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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of potential merits of amending planning legislation to facilitate the roll out of 5G; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of existing planning legislation in respect of that roll out.

The government’s ambition is for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027 and we also want to ensure that UK businesses reap the full benefits of 5G.

It is essential that the planning system continues to effectively support the deployment of new mobile infrastructure. On 7 March 2022, we published our response to the second of two consultations on necessary reforms to the planning system, setting out the changes we intend to make.

These changes will provide operators with the flexibility they require to upgrade existing sites in England for 5G deployment, enhance coverage and meet the growing demands for network capacity. They will also help improve coverage in rural areas by supporting the deployment of the Shared Rural Network, where sites will need to be installed and upgraded for sharing by the four national mobile network operators.