Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help improve phone signal in (a) South Derbyshire constituency and (b) rural areas.

Although I am aware that official reports of mobile coverage often vary substantially from people’s experience on the ground, Ofcom reports that 95% of the pre-boundary change South Derbyshire constituency area has 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile operators, and that basic (non-standalone) 5G is available from at least one mobile operator outside 93% of premises.

This Government wants all areas of the UK to benefit from reliable and good quality mobile coverage. Our ambition is for all populated areas, including rural areas, to have higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030, and to increase 4G coverage to 95% of the UK landmass by the end of 2025 through the Shared Rural Network programme. We are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework to support investment and competition.