Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress he has made on achieving full gigabit coverage by 2030.

According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, over 87% of UK premises now have access to a gigabit-capable connection.

More than £2.3 billion in Project Gigabit contracts have now been signed to connect over 1 million more premises. This includes the latest contract in Scotland we announced with Openreach earlier this month.

In the last few months, the first premises have been connected as part of Project Gigabit contracts in areas including Norfolk, West Yorkshire and South Wiltshire, and build has now started in earnest in other parts of the country too. In March, we announced the Project Gigabit contract for Cumbria, being delivered by Fibrus, had been extended to connect an additional 21,000 premises.