Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve average download speeds in the Easington constituency; and whether she will take steps to increase download speeds in Easington constituency to the (a) North East and (b) UK average.

According to the independent website www.thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the average of 96 Mbps in the North East, and UK average of 95 Mbps. It should be noted that these estimates are derived from crowd-sourced data and that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.

I am pleased to share that almost 99% of premises in the Easington constituency can already access superfast broadband and just over 74% of premises can access a gigabit-capable connection. This is higher than the national averages of over 97% and 72% for superfast and gigabit-capable, respectively.

We are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to enable hard-to-reach communities across the UK to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. Project Gigabit is focused on connecting homes and businesses that are not included in broadband suppliers’ commercial rollout plans.

The constituency of Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.

Eligible premises in Easington can also receive gigabit-capable connections through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. We recently announced an increase in the value of these vouchers so that new projects can receive as much as £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband in rural and particularly hard-to-reach areas.