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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Digital communications infrastructure strategy, published on 18 March 2015, if he will launch a consultation on implementation of the European Broadband Directive.

The Department is currently working to ensure the EU Broadband Cost Reduction Directive is implemented appropriately. The Directive introduces a range of provisions aimed at facilitating infrastructure sharing across the main infrastructure sectors in order to reduce the costs of rolling out high speed broadband networks.

My officials are liaising with stakeholders across the UK to assess the likely impact of the Directive, and plan to consult publicly on implementation later this year.