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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much Project Gigabit funding has been spent to date; and what proportion of that funding has been spent in Devon.

Project Gigabit was launched in March 2021 and its spend for the financial year 2021-22 will be reported through DCMS’s Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published in due course.

In April 2022, Building Digital UK (BDUK) became an Executive Agency of DCMS, and will publish its own Annual Report and Accounts, including details of Project Gigabit spend, from next year.

BDUK also publishes quarterly updates on the Project Gigabit Delivery plan and procurement pipeline, with the most recent Summer Update published in August 2022.

We are making good progress with the Project Gigabit procurement covering Devon and Somerset, which is currently estimated to cover around 150,000 premises. The procurement is expected to launch next year, and we have recently launched a Public Review to help identify the premises that are in scope for the procurement.

Residents and businesses in Devon have made excellent use of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which provides microgrants towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. To date, more than 1,600 premises in Devon have claimed and received payment for a voucher through the scheme, with almost 250 further premises awaiting completion, for a combined total of almost £3.5 million.

Alongside Project Gigabit, we are still supporting delivery of gigabit-capable connections to more than over 50,000 premises through our earlier superfast contracts in Devon and Somerset. We have also provided top up funding through Project Gigabit for one of the contracts.