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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding will be provided to the Telecommunications Diversification Taskforce in the current Parliament.

The Telecoms Diversification Taskforce, composed of independent experts from industry and academia, was established on a voluntary basis to look at where the Government should target measures to ensure effective, accelerated and sustainable diversification. No funding has been or will be provided to the Telecommunications Diversification Taskforce.

The Taskforce’s findings and recommendations were published on 20 April on GOV.UK. We will respond to the Taskforce findings in the summer, and outline our next steps on the delivery of the diversification strategy, which is backed by an initial investment of up to £250 million.