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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the availability of DAB radio in (a) Scotland and (b) Dumfries and Galloway.

We are working with the radio industry to improve digital radio coverage for listeners. DCMS has provided around £7.3m capital funding - in conjunction with on-going financial support from the BBC and commercial radio - to support the long term expansion of the local digital radio (DAB) network across the UK.

In December 2014 a commitment was made to a programme of work including a total of 182 new local DAB transmitters built across Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, and technical improvements at a further 49 existing local DAB transmitter sites. According to Ofcom the programme to upgrade the local DAB network in Scotland is predicted to increase the coverage of local digital radio services from 65% to around 86% of Scottish homes, up by over 20%.

Separately, under phase 4 of its expansion, the BBC has rolled out its national DAB network to a further 163 transmitter sites across the UK. This programme of work has included new DAB transmitters at 4 sites in Dumfries and Galloway serving: Kirkconnel, Langholm, Moffat, Sanquhar and Thornhill. The BBC’s phase 4 expansion programme has seen an increase in the coverage of its national DAB network in Scotland from 91% to 95% of homes.