Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will hold discussions with Ofcom on the advertising and promotion of low-cost offers to low income households by telecoms providers.

The Government continues to work closely with Ofcom on the issue of affordability of telecoms services, including social tariffs.

In December, Ofcom’s Pricing Trends report, showed that 380,000 UK households now take up a social tariff. While this represents an almost 160% increase from September 2022, we recognise that it represents just 8.3% of the total number of eligible households. Ofcom’s report also showed that just 45% of eligible households were aware of low-cost broadband offers.

The Government and Ofcom continue to press operators to ensure their customers know about the support available. In July 2023, Ofcom’s Chief Executive, wrote to the sector to set out the regulator’s expectation that they should do more to promote awareness, such as by highlighting tariffs on bills and end-of-contract notifications.

We continue to work with operators to encourage them to take further steps to promote social tariffs to eligible households