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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average time taken for businesses with more than one telephone line to switch provider; and how this compares to the time taken for domestic customers to switch providers.

In 2015, the UK’s independent communications regulator (Ofcom), extended the use of a Gaining Provider Led (GPL) switching process for consumers (including small businesses with up to ten employees) switching their landline and/or broadband provider across the Openreach network, where the majority of these switches take place. These rules specify a minimum switching period of 10 working days, before a customer’s order can be activated.

Ofcom does not hold comparable data on the time it takes business and domestic customers to switch.