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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to further support remote rural businesses by increasing the roll-out speed of broadband in rural areas; and what discussions she has had with mobile phone networks on improving their coverage in rural areas.

The Government is investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband in areas across the UK. We have already launched procurements with a value of over £700 million to bring gigabit connections to rural and hard-to-reach homes and businesses, and we recently signed our first contracts in North Dorset, Teesdale and North Northumberland.

As part of Project Gigabit the government is investing up to £210 million in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to support rural businesses and homes with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. To date, we have issued over 106,000 vouchers to homes and businesses through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and previous iterations. Further information is available on the gigabit voucher website including eligibility criteria and how to apply for the scheme.

We also understand the impact of poor mobile coverage on rural areas which is why we agreed a £1 billion deal with the mobile operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network. The programme will deliver 4G coverage to 95% of the UK, enabling rural businesses and communities to thrive.