G coverage.</p><p> </p><p>In the constituency of Coventry North East, 381 premises lack access to either a fixed broadband network with ‘decent broadband’ (at least 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload speed). For the Coventry City Council area that figure is 1,137. Ofcom does not publish aggregated data for the region of the West Midlands, however more data can be found in Ofcom’s Connected Nations reports.</p><p> </p><p>In respect of mobile coverage, Ofcom reports that 132,383 premises across England do not have indoor 4G mobile coverage from any MNO. This falls to 11,222 premises for 4G outdoor coverage. With 2G and 3G coverage added in, 9,622 premises do not have indoor data coverage from any MNO, falling to 1,127 premises without outdoor data coverage. Unfortunately, Ofcom data does not enable us to make an assessment of the number of premises in the West Midlands, the Coventry North East constituency, or the Coventry local authority area that do not have coverage from any mobile network operator.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Sir John Whittingdale question first answered 04/12/2023 13:59:58 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4378 label Biography information for Colleen Fletcher

1670454

registered interest
date	15/11/2023
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	Broadband
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay on 14 November (HL Deb col 472), what assessment they have made of whether they will achieve their target of at least 85 per cent of premises having access to gigabit capable broadband by 2025.
tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
uin	HL358
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/11/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. According to <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flabs.thinkbroadband.com%2Flocal%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cparliamentary-questions%40dsit.gov.uk%7Ce45a19b311fa44b1549808dbea84b65d%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C638361627965435080%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=NImPZLeVoeVfurKKVC9z70U1rfj%2BIR4z03eVkZeZUvk%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">ThinkBroadband</a>, an independent broadband news and information site, over 78% of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, which represents significant progress since January 2019, when coverage was just 6%. We are currently on track to achieve our target of 85% coverage by 2025.</p><p> </p><p>We have created a competition-friendly environment in areas where deployment is commercially viable. This Government has also reduced barriers to broadband rollout. For example, we passed the Product Security and Telecoms Infrastructure Act in 2022, making it cheaper and easier for companies to deploy, upgrade and share infrastructure. As a result, there is now a thriving market of over 100 providers who are estimated to invest nearly £40bn by 2030 in rolling out gigabit broadband all over the UK.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is also investing £5bn as part of Project Gigabit to ensure the hardest-to-reach areas in the UK receive coverage. Through our 12 Project Gigabit contracts and 27 current live procurements, we have made over £2 billion of funding available to suppliers to bring gigabit-capable broadband to up to 1.1 million premises in hard-to-reach parts of the country.</p> answering member printed Viscount Camrose question first answered 29/11/2023 12:30:09 answering member 4939 label Biography information for Viscount Camrose
tabling member	3792 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

1669344

registered interest
date	13/11/2023
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	Broadband
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of households that do not have access to reliable broadband, broken down by region.
tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
uin	HL230
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that all UK premises have access to fast and reliable broadband connectivity. Over 78% of UK premises can access gigabit-capable broadband, which represents significant progress since January 2019, when coverage was just 6%.</p><p> </p><p>Ofcom estimates that around 30,000 premises in the UK (0.1%) lack access to either a fixed broadband network with ‘decent broadband’ (at least 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload speed) or good indoor 4G coverage. A full breakdown is available by local authority and/or constituency in <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ofcom.org.uk%2Fresearch-and-data%2Fmulti-sector-research%2Finfrastructure-research%2Fconnected-nations-2022&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cparliamentary-questions%40dsit.gov.uk%7Ca0228f6b694f42fb080308dbe7778b7d%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C638358272871181553%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=d12LpXSINzBn5izKcHnz82q7yPmyp5Jhd5Dlqu7D2tI%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2022 report</a>. Ofcom’s <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ofcom.org.uk%2Fresearch-and-data%2Ftelecoms-research%2Fbroadband-research%2Fbroadband-speeds%2Fhome-broadband-performance-march-2023&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cparliamentary-questions%40dsit.gov.uk%7Ca0228f6b694f42fb080308dbe7778b7d%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C638358272871181553%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=WnYm1XNNoVW4E8h048r8JlVUfsTM5ajoLfRRlgIr9DU%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">UK Home Broadband Performance Report</a> also provides information on the reliability and peak performance of fixed broadband connections.</p> answering member printed Viscount Camrose question first answered 27/11/2023 13:54:16 answering member 4939 label Biography information for Viscount Camrose
tabling member	3792 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

1650486

registered interest
date	05/07/2023
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	Broadband
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what support her Department has provided to businesses to support the rollout of improved broadband services in (a) urban, (b) rural and (c) semi-urban areas.
tabling member constituency	Stirling
tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
uin	192666
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2023 answer text <p>Currently, 97.6% premises across the UK have access to a superfast connection (&gt;=30 Mbps) and 76.4% have gigabit-capable coverage. In Scotland, these figures are 95.7% and 70.2% for superfast and gigabit-capable respectively. Through Project Gigabit the Government aims to reach at least 85% gigabit-capable coverage across the UK by 2025 and then to reach near-universal coverage as soon as possible.</p><p>For urban areas, a key part of the Government’s approach is to promote increased competition in broadband delivery. We have made it as easy and attractive as possible for firms to build their networks in the UK, and we now have a thriving market of over 80 providers investing nearly £35bn rolling out gigabit broadband all over the UK.</p><p>To support coverage in rural areas, 31 local and regional procurements have now been launched within England, with 12 of these now in the contract delivery stage.</p><p>Within Scotland, the Scottish Government undertook a Public Review during March and April 2023 to seek responses from broadband suppliers and other interested parties on current and planned commercial coverage of gigabit broadband. The Scottish Government has also undertaken initial market engagement with suppliers on their potential interest in Project Gigabit contracts in Scotland, prior to procurements commencing later this year.</p><p>The Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) project is also providing gigabit broadband coverage to 115,000 premises that do not have access to superfast broadband, with £49.5 million funding from the UK government. This project has covered over 24,000 premises to date.</p><p>Premises in Scotland can also benefit from support through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which provides up to £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable infrastructure for homes and businesses, while remaining sub-superfast premises are also eligible for support from the Scottish Government’s Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.</p> answering member constituency Pudsey answering member printed Stuart Andrew grouped question UIN 192664 192665 question first answered 12/07/2023 07:47:23 answering member 4032 label Biography information for Stuart Andrew
tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith