Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I do not think it says anything at all about our tourism industry.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

6. What progress his Department has made on the roll-out of rural broadband; and if he will make a statement.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

Eight local authorities have moved to the procurement stage for the roll-out of rural broadband. I will write to all local authorities this week to tell them that as a condition of receiving public funding for their rural broadband programmes, we will need them to move to procurement by the middle of next year and to have signed a contract for the roll-out of broadband by the end of next year in order to make sure that we have the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015.

[Julian Smith]

North Yorkshire is making good progress in its procurement process, but EU procurement rules make it very slow, which is frustrating for many businesses and constituents. What message would my right hon. Friend give them? Will he commit to coming and launching the north Yorkshire pilot once the procurement process is complete?

[Mr Hunt]

I would love to, as I recognise that north Yorkshire has gone further faster than many parts of the country and the £18 million grant that it received has helped that. We have tried to make the European regional development fund rules simpler to enable local authorities to tap into them for their rural broadband programmes. I would certainly be happy to help my hon. Friend and every local authority speed up the process of getting these contracts signed.