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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many operator build plans have been (a) partially accepted and (b) rejected by Building Digital UK as part of its market analysis.

As part of our Open Market Review and Public Review processes for Project Gigabit we ask broadband suppliers to submit build plans containing their current coverage and/or future build intentions. Building Digital UK (BDUK) encourages suppliers to provide as much information as possible in support of their claims and plans, with each submission assessed on its own merits.

Since the first BDUK-led Open Market Review was launched in March 2021, eight build plans have been assessed as credible in full by BDUK. A further 143 build plans have been partially assessed as credible, and 64 build plans have been assessed as not currently credible in full or in part.

As of 2 September 2022, 52 operator build plans are in the process of being assessed.

BDUK reassesses suppliers’ build plans on a regular basis through our National Rolling Open Market Review. This ensures that we have the most up to date information about these suppliers’ existing and planned build which we use to continuously inform where subsidy is likely to be needed to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to hard-to-reach areas.