Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has with Cabinet colleagues to expedite the roll-out of better broadband to rural communities.

This Government is already doing a great deal to roll out better broadband in rural areas. Through Project Gigabit, we are spending £5 billion so people in hard-to-reach areas can get ultra-reliable gigabit broadband speeds. We signed our first contract on schedule and have over £690 million of contracts covering rural areas out for tender right now.