Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the eight work streams within her Department's EU exit programme are; and what the purpose of each of those work streams is.
Answered by George Eustice
The current workstreams within Defra’s EU Exit Programme are: EU Negotiations; Trade; Devolution; Repeal Bill, Future Agriculture and Land Use, Fisheries; Environment, and Animal and Plant Health. As the EU Exit Programme progresses, the workstreams may change as they are dynamic and under regular review. The workstreams in our EU Exit Programme are carrying out detailed analysis of the implications and opportunities presented by EU Exit.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on each of the eight work streams within her Department's EU exit programme.
Answered by George Eustice
Across the eight work streams, the Department’s EU Exit Programme is carrying out detailed analysis of the implications and opportunities presented by EU Exit. This work will support the Prime Minister’s 12 negotiating objectives and the achievement of our vision to unlock the potential of farming and fisheries as well as ensuring that we leave the environment in a better state than we found it.
It is our intention to shortly publish our 25 Year Food, Farming and Fishing, and Environment Green Papers, initiating a debate with all of Defra’s sectors and stakeholders, along with the wider public, to shape plans that will deliver genuine and lasting change for food, farming, fishing and the environment once we are outside the EU.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to secure access to EU markets for (a) UK exports and (b) Scotch whisky in negotiations on the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
Retaining market access between the UK and the EU will be a significant benefit to the food and farming sectors in both the UK and Europe. In 2015, the UK exported £11 billion of agri-food and drink products to the EU, and imported £28 billion. We aim to secure a mutually beneficial deal that delivers market access for the benefit of food and drink producers both in the UK and the EU.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, where the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk can find reference to the consultation for a new voucher scheme for broadband which the Minister for Digital and Culture stated had been announced in the Autumn Statement 2016 in his oral contributions of 28 November 2016.
Answered by Matt Hancock
My Department published the Call for Evidence on local fibre proposals announced at Autumn Statement on 28th December.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the emergency services network masts will be designed and built to provide multi-occupancy sites from all four mobile network operators.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
In delivering the Emergency Services Network (ESN), the mobile network operator EE will deliver up to 291 new mast sites. Government will deliver approximately 230 further sites (known as the “Extended Area Services” (EAS) sites) in the most remote and rural areas of Great Britain.
Under the terms of the State Aid decision for ESN, any ESN site where EE offers a commercial service must be made available to the other UK mobile operators and interested parties to provide their own a service on an equal and non-discriminatory basis.
There are 18 potential EAS sites being considered in the constituency of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. There are currently up to 5 proposed new EE sites in the constituency. Delivery of these sites is subject to planning permission and the acquisition of land.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether geographic location data for the emergency services network sites built by (a) the Government and (b) EE will be published.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
In delivering the Emergency Services Network (ESN), the mobile network operator EE will deliver up to 291 new mast sites. Government will deliver approximately 230 further sites (known as the “Extended Area Services” (EAS) sites) in the most remote and rural areas of Great Britain.
Under the terms of the State Aid decision for ESN, any ESN site where EE offers a commercial service must be made available to the other UK mobile operators and interested parties to provide their own a service on an equal and non-discriminatory basis.
There are 18 potential EAS sites being considered in the constituency of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. There are currently up to 5 proposed new EE sites in the constituency. Delivery of these sites is subject to planning permission and the acquisition of land.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Extended Area Service mast sites for the Emergency Services Network will be capable of accommodating multiple vendors to afford optimum potential for all users.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Emergency Services Network (ESN) is being put in place to provide a new generation of communications for the emergency services and its focus must be to provide the critical national infrastructure to do so. Aligned with the Mobile Network Operators, Government has ambitions to improve mobile coverage in the UK. Clearly, where practicable, it makes sense to ensure that ESN helps to meet both objectives. Government is in communication with the operators to confirm how we will do that in practice.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the average amount of public funding provided per property under the Broadband Delivery UK scheme.
Answered by Matt Hancock
So far BDUK led projects have passed 4,168,739 premises to the end of Sept 2016. To reach this figure we have paid £924,334,422 in cash terms comprising £497,656,699 BDUK contribution and £426,677,723 local body/devolved contribution.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the number of premises which will be eligible for the broadband Universal Service Obligation in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The independent telecoms regulator Ofcom has been commissioned to provide detailed analysis on the key factors that will help inform the design of the broadband Univer sal Service Obligation (USO) and to publish their findings by the end of this year. Their report will identify the number of premises likely to be within the USO footprint on a UK-wide basis. They are also expected to provide a breakdown for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Calum Kerr (Scottish National Party - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of premises in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) Wales, (d) Scotland and (e) Northern Ireland (i) will have access to superfast broadband and (ii) are forecast to have signed up to receive superfast broadband by the end of 2017.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The government is aiming for superfast broadband coverage to reach 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017. This will include delivery from the government's Superfast Broadband Programme and further commercially funded delivery. The precise locations of this delivery are not known.