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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to roll out superfast broadband in rural areas.

The Government and local authorities and the devolved administrations are investing a total of £1.7 billion to provide superfast broadband coverage to 95% of the UK by 2017, through a total of 51 locally-led projects.

The Government is also exploring with suppliers options to get beyond 95% superfast broadband coverage across the UK through a series of pilot projects. These pilot projects are testing technology, financial and operating models capable of delivering superfast broadband to the hardest to reach parts of the UK.

More information on the pilot projects is at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/superfast-broadband-programme-phase-3

Expected superfast broadband coverage by 2017 in the Lancashire project area will be over 97%. Central government has invested £14,670,000 into the Lancashire project with further funding being provided locally including funding from the European Regional Development Programme together with investment from BT. This funding is expected to provide coverage to over 145,000 premises. As of December 2014 106,000 premises had been passed.