Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential use of macro hot spot roaming in areas that suffer from poor mobile coverage.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Improving mobile connectivity across the UK, including in rural and hard to reach areas is a priority for the Government. The licence obligations arising from the December 2014 agreement have locked in investment of £5 billion and are delivering improved coverage across the UK with Ofcom's Communications Market Report (August 2016). Our regulatory reforms to mobile planning laws and proposed reform of the Electronic Communications Code will support further investment and improvements. Roaming was considered in the 2014 consultation and rejected in favour of the legally binding licence obligations on each MNO to provide voice/SMS text coverage to at least 90% of the UK’s landmass. Roaming would discourage investment and potentially increase complete not spots.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what procedures are in place for consumer compensation if the 90 per cent geographic voice coverage target set by Ofcom across the UK mobile network is not achieved by the end of 2017.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Improving mobile connectivity across the UK is a priority for the Government, and the licence obligations on mobile operators are legally binding and enforceable by Ofcom. The Government's Digital Economy Bill, currently going through Parliament, will strengthen Ofcom’s enforcement powers by enabling it to issue fines to mobile phone companies that fail to meet their licence obligations.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to enable Ofcom to fine mobile operators who do not provide the promised level of service.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Ofcom has powers to set general conditions that it considers appropriate for protecting the interests of the end-users of public electronic communications services. Breaches of conditions are enforceable by Ofcom. The Digital Economy Bill makes explicit Ofcom’s power to require communications providers to adhere to defined automatic compensation regimes.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward provisions in the Digital Economy Bill to protect mobile telephone customers in the event that service is below the standards advertised.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Digital Economy Bill will help consumers receive compensation when they don’t get what they’ve paid for. Clause three of the Bill makes explicit Ofcom’s power to require communications providers to adhere to defined automatic compensation regimes.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of improvements made to mobile infrastructure as a result of the £5 billion investment programme that was announced by her Department in December 2014 to improve that infrastructure by 2017; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The investment made by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) as a result of the December 2014 landmark agreement, is delivering improvements in mobile connectivity as operators upgrade their networks to 4G. According to Ofcom nearly 98% of UK premises had 4G mobile coverage from at least one MNO in May 2016 (up from 72% in 2014). We will see further improvements in coverage as MNOs continue their rollout of mobile infrastructure between now and end 2017, to deliver their licence obligations, that will be enforced by Ofcom.
To support industry the Government is reforming the Electronic Communications Code via the Digital Economy Bill that will significantly reduce the cost of providing digital infrastructure. The Government's reforms to the mobile planning laws to provide greater freedoms and flexibilities in England for the deployment of mobile communications infrastructure, will also be in place by 24 November.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on her policy on Tech City UK.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We are working to assess the effect of the decision to leave the EU on all parts of the UK digital sector. Tech City UK has been successful in supporting the growth of thriving digital clusters across the UK and they are an important partner in ensuring that we continue to support the sector as we prepare to leave the EU. We are drawing on their insight into the needs of digital businesses and start-ups across the UK to help ensure we get the best deal for the future of the digital sector, and for the wider economy.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to prohibit advertisements for fast food on television before the watershed.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Government recognises the importance of tackling childhood obesity, which is caused by a number of complex factors. The Childhood Obesity Plan for Action, published in August, considered a number of different policy responses to address this problem. Additional advertising restrictions were considered as part of this process, but current restrictions in the UK are amongst the toughest in the world and the plan focuses on those areas which experts tell us are most effective.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans the Government has to provide additional funding to cultural and heritage projects previously funded by EU programmes when that EU funding ends.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Chancellor has guaranteed structural and investment fund projects in the UK that are signed even after the Autumn Statement. In addition, projects where UK organisations bid directly and competitively for EU funding will be guaranteed by the UK Government if the bids are won before our departure from the EU, regardless of whether or not the projects continue after departure. Funding for other projects will be honoured by the government if they are good value for money and are in line with domestic strategic priorities.
Leaving the EU means we will want to take our own decisions about how to deliver the policy objectives previously targeted by EU funding. Over the coming months, we will consult closely with stakeholders to review all EU funding schemes in the round, to ensure that any ongoing funding commitments best serve the UK‘s national interest, while ensuring appropriate investor certainty.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish responses to the Broadband Universal Service Obligation consultation.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government intends to publish its response to the broadband Universal Service Obligation consultation shortly, and a copy will be placed in the House Library.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many residences classified as social housing (a) do not have access to superfast broadband, (b) have connections slower than 10 Mbit/s and (c) have connections slower than 2Mbit/s; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government is on target to deliver access to superfast broadband for 95% of all UK premises - including social housing - by December 2017, and to extend coverage beyond that as far as possible. We do not hold a breakdown of this information by housing tenure centrally, however this investment is benefiting all types of housing, as well as businesses, and we are proud to be delivering on this critical piece of infrastructure as set out in our manifesto.
Currently, superfast broadband is available to almost 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the UK - up from 45 per cent in 2010. Around 5 per cent of UK homes and business are currently experiencing connection speeds below 10 Mbit/s.
Having reduced the proportion of all UK premises with speeds less than 2 Mbit/s substantially from 11% in 2010 to around 1% in December last year, we have now implemented our commitment of having at least 2 Mbit/s per second basic broadband available to all homes and businesses.
All premises which are not currently scheduled to get an increase in speed to at least this level are eligible for a subsidised satellite broadband service that can deliver speeds of 10Mbps or more.
The Prime Minister has also announced the Government's intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) which is set at 10 Mbit/s. This new broadband USO will give people the legal right to request an affordable broadband connection, at a reasonable cost threshold, no matter where they live. We will be consulting on these proposals shortly.