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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the speed of the delivery of superfast broadband to rural areas.

The pace of delivery of the Superfast Broadband Programme has accelerated substantially across the UK over recent months, resulting with on average 40,000 premises per week now able to access superfast broadband . All 44 Phase 1 local projects are delivering superfast broadband to homes and businesses. In August the programme had reached 1 million premises, and by February 2015 we will have reached 2 million homes and businesses. The second phase to extend coverage to 95% of UK premises by 2017 is in procurement and aims to have all contracts signed by early 2015.