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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to improve broadband capacity in rural areas along the English-Welsh borders.

BDUK has allocated £56.93m under Phase 1 and up to £12.11m under Phase 2 of the Superfast Broadband programme, alongside investment from the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh Government and BT, to the Superfast Cymru project taking coverage to at least 96% of Welsh premises by the end of 2017. Work is now under way in all 22 Local Authority areas in Wales, including those along the border area.

A total of £31.5m has been allocated to the local projects that border Wales (Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, Cheshire and Shropshire) under Phase 1 of the programme, taking coverage in these areas to a further 233,185 premises. Up to £25.1 million has been allocated to these projects under Phase 2. Full details on individual project allocations are available on the following link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zwLLqmDnfnjA.khRmsBv2kR70