Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department is taking steps to support people with the cost of full fibre to premises connections in commercially viable areas where providers (a) do not connect premises and (b) require substantial fees.

The government does not support individuals with the cost of obtaining a full fibre connection in commercially viable areas. However, we have deployed a range of measures to support roll-out in commercially viable areas to make it as easy and as cost-effective as possible for operators to rollout their networks. For instance, we have worked with Ofcom to create regulation that facilitates infrastructure sharing between operators. We are also working with local authorities to overcome planning barriers