Emergency Services Network: Argyll And Bute

(asked on 19th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) number and (b) location of new mobile sites under the Emergency Services Network contract which will be located in Argyll and Bute constituency are; how many sites in that same area have gained planning approval; how many sites in that same area have entered the build phase; how many sites in that same area were live as of 1 January 2018; how many sites in that same area are being built with the capacity for multi-occupancy; and how many sites in that same area have a confirmed second tenant.


Answered by
Nick Hurd Portrait
Nick Hurd
This question was answered on 27th February 2018

I can confirm there will be c.75 new EE sites and 17 Extended Area Service (EAS) sites located in the constituency of Argyll and Bute.

All new EE sites are being built and delivered to agreed Home Office timeframes and where possible will go live earlier to support commercial coverage. Of the 75 sites, 59 have planning permission. 7 of the new sites are commercially available.

In respect of EAS sites I can confirm that there are currently 17 sites proposed in Islay, Jura, Mull and the Kintyre Peninsula and 3 have planning permission approved (or 3 HoTs signed – as none have yet entered the build phase).

Of the c.500 new sites EE is building, 291 will transfer over to the Home Office at the end of the contract term. EE is making available details of all shareable new sites to other mobile network operators proactively both directly and through an existing website used by the industry to arrange site sharing. EE has made available the details of 350 sites. EE is confident that the 291 sites will transfer to the Home Office will be selected from this portfolio, and the Home Office and EE have now agreed 104 of these sites (and are working on confirming on which of the remainder will make up the rest of the 291). These will be shareable in accordance with the terms of the EC Decision in relation to State aid for this Programme.

Separately the Home Office, through the EAS project are delivering circa 292 individual sites. I would also like to reassure you that the Home Office has been proactive in seeking to build masts that support multi-operator use where practicable.

Finally I thought it helpful to remind you that the Emergency Services Network is designed to, first and foremost, deliver a ‘blue-light’ communications service.

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