Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make it his policy to ringfence Project Gigabit funding for rural areas.

No. Project Gigabit is designed to subsidise the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband to premises that would otherwise not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans.

These premises will predominantly be in rural areas, but the evidence from our regular engagement with the market indicates that we will also need to intervene in some urban areas in order to achieve the target of full gigabit coverage by 2030.