Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1125280

registered interest
date	08/05/2019
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	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 recent representations he has received from representatives of Ofcom on the funding of high-speed fibre broadband infrastructure in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	251944
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>We have no plans to introduce legislation which would allow BT/Openreach to charge rural consumers more than urban consumers to subsidise their full fibre broadband connections.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is already supporting rural broadband connectivity in a number of ways. Our £1.8 billion superfast broadband programme has achieved its target of 95% superfast coverage across the UK. In our Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), we set a target to go further and ensure that 15 million premises can connect to gigabit capable, full fibre broadband by 2025 with nationwide coverage by 2033. We are already investing to make that happen, stimulating the market through the £278 million Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme and the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. The FTIR was clear that the Government would also support full fibre broadband in less commercial areas of the country, likely to be around 10% of UK premises, so that no areas are systematically left behind. To start this, the 2018 Budget announced £200 million for the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers meet regularly with Ofcom to discuss a range of issues. Ofcom is currently consulting on its initial proposals for promoting competition and investment in fibre networks across the country including in less commercial, rural areas of the UK.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James grouped question UIN 251942 251943 question first answered 16/05/2019 09:31:47 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards

1123058

registered interest
date	25/04/2019
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	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, when he plans to launch the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme.
tabling member constituency	North East Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Alistair Burt
uin	247601
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/05/2019 answer text <p>At Budget 2018, £200 million was allocated from the National Productivity Investment Fund for the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme. This is to start our &quot;Outside-In&quot; approach identified in the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, which seeks to ensure that around 10% of UK premises that are not likely to get commercial full fibre coverage by 2033 are addressed at the same pace as the rest of the country.</p><p> </p><p>We will make further announcements on this policy shortly.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 01/05/2019 15:01:14 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt

1123145

registered interest
date	25/04/2019
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	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 progress has been made with the Rural Connected Communities Project; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using North East Bedfordshire as a pilot area for that initiative.
tabling member constituency	North East Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Alistair Burt
uin	247603
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/05/2019 answer text <p>The 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme is currently developing proposals for the Rural Connected Communities (RCC) project. This aims to build the business case for 5G, and rural mobile coverage by testing a range of technical solutions and commercial models, building and proving demand through new use cases.</p><p> </p><p>When the application process for the RCC project is open, as a mainly rural area, North East Bedfordshire may wish to submit a bid, subject to the competition’s final eligibility requirements.</p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 02/05/2019 12:40:01 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt

1109427

registered interest
date	03/04/2019
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	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 rural broadband.
tabling member constituency	Copeland
tabling member printed	Trudy Harrison
uin	240615
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/04/2019 answer text <p>The Government’s policy is to ensure world-class broadband and mobile connectivity across the UK. We are currently implementing a number of policies to achieve this in rural areas.</p><p> </p><p>£1.8 billion of public money is being invested to support vital improvements in superfast broadband coverage across the UK, including in rural areas. In December 2017, we met our target to extend superfast coverage to 95% of UK premises, and we expect to reach at least 97% by 2020.</p><p> </p><p>DCMS has also put in place legislation to create a new Universal Service Obligation (USO) giving every household and business the right to request a broadband connection of at least 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) by 2020, to ensure access to decent connectivity. Ofcom are now responsible for implementing the USO. Further details, including how to apply are expected to be announced in the summer. In addition, the Better Broadband Scheme provides voucher funding to UK premises that do not have access to affordable broadband service delivering at least 2Mbps.</p><p> </p><p>DEFRA has allocated £75 million of grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England, targeted at helping to connect businesses with superfast broadband in hard to reach rural areas.</p><p> </p><p>Looking forward, we want to provide world class digital connectivity that is gigabit-capable, reliable, long-lasting and widely available across the UK. We have set ambitious targets - for 15 million premises to be connected to full fibre by 2025, with nationwide coverage by 2033. In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, we set out our long term national strategy to meet these targets, and to ensure that rural and remote areas are not left behind. Critical to delivering this ambition, is the “outside-in” approach set out in the review, which seeks to ensure that the harder to reach, mostly rural areas which are not viable for commercial investment - are addressed at the same pace as the rest of the country.</p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 11/04/2019 14:18:54 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	4593 label Biography information for Trudy Harrison

1083606

registered interest
date	07/03/2019
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	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 he is taking to improve access to high speed broadband for small rural businesses.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	229767
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/03/2019 answer text <p>We are working closely with the Department for Economy team in Northern Ireland on the £165m Project Stratum who are finalising Invitation to Tender documents in relation to issuing the OJEU Procurement by the end of April. This will extend Superfast coverage in Northern Ireland to approximately 98% of premises and include many small rural businesses.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Recently, the Full-Fibre Northern Ireland Consortium of 10 local councils were successful in the award of £15m under the DCMS Wave 3 of the Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme. This is in addition to the DCMS LFFN Wave 2 Belfast City Council £11.5m and the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon £2.4m projects. These projects will all help to provide more full-fibre to public buildings in urban and rural areas and this should encourage commercial suppliers more cost-effectively to reach more premises. These projects form part of the investment of almost £300m, to stimulate commercial full fibre investment in both urban and rural areas across the UK, by 2021. This includes the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which can be used by small businesses to contribute to the installation cost of faster connections over gigabit-capable infrastructure.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, due to launch in Spring, will also benefit rural businesses. The programme will trial a model for full fibre to public buildings - starting with primary schools - which will act as hubs in rural areas, alongside vouchers for funding gigabit-capable connectivity to homes and businesses across the UK.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>These programmes address hard to reach areas and meet the needs of the challenging connectivity issues experienced by small rural businesses.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To ensure no-one is left behind, we are introducing a broadband Universal Service Obligation to give everyone a clear, enforceable right to request high-speed broadband by 2020.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 15/03/2019 16:24:54 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1078613

