Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is planning to take to support households in areas where full fibre will not be available before the public switched telephone network switch-off takes place.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks from the industry-led migration of the analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for everyone across the UK. Ofcom have confirmed that VoIP technology is more resilient, more secure, enables better quality phone calls, and can be used to block scam calls. Over 92% of PSTN landlines have already been migrated to VoIP.
In March 2026, the Government and industry agreed a new Fixed Telecoms Modernisation Charter to extend safeguards agreed in November 2024 to all future fixed telecoms modernisation programmes to help ensure that all customers are migrated safely.
Major communication providers have assured the Government that no existing PSTN customer will be left without a landline alternative and that every remaining PSTN customer has a viable migration route before January 2027. This includes households in areas that may not have access to full fibre.
In order to function correctly, VoIP requires a minimum connection speed of just 0.5Mbps, and, for current landline-only customers it will be possible to order a VoIP landline without purchasing a full fibre connection.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions her Department has had with major online marketplace operators regarding their responsibilities in preventing the sale of copied or infringing products to UK consumers.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is committed to protecting intellectual property rights and supporting UK businesses and consumers.
The Intellectual Property Office regularly engages with many of the major digital platform operators in the UK and overseas to discuss and develop the necessary measures to address infringements on online marketplaces. These discussions include ways to improve the existing platform processes for identifying and removing infringing content, collaboration with law enforcement, and how rights holders can make effective use of existing platform procedures. It also works with domestic and international partners to promote best practice in preventing online intellectual property infringement.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that online marketplaces selling into the UK are held accountable for listings that may infringe upon intellectual property rights of UK based manufacturing businesses.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is committed to protecting intellectual property rights and supporting UK businesses and consumers against online infringement. In the UK, enforcement action is led by Trading Standards and the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, which work with online marketplaces to remove counterfeit and infringing listings.
The Intellectual Property Office engages regularly with many of the major e-commerce platforms and rights holders, in the UK and internationally, to ensure effective policies and processes for identifying and removing infringing content are in place. It also works with international partners, including the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, to promote best practice.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the delay in full Shared Rural Network rollout until 2027 on rural businesses; and what steps she is taking to mitigate this.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Ofcom is responsible for assessing the 4G coverage improvements delivered by the Shared Rural Network. Its latest published figures show that 4G now reaches over 95% of UK landmass. This means that the Shared Rural Network met its overarching target a year ahead of schedule. The delivery of the programme was always due to continue until January 2027, at which point Ofcom will assess further coverage improvements from the publicly-funded parts of the programme.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle digital exclusion.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
It is shocking that the last government published no digital inclusion strategy for 10 years. This Government is determined to remedy that and I hope to be able to say more soon.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much and what proportion of the Project Gigabit fund has been allocated to rural areas.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The latest published data shows that between April 2022 and March 2023, 90% of premises benefiting from publicly-subsidised broadband rollout, including Project Gigabit, were rural.
Almost £2 billion of contracts have been signed to connect over a million more premises with gigabit-capable broadband. These are premises that would otherwise not be reached by suppliers’ commercial rollout, and fall predominantly in rural areas.