Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Daniel Kawczynski

Thursday 3rd December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con)]

10. What steps the Government have taken to improve mobile phone reception and broadband service in rural areas.

[The Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

I am thrilled with the progress we are making on broadband and mobile coverage. [Laughter.] Labour Front Benchers like to mock me, but I want to tell you, Mr Speaker, about the International Telecommunication Union, which states that the UK has risen from 10th to fourth in the broadband rankings, overtaking Sweden, overtaking Holland, overtaking Hong Kong and overtaking Finland. The broadband European scorecard, published this week, showed that once again we are at the top of the EU big five. That is progress.

[Daniel Kawczynski]

Yes, progress indeed—but I am interested in Shropshire, which I represent and where issues remain outstanding. I very much hope that the Minister will give me some assurances about the work to improve coverage in Shropshire and to reform the electronic communications code.

[Mr Vaizey]

Broadband roll-out in Shropshire is now exceeding the number of Michelin stars. Almost 12,000 homes in my hon. Friend’s constituency have been passed by our broadband programme, and we will get to 92% of his constituency. We will reform the electronic communications code to make broadband roll-out go even faster, especially when we introduce our universal service obligation.