Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page six of her Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, what estimate she has made of the proportion of areas which will not be covered by superfast broadband by 2017 that are (a) rural and (b) coastal.

The Government is investing £780 million to give access to superfast broadband to 95% of UK premises by 2017. This will be achieved through two delivery phases. Until Phase 2 is complete, it is not possible to estimate precisely how many rural and coastal areas will not be covered by superfast broadband by 2017. Approximately 1.4 million premises are expected to fall within the remaining 5% hard to reach areas across the UK. We are currently exploring how to extend superfast broadband into these final areas.