Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has set (a) targets and (b) timelines for implementing universal mobile coverage in rural constituencies.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. This ambition includes villages and rural communities as well as towns and cities, and Government continues to work closely with the mobile network operators (MNOs) to ensure there is continued investment into the expansion and improvement of mobile networks right across the UK.
The Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme, which is jointly funded by the Government and the UK’s main MNOs, achieved its objective of 4G geographic coverage being available across 95% of the UK landmass by end-2025 more than a year early.
In rural areas, where there is either limited or no mobile coverage, we continue to work with the industry to deliver new coverage to these communities as well as monitor developments in the Direct to Device satellite market.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to extend (a) infrastructure-sharing agreements and (b) rural roaming schemes to help improve mobile coverage in areas such as North East Hampshire constituency.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Through the National Planning Policy Framework, mobile network operators are encouraged to improve connectively by using existing masts buildings and other structures where it is possible. Network operators have also committed to sharing infrastructure, wherever it is viable, via the Code of Practice for Wireless Network Development.
The Government has no plans to introduce a rural roaming scheme. Mandated roaming schemes could reduce the incentive for operators to invest in their networks.
However, roaming agreements are in place that allow calls to emergency services to automatically roam onto another available network if someone has no signal from their own provider.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to encourage mobile providers to accelerate the rollout of improved signal in rural areas.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Government’s ambition is for populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. This ambition includes villages and rural communities as well as towns and cities.
We continue to work with the mobile network operators (MNOs) to ensure that their investment benefits communities right across the UK. As part of the terms of their merger, VodafoneThree has committed to investing £11 billion to upgrade their joint networks, and BT/EE and Virgin Media O2 have similarly significant investment plans in place.
We are addressing barriers to mobile infrastructure deployment where they exist, including by launching a call for evidence on 18 December 2025 to help determine where planning rules could be relaxed to support the deployment of digital infrastructure. We also continue to work closely with Ofcom to ensure there is sufficient spectrum available to deliver high quality wireless connectivity across the UK.
Alongside this, the Shared Rural Network, which is jointly funded by the Government and the UK’s main MNOs, continues to deliver 4G coverage in areas where there is little or no coverage currently.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the level of hateful language targeting MPs on (a) X and (b) other social media platforms.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Illegal abuse is completely unacceptable. The Online Safety Act requires services to prevent and remove illegal content online, including illegal anonymous abuse and hate speech. The Act also introduced the threatening communications offence, which captures communications which convey a threat of serious harm or death.
Category 1 services will be required to remove content that is prohibited in their terms of service and provide users access to tools which reduce exposure to content from non-verified users. Users will also have increased control over the content they see, including hate-inciting content.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to (a) understand and (b) help tackle the threats posed by artificial intelligence to young people through social media platforms.
Answered by Feryal Clark
Protecting children is at the heart of the Online Safety Act.
The Act’s duties apply to AI generated content in the same way as to ‘real’ content - AI generated content is regulated where it is shared on an in-scope service and is either illegal content or content which is harmful to children. In-scope services will be required to assess the risk of harm to users from this content and implement measures to manage and mitigate this risk.
Government is clear that we will not hesitate to build on the Act where necessary when it comes to keeping children safe.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department (a) monitors and (b) regulates the use of AI in apps aimed at children and teenagers.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The Online Safety Act places new duties on both user-to-user and search services. The strongest protections in the Act are for children, who will be protected from both illegal content, and legal content which is nonetheless harmful to children (including content which is AI generated) Ofcom has set out steps providers can take to fulfil their child safety duties, which will be in force in the Summer.
The vast majority of AI systems should be regulated at the point of use, and the UK’s existing expert regulators are best placed to do this. We remain committed to introducing targeted rules on companies developing the most powerful AI models to ensure we can realise the benefits of these systems safely.