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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the timetable is for completing the phase 4 roll-out of the Superfast Essex scheme; and what steps will be taken to support people in target areas who fail to receive the intended higher levels of broadband connectivity.

Superfast Essex is one of the first BDUK projects to undertake a Phase 4 and has an ambition to ensure that at least 99% of premises in Essex have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2021.

Superfast Essex’s Phase 4 is a two-part procurement with Phase 4a currently at the evaluation stage. Phase 4b of the procurement is planned for launch in the summer. Deployment plans are not yet set and will be published by Superfast Essex once Phase 4 has been contracted and mobilised. Plans for the remaining ‘unconnected’ areas will be shaped once Phase 4 contracts are awarded and the size of the remaining gap is known.

As confirmed in our announcement in December 2017 we are pushing ahead with our plans for a Universal Service Obligation (USO) so that, by 2020, everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to 10 Megabit per second broadband.