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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to prioritise access to broadband in rural areas to enable the advancement of telecare .

We have long supported improved rural broadband connectivity through a range of actions, ensuring innovations such as telecare can be deployed to those that need it.

The Government is currently investing £1.7 billion of public money in superfast broadband coverage across the UK, offering speeds of over 24Mbps. The BDUK Superfast Programme reached its target of 95% coverage of the UK by the end of 2017, and is continuing to support delivery with at least a further 2% coverage likely to be achieved.

These actions have made a substantial contribution to connectivity improvements in rural areas. My department is working with Defra to continue to look for new ways to ensure people in rural areas get the connectivity they need. This includes looking at how DEFRA's Rural Development Programme funding can bolster BDUK's superfast rollout programme. We have also launched a £190 million Challenge Fund to support Local Full Fibre Networks across the UK.

Thinking further ahead, we are assessing what market models can best support broadband infrastructure investment in different areas of the UK, including hard-to-reach rural areas. The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review will report back in the summer on the options available to government to ensure digital connectivity is seamless, reliable, and widely available.

However, to ensure no one is left behind, we are also introducing a broadband Universal Service Obligation so that by 2020 everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to request high speed broadband. Connectivity at these speeds allows for future demands of improved telemedicine services, including accessing GPs through video-conferencing.