Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been allocated to upgrading broadband infrastructure in (a) Easington constituency, (b) the North East and (c) nationally in each of the last five years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
According to the independent website thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the North East regional average of 96 Mbps and the UK average of 95. These averages are derived from crowd-sourced data and it is worth noting that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.
Further improvements to broadband speeds in the Easington constituency will be delivered as part of our £5 billion investment in Project Gigabit, which is upgrading and future-proofing network infrastructure for decades to come. Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.
In addition to our Project Gigabit procurements, we are providing additional support through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme to support rural communities across the UK with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. Through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and its previous iterations, we have issued over 100,000 vouchers worth more than £214 million.
Projects under the previous Superfast Broadband Programme in the North East covering Durham, Northumberland and Newcastle benefitted from UK Government funding of £24 million, alongside £24 million from the local authorities, £2 million European funding and £26 million from suppliers, to upgrade over 170,000 premises to superfast speeds over the lifetime of the programme. BDUK also delivered a Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) project in the North of Tyne area, with more than £5.8 million in government funding.
At national level, spend through BDUK on broadband in each of the last five years is as follows:
£m | Year | ||||
18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | |
Nationally | 38.6 | 29.9 | 9.6 | 10.0 | 12.5 |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve average download speeds in the Easington constituency; and whether she will take steps to increase download speeds in Easington constituency to the (a) North East and (b) UK average.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
According to the independent website www.thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the average of 96 Mbps in the North East, and UK average of 95 Mbps. It should be noted that these estimates are derived from crowd-sourced data and that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.
I am pleased to share that almost 99% of premises in the Easington constituency can already access superfast broadband and just over 74% of premises can access a gigabit-capable connection. This is higher than the national averages of over 97% and 72% for superfast and gigabit-capable, respectively.
We are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to enable hard-to-reach communities across the UK to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. Project Gigabit is focused on connecting homes and businesses that are not included in broadband suppliers’ commercial rollout plans.
The constituency of Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.
Eligible premises in Easington can also receive gigabit-capable connections through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. We recently announced an increase in the value of these vouchers so that new projects can receive as much as £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband in rural and particularly hard-to-reach areas.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason the Gambling Commission has not yet published annual statistics for society lotteries.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Gambling Commission’s production and publication of the most recent Industry Statistics for the period April 2020 to March 2021, including the latest full year statistics for society lotteries, has been affected by the impact of Covid-19, the lack of and quality of data submissions from some lottery operators and resources required for the consequential quality assurance.
The Gambling Commission will next publish these statistics, covering the period April 2020- March 2021, in November 2022, which is in line with regular twice-yearly publication cycles.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 compliance of her Department's staff working from home with the Working Time Regulations 1998.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Staff at DCMS work a standard 36 or 37 hour week and paid overtime is allowed on an exceptional basis in priority areas. Staff are encouraged to discuss their working hours with their Line Manager and, where they may be working beyond their standard hours, to record their hours of work with managers keeping oversight. A flexi time sheet template is made available for individuals to use to record their hours; records are not held centrally. Managers are responsible for ensuring employees are working their hours and not working excessive hours in line with Regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and this requirement has not been different where staff have been working from home. There are currently no staff at DCMS who have chosen to opt out of the Working Time Directive.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to protect television signal infrastructure following the Bilsdale transmitter fire and the time taken to restore television services.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Arqiva - a private infrastructure company - operates the UK’s terrestrial broadcast transmitter sites which carry BBC and commercial operators’ TV services. We remain in close contact with Arqiva and broadcasters who are working as fast and as safely as they can to restore TV and radio services in the areas served by Bilsdale by using existing and new alternate transmission sites.