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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps to improve the quality of mobile phone signal in (a) Ashfield and (b) Eastwood.

The Government is committed to extending good quality 4G mobile coverage to 95% of the UK landmass. The Government’s existing 5G ambition for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027 has been delivered five years early through ‘basic’ (non-standalone) 5G.

We have already made reforms to the planning system to support the deployment of 5G and help extend mobile coverage. The changes, which came into force on 4 April 2022, enable operators to upgrade existing sites for 5G and share infrastructure to improve mobile coverage. And the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill, currently before Parliament, amends the Electronic Communications Code to encourage faster and more collaborative negotiations for the installation and maintenance of telecoms equipment.

The Government is developing a Wireless Infrastructure Strategy to set out a strategic framework for the development, deployment and adoption of 5G and future networks.