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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government has made of the implications for telecoms rating of the separation of Openreach into a separate company; and whether that separation will enable BT's business rates liability to be assessed in the same way as its competitors.

Rateable values are set independently by the Valuation Office Agency. All telecom networks are assessed for business rates in the normal way to the common standard of rateable value.