Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the Project Gigabit broadband rural rollout; and what steps she is taking to ensure that rural communities in (a) England and (b) Staffordshire benefit from the programme.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are making excellent progress with Project Gigabit. By the end of March 2022, we had delivered gigabit-capable broadband to 741,000 premises, ahead of our target of 720,000 premises. Combined with commercial gigabit delivery, we are on track to hit our target of 85 per cent UK gigabit coverage by 2025.
We have now launched procurements with a value of over £700 million to deliver gigabit connections to hard-to-reach homes and businesses across the UK, and we recently signed our first contracts in North Dorset, Teesdale and North Northumberland.
In Staffordshire, almost 500 premises have benefitted from our gigabit broadband voucher scheme, which provides a subsidy for eligible homes and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. More than 320 additional premises are awaiting completion, for a combined total of over £1.9 million of support. Staffordshire County Council has also committed £1 million in top-up funding to support the delivery of vouchers across the county, providing an additional £2,000 for eligible premises experiencing speeds below 30Mbps.
Building Digital UK’s recent market engagement did not identify sufficient supplier interest in the planned regional procurement for Staffordshire at this time. This procurement has been deferred and BDUK is now working on an additional procurement approach to deliver gigabit connectivity to hard-to-reach parts of Staffordshire.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the BBC on ensuring that (a) all Licence Payers and (b) pensioners receive value for money.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DCMS Ministers meet with the BBC regularly to discuss a range of issues, including how the BBC is delivering value for money. The BBC’s Mission makes clear the BBC has a duty to serve all audiences and the government expects the BBC to ensure its substantial licence fee income is used to deliver value for all licence fee payers, including pensioners.
The NAO is responsible for auditing the BBC accounts and ensuring value for money in the way the BBC uses its funds. This ensures that there is appropriate scrutiny of how the BBC spends its public funding.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing capital funding to support the establishment of local art galleries including in Tamworth.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s position towards the creation of new museums, as set out in the action plan following The Mendoza Review: an independent review of museums in England, is that public funding should only support the creation of new museums in areas and communities with a demonstrable need for them. Instead we have focused on investment in existing museums and galleries through capital programmes such as the DCMS / Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund and the Museum Estate and Development Fund, and our direct sponsorship of fifteen museum arm’s length bodies (encompassing 48 museum sites).
Arts Council England is our arm’s-length body providing wider support and funding for museums and galleries, and its Museum Development services can provide guidance to organisations on how to open a new museum. They can help develop thinking on how the proposed museum fits within the ecology of arts, culture and heritage in the local area, including determining the scale and interest of the potential audience, and advise on potential avenues for capital funding.