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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many different companies tendered for the 47 contracts to deliver superfast broadband under phases one and two of the Superfast Broadband programme.

In Phase 1 of the Superfast Broadband Programme there are 44 contracts between Local Bodies and providers. 33 of these used the Broadband Delivery Framework. Nine suppliers started the competitive dialogue tender process for the Framework and three submitted final tenders. Two of these tenders were accepted. Of these, only one supplier has submitted bids for individual projects.

For the remaining 11 local projects an OJEU procurement was used by the Local Bodies. Across the 11 projects a total of 19 different suppliers were invited to submit bids. Four different suppliers submitted ITT responses at the end of the procurement processes.

All three contracts so far signed for Phase 2 of the programme have used the Broadband Delivery Framework that was established as part of Phase 1.