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 enhance provision of internet services in the rural areas of North West Durham.

The Government has committed over £12m to support the Digital Durham Superfast Broadband Project. In 2011, only 0.7% of premises in the North West Durham constituency had access to superfast broadband compared to over 93% of premises today. For all premises that do not have superfast broadband coverage the Government will ensure universal broadband of at least 10Mbps

All homes and businesses which are unable to receive a speed of at least 2Mbps can benefit from support from the Better Broadband Scheme. Further information on the Scheme can be found on our website (https://basicbroadbandchecker.culture.gov.uk/guide-to-better-broadband-subsidy-scheme.pdf).