Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason her Department has limited the scope of its partnership with the Scottish Government to deliver sites that were formerly part of the Extended Area Service programme under the Scottish 4G Infill Programme; and what plans her Department has to expand the scope of that partnership.

The EAS sites are principally built to support the emergency services, however where possible HO will collaborate with the Scottish 4G Infill Programme and other government initiatives such as the Shared Rural Network, the scope of this collaboration extends to all 292 EAS masts. There are currently 18 SFT sites where Home Office are utilising as part of a site share. These 18 sites meet the ESN coverage requirements and we continue to assess viability of other sites which meet both HO and Scottish 4G Infill Programme criteria.