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 8 June 2015 to Question 611, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the difference between the number of premises with access to superfast broadband and the number of premises using such broadband; and if he will make a statement.

Superfast broadband availability across the UK is approximately 80%, up from 45% in 2010. According to Ofcom, the proportion of connections that are superfast has increased year on year, whilst the total number of broadband connections (standard & superfast) has also steadily increased with over 22.8 million fixed broadband connections in March 2014. The proportion of broadband connections that have speeds of above 30Mbps was 32% in November 2014, up from 1% in November 2010.

This lag is in line with the take-up of many new technologies.