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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing or removing VAT on social tariffs to support low income families to be able to afford broadband.

The Department continues to work alongside Ofcom to review the affordability of telecoms services.

Support currently exists in the market for low-income households to access broadband services. There are a range of fixed broadband social tariff products available to over 5 million low-income households in receipt of Universal Credit, and other means-tested benefits. These tariffs are available to eligible households in 99% of the country. We will monitor the effectiveness of these products in supporting low-income households' access to broadband.

The Government currently has no plans to expand subsidies for low-income households accessing broadband beyond DWP’s existing partnership with TalkTalk to provide job-seekers a free 6 month broadband connection.

In relation to reducing VAT on social tariff products, it is never guaranteed that any reduction in tax on a service would be passed on by the businesses to the consumer, and this request should be viewed in the context of over £50 billion of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum. We also recognise that any cut would need to be balanced elsewhere, either through increased taxes, more borrowing or reductions in Government spending.