Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what plans the Commission has to improve the capacity and coverage of WiFi on the Parliamentary Estate.

Over the last few weeks the Digital Service has been working closely with our 3rd party providers to resolve issues relating to providing consistent connectivity to the internet direct/WMID WiFi services. Monitoring of the WiFi service has confirmed that the solution has stabilised and consistent connections have been achieved. Further WiFi improvement work is planned, working in conjunction with our providers.

The Digital Service is delivering a major investment programme for Parliament’s network; this is addressing issues around speed, resilience and most importantly security when accessing internet based services. As part of this programme, improvements to WiFi availability are being rolled out across the estate by installing additional WiFi access points. Members' areas have been prioritised, with some already completed and the rest (mainly Portcullis House and Palace of Westminster) will be completed by the end of June 2018.

Further targeted improvements across the estate, forming part of the infrastructure transformation programme, are being scoped including WiFi optimisation and efficiencies. These improvements are scheduled to conclude by February 2019.