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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure competition among providers where fibre optic broadband is rolled out.

Since 2016 all new procurements under the Superfast Broadband Programme have been open to all suppliers to bid. BT, Gigaclear and Airband have all been successful in winning contracts. Prior to this, in 2014 and 2015, we supported seven market test pilot projects with seven different providers, which helped demonstrate new technologies and delivery models for superfast broadband

The Government has announced a package of measures worth £1.1 billion to support full fibre roll out and ensure we have the world class digital infrastructure that we need. This support is available to any provider. In July, we introduced a Bill to provide for 100% business rates relief for new fibre installed by any provider for 5 years and many providers are already engaged in the project.