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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2014 to Question 209987, how much of the budget for the Mobile Infrastructure Project has been spent to date; how much of that target he expects to be spent before March 2015; to what date the project has been extended; how many sites (a) are in acquisition stage, (b) have submitted planning applications, (c) are being built and (d) have gone live; and to how many premises coverage has been provided.

The Mobile Infrastructure Project is a UK-wide project, to take mobile coverage to remote communities for the first time, with up to £150m capital funding available from Government. The operating costs for the infrastructure built with Government capital funding will be met by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

Spend to date on the project to end of January 2015 is £4.89m and the project forecast spend in this financial year is approximately £9.5m. The contracted supplier, Arqiva, is paid only on the completion of key milestones, with the bulk of the payment in respect of each site made in the final build phase.

As at 09 February 15 there were:

• 116 active sites with grant works for acquisition of which
• 108 are in acquisition stage (includes design activities, planning process and negotiations with site provider) and
• 8 sites with grant works for build.
• Of the 116 sites with grant works for acquisition, 55 sites have planning applications submitted, with 16 of these having received a successful planning determination.
• As noted above, there are 8 sites for which all acquisition activities are complete, and grant works for build issued.
• Of these 8 sites with grant works for build there are 1 on hold (due to a Judicial Review of the Local Council’s planning decision) 3 about to start on site, 2 sitesin construction and 2 have gone live, providing coverage to approximately 400 premises.