Asked by: Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat - South Devon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress her Department has made on rolling out Project Gigabit in the South West.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Through Project Gigabit we are delivering gigabit-capable connections to premises across the South West that are not expected to be reached by the commercial market alone.
Up to 31 March 2025, approximately 165,900 premises across the region have received access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection through publicly-funded broadband projects.
We remain committed to ensuring that at least 99% of UK premises are able to access a gigabit-capable connection by 2032.
Asked by: Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat - South Devon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of requiring all communications providers to issue automatic compensation for service outages.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Consumers should expect high-quality, reliable services. Operators have statutory obligations to keep services available and take all appropriate and proportionate measures to prepare for and minimise any disruption or outages.
In 2019, Ofcom - the independent regulator - worked with telecoms operators to introduce a voluntary, automatic compensation scheme for domestic broadband. 10 internet service providers are signatories to the scheme and collectively cover over 90% of home broadband consumers.
We will continue to work with Ofcom to monitor the market to ensure that consumers are receiving reliable services and recourse for when things go wrong.