registered interest
date	27/02/2019
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	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, when he plans to announce the next steps for the Rural Gigabit Connnectivity programme.
tabling member constituency	Brigg and Goole
tabling member printed	Andrew Percy
uin	226648
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/03/2019 answer text <p>The £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, announced in Budget 2018, will trial a model for full fibre to public buildings - starting with primary schools - which will act as hubs in rural areas, alongside vouchers for funding gigabit-capable connectivity to homes and businesses across the UK.</p><p> </p><p>An announcement on the launch of the programme will take place in Spring 2019.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 07/03/2019 10:25:19 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	3939 label Biography information for Andrew Percy

1078617

registered interest
date	27/02/2019
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	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 progress his Department has made on its plans for an outside-in strategy to build full-fibre networks in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Brigg and Goole
tabling member printed	Andrew Percy
uin	226649
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/03/2019 answer text <p>Work has already started to build full fibre networks in rural areas, with up to £700 million allocated by Government for rollout up until the end of 2021.</p><p> </p><p>The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review identified that around 10% of premises would not get full fibre commercially by 2033, largely in rural and remote areas. To reach the Government’s targets for nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033, these areas will require additional funding of around £3 billion to support investment, ensuring delivery in the final 10% occurs alongside commercial rollout.</p><p> </p><p>Funding already committed to these areas includes around £200 million from the BDUK Superfast programme, which is building on the 96% superfast coverage in the UK, and now rolling out full fibre connections.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Full Fibre Networks programme (LFFN) is designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the whole of the UK. LFFN will have invested almost £300 million across the UK by the end of the programme in 2021.</p><p> </p><p>At Budget 2018, a further £200 million was allocated from the National Productivity Investment Fund, for the 2 year Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme starting in April 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Longer-term options for funding rural connectivity under the Outside-In approach will be determined as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.</p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James grouped question UIN 226650 question first answered 07/03/2019 10:33:55 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	3939 label Biography information for Andrew Percy

1078619

registered interest
date	27/02/2019
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	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 funding his Department has allocated to subsidise full-fibre networks in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Brigg and Goole
tabling member printed	Andrew Percy
uin	226650
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/03/2019 answer text <p>Work has already started to build full fibre networks in rural areas, with up to £700 million allocated by Government for rollout up until the end of 2021.</p><p> </p><p>The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review identified that around 10% of premises would not get full fibre commercially by 2033, largely in rural and remote areas. To reach the Government’s targets for nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033, these areas will require additional funding of around £3 billion to support investment, ensuring delivery in the final 10% occurs alongside commercial rollout.</p><p> </p><p>Funding already committed to these areas includes around £200 million from the BDUK Superfast programme, which is building on the 96% superfast coverage in the UK, and now rolling out full fibre connections.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Full Fibre Networks programme (LFFN) is designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the whole of the UK. LFFN will have invested almost £300 million across the UK by the end of the programme in 2021.</p><p> </p><p>At Budget 2018, a further £200 million was allocated from the National Productivity Investment Fund, for the 2 year Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme starting in April 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Longer-term options for funding rural connectivity under the Outside-In approach will be determined as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.</p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James grouped question UIN 226649 question first answered 07/03/2019 10:33:55 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	3939 label Biography information for Andrew Percy

1046062

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	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 the (a) the supplier contribution, (b) estimated take-up; (c) actual take-up, and (d) associated take-up clawback are for each project involved in the roll-out of rural broadband.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	211080
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2019 answer text <p>The public subsidy and most recent actual take-up figures can be found on our public-facing document - Link below:</p><p><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hs00bNsyRV1WoOt-fow3rsNXzpcKg26AsOWvk1bvJRk/edit#gid=0" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hs00bNsyRV1WoOt-fow3rsNXzpcKg26AsOWvk1bvJRk/edit#gid=0</a></p><p>Contract specific data is held by each Local Body for their own contracts, so you would need to direct this request to them. Please note that some of this data is commercially sensitive.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 28/01/2019 17:53:55 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1043107

registered interest
date	17/01/2019
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	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, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2019 to Question 206713 on Broadband: Rural Answers, what steps his Department takes to measure and report on (a) BT's capital contribution to the rural broadband roll-out and (b) BT gainshare or clawback.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	209730
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2019 answer text <p>a) In life contractual reporting is required from all suppliers during build. This includes quarterly financial reporting on all spend to deliver the contract, including supplier contribution. Each payment request from the supplier must include supporting evidence that the costs are genuine and comply with the contractual definition of qualifying expenditure before payment can be made.</p><p>Once build has completed and been signed off by the contracting authority, all of the costs declared over the life of the build, including those funded by the supplier, are reviewed and compared to the contract baseline to confirm their eligibility against the contract. At this point, the final supplier contribution is established and agreed.</p><p> </p><p>b) Suppliers are required to periodically report on actual take-up against forecast, and therefore any associated take-up clawback, during the build and for a defined period after build has complete.</p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James question first answered 22/01/2019 11:39:05 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms