Oral Answers to Questions

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

Nothing could be further from the truth. The last active people survey showed that since we won the bid in 2005, against an exacting target, 1.4 million extra people were playing sport who were not doing so in 2005. As for dismantling the target, I seem to remember that it was the Government in which the right hon. and learned Lady served who cut the amount of funding that sport gets through the national lottery from 20% when they came into power in 1997 to 13.7% when we took power in 2010—something we have now reversed.

Broadband

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

7. What progress her Department has made on the roll-out of broadband to rural communities; and if she will make a statement.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Maria Miller)]

Thirty-eight local broadband contracts have now been signed under our rural broadband programme, representing over 95% of the total project funding allocations. Ten projects have already provided their first superfast broadband connections and delivery is now moving ahead across the country.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

My constituents in Brocton and other villages, especially those who work from home or run businesses there, are looking forward to faster broadband speeds. What assessment has my right hon. Friend made of the benefits of superfast broadband in rural areas?

[Maria Miller]

There is an enormous amount of evidence of the economic advantages in not just rural areas but across the country of faster broadband, and that is why the Government are putting in place a programme that will see more than £1 billion-worth of investment going into this vital infrastructure.