Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 3 July (HL16510), what data the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has so far received from Ofcom about levels of compensation paid out since Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme for fixed broadband and landline consumers was launched.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The automatic compensation scheme for fixed broadband and landline consumers was established by Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator for communication services. The Department has not, to date, received any data from Ofcom about the scheme. As set out in our previous answer, the Department’s understands that Ofcom intends to review the scheme next year.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 3 July (HL16510), what data are collected by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the amounts of compensation paid by broadband and home phone providers due to delayed (1) repairs, and (2) service.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The automatic compensation scheme for fixed broadband and landline consumers was established by Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator for communication services. The Department has not, to date, received any data from Ofcom about the scheme. As set out in our previous answer, the Department’s understands that Ofcom intends to review the scheme next year.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on establishing a nationwide, full-fibre broadband network.
Answered by Margot James
In July 2018, the government published the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), setting out a commitment to deliver nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033. This would be achieved through encouraging market competition and commercial investment, whilst intervening in uncommercial areas through an Outside-In approach.
Over £1.7bn of public money has been invested in the BDUK superfast programme, which met our target to extend superfast coverage to 95% of UK premises by December 2017. Further investment through BDUK to reach 97% superfast coverage will be solely through full fibre deployment
Starting in April 2019, the £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme announced in the 2018 budget will also deliver full fibre connections to local hubs in rural areas, starting with primary schools, alongside vouchers for connectivity to nearby premises.
Government is also supporting competitive commercial investment through the £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, which is expected to unlock over £1bn investment in full fibre. Since Summer 2017, the £294m Local Full Fibre Networks programme is also stimulating commercial investment in full fibre networks. This includes our £67m Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, available to homes and businesses across the UK.
In addition, the Government is continuing to address barriers to deployment. We published two consultations on policy options to reform existing access arrangements to provide a right of entry for communication providers in cases of absentee landlords, and to ensure full fibre connections to new build developments. These consultations are now closed and the Government will publish responses shortly.
Industry have continued to respond with commitments to full fibre rollout. CityFibre recently announced a £2.5bn investment plan to expand its full fibre network to 5 million homes in partnership with Vodafone, and Hyperoptic have secured funding to target up to 5 million homes by 2024, whilst Openreach have expanded the reach of its Fibre First rollout to 25 towns, cities or boroughs. According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report 2018, commercial and public rollout has delivered upwards of a million full fibre connections over the last 12 months.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the target for a nationwide full-fibre broadband network by 2033.
Answered by Margot James
The Government published its Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) in July 2018, setting out its strategy for delivering its target for a nationwide full fibre broadband network by 2033. On 29 October, DCMS published two of the consultations promised in the FTIR, on new legislation to reform existing access agreement arrangements to provide a right of entry for communication providers in cases of absentee landlords, and to ensure full fibre connections to new build developments. At Budget, the Government also announced £200m from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) to further support the deployment of full fibre to the commercially most difficult to reach premises. In its October Connected Nations report, Ofcom confirmed that full fibre coverage had reached 1.4 million premises in May 2018, up from less than 900,000 premises in May 2017. Commitments to full fibre rollout from industry have also continued, for example with CityFibre recently announcing a £2.5 billion investment plan to expand its full fibre network to 5 million homes.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Government on the Local Full Fibre Networks programme, announced in Spring Budget 2017.
Answered by Margot James
The LFFN programme has engaged regularly with Scottish government officials on the overall programme and on specific initiatives, and collaborated with Scottish Government to run a joint regional event in December 2017 for Scottish Local Authorities, advising them how to bid into the £190m Challenge Fund. We are also in regular discussion with the Scottish Government around the R100 Programme, to ensure alignment between our programmes.
LFFN is delivering significant benefits in Scotland. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire was selected as a pilot areas ahead of the launch of the £67m Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. The Highlands of Scotland were one of the successful bidders announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement in 2018, and we are also currently in communication with several Scottish Local Authorities regarding their interest in bidding for the next round of the Challenge Fund.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will ensure that the forthcoming Consumer Green Paper sets out provisions to ensure that broadband exit fees are charged at a rate that is fair to consumers.
Answered by Margot James
The Consumer Green Paper was published on 11 April. It seeks views on how to ensure that modern consumer markets work for all, both now and in the future, including in the telecoms sector. Government will consider the responses to the Consumer Green Paper and, working with independent regulators including Ofcom, will publish a response detailing how they plan to further protect customers.
Currently, contracts entered into on or after 1 October 2015 are covered by the unfair terms in consumer contracts protections in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. There are also protections under Ofcom rules (GC9.3) to ensure that conditions or procedures for contract termination do not act as a disincentive against changing provider. Additionally, Ofcom has the power to investigate communication providers' compliance and have an open enforcement programme on early termination charges: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/bulletins/competition-bulletins/open-cases/cw_01199.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to encourage BT to improve (a) the information it provides online about broadband roll-out, (b) the accuracy of its communications to residents about when cabinets will come on stream and (c) information about support residents can access in the event of delays in roll-out.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
On 25 February Ofcom published their initial conclusions for the Strategic Review of Digital Communications including a range of measures to improve the quality of service delivered by the whole of the telecoms industry, including Openreach, BT’s access network division.
Ofcom will work with industry to improve providers’ coordination and communication to benefit consumers, including detailed information about engineer visits for installation and fault repairs. Ofcom also plans to introduce tougher minimum standards of customer service for Openreach with rigorous enforcement and fines for underperformance. In addition, the regulator plans to publish annual performance data on all operators and will look to introduce automatic compensation for consumers and small businesses when service levels fall below minimum standards.
BT recently launched a new website providing more detailed and accurate information to the public on broadband service in any given area - http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that all households have access to efficient digital communication networks and that broadband is available to all households at data transfer rates greater than 2 Mbit/s before the end of 2015.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
According to Ofcom only 3% of premises in the UK had access to speeds of less than 2Mbps in June 2014 (down from 11% in 2010). The government estimates that by the end of 2015 this will be around 1% as a result of the BDUK broadband programme.
The government will ensure that the remaining premises have access to speeds of at least 2Mbps by the end of 2015 by making available the option of satellite broadband connections, which will have the capability of delivering superfast speeds for those who want it.