Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many bids to the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund were successful in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber region, (b) East Riding of Yorkshire local authority area, and (c) Beverley and Holderness constituency; and what proportion of all successful bids submitted these represent.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our ambition is that everyone in every corner of the UK, whatever their circumstances, can participate in our modern digital society. That’s why we launched the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund – supporting local initiatives that increase digital participation and aim to meet the specific and diverse needs of digitally excluded people in communities across the UK.
Some applicants have been announced and DSIT are currently in the process of onboarding successful applicants of the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, with a regional spread across England. The department intends to announce and publish a full list of successful projects in due course.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make it his policy to require fixed line operators to share infrastructure to help tackle the proliferation of telegraph poles.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We understand concerns about the excessive deployment of telegraph poles, and are urgently considering options to address this.
Telegraph poles can play an important role in delivering affordable connectivity to communities, and competition can offer consumers greater choice and cheaper rates. However, it is vital that operators share infrastructure wherever possible, as the last thing anyone wants is for our towns and villages to be littered with countless unnecessary competing telegraph poles.
Existing regulations require operators to share infrastructure where practicable, and the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 made it easier to upgrade and share existing apparatus.
In addition, the Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016 are designed to facilitate sharing for physical infrastructure.