Asked by: Trudy Harrison (Conservative - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rural broadband.
Answered by Margot James
The Government’s policy is to ensure world-class broadband and mobile connectivity across the UK. We are currently implementing a number of policies to achieve this in rural areas.
£1.8 billion of public money is being invested to support vital improvements in superfast broadband coverage across the UK, including in rural areas. In December 2017, we met our target to extend superfast coverage to 95% of UK premises, and we expect to reach at least 97% by 2020.
DCMS has also put in place legislation to create a new Universal Service Obligation (USO) giving every household and business the right to request a broadband connection of at least 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) by 2020, to ensure access to decent connectivity. Ofcom are now responsible for implementing the USO. Further details, including how to apply are expected to be announced in the summer. In addition, the Better Broadband Scheme provides voucher funding to UK premises that do not have access to affordable broadband service delivering at least 2Mbps.
DEFRA has allocated £75 million of grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England, targeted at helping to connect businesses with superfast broadband in hard to reach rural areas.
Looking forward, we want to provide world class digital connectivity that is gigabit-capable, reliable, long-lasting and widely available across the UK. We have set ambitious targets - for 15 million premises to be connected to full fibre by 2025, with nationwide coverage by 2033. In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, we set out our long term national strategy to meet these targets, and to ensure that rural and remote areas are not left behind. Critical to delivering this ambition, is the “outside-in” approach set out in the review, which seeks to ensure that the harder to reach, mostly rural areas which are not viable for commercial investment - are addressed at the same pace as the rest of the country.
Asked by: Trudy Harrison (Conservative - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to support tourism action zones.
Answered by Michael Ellis
We are working closely with the tourism industry on the proposed Sector Deal for tourism. One of the proposals put forward by the industry is the creation of Tourism Action Zones in order to take a targeted and focused approach to tackle issues, such as improving productivity and extending the tourism season. We are looking at this proposal and considering it as part of our work.
Asked by: Trudy Harrison (Conservative - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many small businesses in the North West can access broadband.
Answered by Matt Hancock
According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report, 89% of UK homes and small and medium-sized businesses are now able to receive superfast download speeds of 30 Megabits or higher, and all homes and businesses can now access broadband speeds of 2 Megabits per second. This is fast enough for everyone to gain access to every government service available online.
ThinkBroadband’s latest figures indicate that superfast coverage of 30 Megabits or higher is currently available to 94.7% of premises across the North West.
We are determined to ensure even better digital connectivity in the UK, and we announced a package of measures worth £1.1 billion at Autumn Statement 2016. This includes The Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme, which will support local bodies in stimulating the market for fibre connectivity in their areas. The six local test projects were announced on 3rd September.
The Super Connected Cities Programme, which closed in 2016, offered vouchers to SMEs to help with connectivity. Interest in connection voucher scheme was very high in the North West which resulted in over over 5590 connections being made in the region.