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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) homes and (b) business premises in the UK do not have access to (i) fixed and (ii) any broadband internet service over (A) 2mps and (B) 10mps.

In December 2015, Ofcom reported that 100% of UK premises were able to access fix broadband services. The report can be found here: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/infrastructure/2015/downloads/connected_nations2015.pdf

The Government has now provided access to speeds of 2 Mbps or more to the whole of the UK. More detail can be found at: http://basicbroadbandchecker.culture.gov.uk/index.php. In addition, 90% of the UK now has access to superfast broadband (24Mbps or above) and we are on track to deliver 95% coverage by the end of 2017. According to ThinkBroadband less than 5% of the UK premises cannot currently access speed of 10Mbps (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/).

Furthermore, the Prime Minister has announced the Government’s intention to introduce a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) with the objective to provide a safety net for those homes and business in the hardest to reach parts of the UK without access to superfast broadband.