Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Government has invested in the roll-out of superfast broadband in the South West.
Answered by Margot James
To date, the Department has committed £120,942,744 to support broadband roll-out in the South West. 586,900 premises have been given superfast coverage so far as a result of this funding. 93% of premises in the South West region now have access to superfast broadband - up from 42% in 2010. Gainshare funding for the region as a result of take-up which is higher than originally expected is likely to be at least £65 million. This will be available to support further investment.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Government has invested in the roll-out of superfast broadband in South Gloucestershire.
Answered by Margot James
The Department has provided funding of £1.87 million from the Superfast Broadband Programme and a further £1.5 million from the South West Ultrafast Fund to support broadband coverage in South Gloucestershire. 17,014 premises have been given superfast coverage so far as a result of this funding. 96% of premises in the South Gloucestershire now have access to superfast broadband - up from 74% in 2010.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Government has invested in the roll-out of superfast broadband in the Thornbury and Yate constituency.
Answered by Margot James
The Department does not measure funding at constituency level. A total of £3.37 million has been invested by the Department to support broadband coverage in South Gloucestershire. Currently, 8,325 premises have been given superfast coverage so far as a result of this funding. 92% of premises in the Thornbury and Yate constituency now have access to superfast broadband - up from 61% in 2012.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many homes have been connected to superfast broadband in the South West.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband 93% of premises in the South West have access to superfast broadband speeds. This is up from 42% in 2010 (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/south-west). 17,014 premises have been given superfast coverage so far as a result of this funding. Gainshare funding for the region as a result of take-up which is higher than originally expected is likely to be at least £65 million. This will be available to support further investment.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many homes have been connected to superfast broadband in South Gloucestershire.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband, currently, 96.4% of premises in South Gloucestershire currently have access to Superfast Broadband speeds. (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/south-gloucestershire,E06000025) 93% of premises in the South West region now have access to superfast Broadband - up from 42% in 2010. Gainshare funding for the region which is higher than originally expected, is likely to be at least £65 million. This will be available to support further investment.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many homes have been connected to superfast broadband in the Thornbury and Yate constituency.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband, currently 92% of premises in the Thornbury and Yate constituency have access to superfast broadband speeds. This is up from 61% in 2012 (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/thornbury-and-yate,E14000994).Currently, 8,325 premises have been given superfast coverage so far as a result of this funding.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to increase access to full fibre-to-the-property broadband in rural areas.
Answered by Margot James
We have taken a range of actions to support full fibre connectivity across the UK, including in rural areas.
In the Spring 2017 Budget, £200m of funding was allocated to the Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme. This includes a £190m Challenge Fund designed to stimulate commercial investment in full fibre networks in both rural and urban locations across the UK and a market trial of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
£400 million of public funding has also been made available for fibre connectivity through the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, that will unlock approximately £1 billion of private investment.
DEFRA has also allocated £30 million of grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England, targeted at helping to connect businesses with broadband in hard to reach rural areas.
Beyond this, the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review will assess what further changes could be made to create the competitive conditions to encourage the long term investment needed to deliver the next generation of digital infrastructure in different areas of the UK, including hard-to-reach rural areas.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that internet service providers supply customers with the internet speeds that they have advertised.
Answered by Margot James
On 1 March 2018, Ofcom announced a strengthening of their codes of practice on better broadband speeds information. Under the new requirements, providers will have to give customers, at the point of sale, a minimum guaranteed speed and more realistic speed estimates at peak times. If a customer's broadband speed falls below the minimum guaranteed speed, the provider will have a month to improve speed, after which customers will have the right to exit their contract without paying a penalty. The right to exit will also apply, for the first time, to landline and TV packages purchased with the broadband services. The new requirements will apply from 1 March 2019.
Ofcom’s announcement follows the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) announcement in November last year that numerical speed claims should be based on the download speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time and described as “average”. The previous position was that advertised “up to” speeds should be available to at least 10% of customers. The ASA’s guidance will take effect on 23 May 2018 after a six-month implementation period, and will apply to residential broadband services.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support her Department is providing to support the development and innovation of (a) pure fibre and (b) FTTP broadband delivery technology in rural areas.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Through the Government’s investment of over £780 million, superfast broadband is now available to 90% of homes and businesses in the UK, compared to 45% in 2010. By the end of 2017 it will be available to 95% of homes and businesses. An increasing proportion of the additional coverage to be delivered in rural areas will be provided through fibre to the premises (FTTP).
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will provide details of what additional (a) support and (b) resources his Department is providing to assist South Gloucestershire Council in meeting its universal broadband obligations.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government has implemented a basic broadband scheme to enable all premises to gain access to speeds of at least 2Mbps. This enables residents to gain access to every Government service available online. Funding for subsidised connections through the scheme is provided by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) as part of the government's superfast broadband programme. Consumers in eligible premises can access services from any of the suppliers who have been entered onto the scheme by BDUK.
In addition it is the Government's intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation. This will give people the legal right to request a broadband connection, no matter where they live, by the end of this Parliament. Our ambition is that this should initially be set at 10 Mbps.