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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2020 to Question 1988 on Regional Digital Growth, what assessment he has made of the potential variable economic effect of each intervention on each region of the UK.

The Department’s assessment of economic effects, especially in relation to regional and wider impacts, are completed in line with Green Book guidance issued by HM Treasury on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects. The Department routinely develops internal and published analysis (broken down by locality where relevant) for its interventions. Previous Impact Assessments for DCMS interventions can be found here.

Furthermore, DCMS has published:

1. DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates 2017: Regional GVA (Gross Value Added) - which reports the regional GVA by DCMS sectors
2. A cost-benefit analysis of Superfast Broadband in August 2018 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-economic-impact-and-public-value-of-the-superfast-broadband-programme, Annex E). The evaluation includes effects by devolved administration. The evaluation found that the programme led to a net increase in national economic output (GVA) of £690m by June 2016.