(Chatham and Aylesford)
(Con)
1. What steps her Department is taking to roll out full-fibre and
gigabit-capable broadband to every home and business throughout the
UK by 2025. [900200]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport ()
I begin by paying tribute to the former right hon. Member for
Loughborough, who is now Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport from the Lords. She is still very much the
Secretary of State, and following her elevation, she will shortly
be watching us from the Public Gallery. She will take
questions—[Interruption.] She will be here shortly. She will take
questions in the Lords herself next week.
I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and
Aylesford (). She asks about one of
the few areas in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and
Sport for which she was not responsible, but she knows how vital
gigabit broadband will be across the whole country. Finally, I
pay tribute to the British people for rejecting Labour’s
economically and technologically illiterate broadband policy at
the election.
The Government’s ambition for full fibre is to be applauded, but
while coverage is generally good across the majority of my
constituency, I still receive regular complaints from residents
and businesses that are unable to access even superfast
broadband, including in significant pockets of urban areas such
as Chatham, Aylesford, Ditton and Snodland, as well as more rural
villages, where residents are deeply frustrated at the lack of
coverage. With so many people and businesses reliant on access to
decent broadband, what assurances can the Minister give that the
future roll-out of broadband infrastructure will address those
more localised notspots and that they will not simply be left
behind?
My hon. Friend is right that notspots are by no means confined to
rural areas. Through the Government’s voucher scheme, we are
covering all of the country, and the 2025 commitment to gigabit
broadband remains. The crucial issue is the universal service
obligation, of which she will be aware. Fifteen per cent. of her
constituents get less than the 10 megabit limit. They will
benefit from that later this year.
(Newcastle upon Tyne
Central) (Lab)
This is my first questions session shadowing the Digital
Minister, who, as a former tech journalist, knows something of
his subject—and as a former telecoms engineer, so do I. We both
know that in towns, villages and cities, everyone is suffering
the consequences of a wasted decade. Under Labour, we rolled out
first-generation broadband to half of all homes within a decade.
But today, full-fibre broadband only reaches a mere 10% of homes,
and we languish at the bottom of all the international tables.
The Prime Minister has promised full-fibre broadband for
everybody in five years. Does the Minister have a plan for that?
Who will be delivering it? How much will it cost? Will it really
be fibre or just gigabit capability—or are Big Ben’s bongs the
only telecoms infrastructure that he can plan for?
As an engineer, I think the hon. Lady will know that a bell is
not telecoms infrastructure, but we will leave that to one side.
The important issue that she raises is one on which there is some
cross-party agreement. We are completely committed to rolling out
gigabit-capable networks across this country. That means building
on the work of the superfast programme to ensure that we deliver
the infrastructure needed across the country. The plan for that
will come forward. I hope she will welcome the news that,
immediately after questions, we will be heading to No. 10 to meet
the broadband providers, to ensure that the industry can come
together to deliver the best possible infrastructure, which this
country needs.
(Central
Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)
The universal service obligation is welcome to my constituents in
Suffolk and to many rural residents, but for rural businesses,
the basic service commitment may well not be enough. What more
can the Minister do to support rural businesses that need a large
amount of broadband capacity to support their staff and expand
their businesses?
My hon. Friend is right to welcome the universal service
obligation. Schemes such as our gigabit broadband voucher scheme
allow businesses to access the far faster speeds that they need,
and there is provision in due course to review whether 10
megabits is sufficient for the USO. I would like to see it go up
as soon as it can.
(Lancaster and Fleetwood)
(Lab)
Will the Minister congratulate my constituents who are involved
with Broadband for the Rural North—B4RN—which prides itself on
delivering full-fibre gigabit broadband, not just gigabit-capable
broadband, to thousands of properties in my constituency? Phil
Hughes from B4RN tells me that it is much cheaper sometimes to
deliver this broadband in very rural areas than in semi-urban
areas, where “in pavement” build is needed. Can the Minister
clarify that the Government’s new gigabit voucher scheme will
also work for smaller, community interest companies such as B4RN?
The hon. Member is absolutely right that B4RN does really great
work and has been doing so for a number of years. It has a huge
amount of expertise that I hope we can learn from when it comes
to working across the country. One of the issues that we will be
raising at the summit that I mentioned, which we will be heading
to shortly, is street works. It is very important that that does
not hold up works unnecessarily. She is of course also right to
say that the voucher scheme needs to apply equally across the
country in a way that works wherever people live.
(Banff and Buchan) (Con)
My constituency of Banff and Buchan is among those with the
lowest coverage of superfast broadband in the whole United
Kingdom. Aberdeenshire Council applied to the UK Government for
additional support. One of the reasons it was declined, it was
told, was that it was assumed that that would be covered by the
Scottish Government’s R100 programme—the Reaching 100% programme.
Now that the Scottish Government have admitted that this is going
to be at least two years behind, can we revisit the coverage in
places such as Banff and Buchan, with support from the UK
Government, to make up for the shortfall left by the Scottish
Government?
My hon. Friend is right to highlight the deeply disappointing
delays to the R100 scheme administered by the Scottish
Government. I will shortly be meeting my Scottish counterpart,
, again to see how the
Government can help the Scottish Government to go further and
faster, because they certainly need to.
Topical Questions
(North West Norfolk) (Con)
T5. While I warmly welcome the pledge to deliver gigabit
broadband, many of my constituents in Grimston, Heacham,
Brancaster and other places have yet to receive speeds of 10
megabits per second. Will the Minister confirm that the plans are
ready to deliver minimum speeds from March, and that the
Government will hold BT to account to do that? [900222]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport ()
My hon. Friend is right that we must ensure that the 10-megabit
universal service obligation is delivered on the ground. We will
of course continue to talk to the two providers— BT and KCOM—to
ensure that it is there when it needs to be in March this year.
(North Ayrshire and
Arran) (SNP)
T4. The Scottish Government received just £21 million of UK
Government funding for broadband—3.5% of the total funding in
Scotland—with the other £580 million being paid by the Scottish
Government. Despite the nonsense we often hear in this Chamber,
broadband is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Will the
Minister therefore explain why the UK Government are failing
properly to fund broadband in Scotland? [900221]
The hon. Lady is right that we hear a lot of nonsense in this
Chamber—primarily from the SNP Benches. It is deeply
disappointing that the Scottish Government’s delivery of R100 has
been delayed again. The UK Government have provided significant
amounts of funding, and we will continue to work with the
Scottish Government to provide the help they so clearly need.
(Stoke-on-Trent
North) (Con)
T7. The Conservative-led Stoke-on-Trent City Council is working
to roll out full fibre broadband across the Potteries with this
Government’s unique funding. Given that Staffordshire University
is a pioneer in game design and video production and that this
new Conservative Government will be rolling out full gigabit
broadband across the country, does my hon. Friend agree that
silicon Stoke is a real possibility? [900224]
Silicon Stoke is certainly a real possibility, and my hon. Friend
is right that that is in part due to this Government’s £5 billion
commitment. I welcome the council’s work with certain companies,
which shows that if we look further than the usual suspects, we
can get action on the ground that delivers huge economic growth.
