Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many people in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey, (c) the South East and (d) the UK have received access to superfast broadband through government programmes since May 2010.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Approximately 2,487 premises in the Woking constituency and 77,141 premises in Surrey have received access to superfast broadband through the Superfast Broadband Programme. Over 4 million premises across the UK have received access through the programme. BDUK does not measure coverage at regional level.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many people in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey, (c) the South East and (d) the UK do not yet have access to broadband speed of at least 2MBps.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Ofcom provides a local authority and postcode analysis of availability, most recently in their Connected Nations 2015 report at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/infrastructure-research/connected-nations-2015/downloads, which gave a rounded figure for Surrey of 0% of premises unable to receive 2Mbit/s in summer 2015. Ofcom's corresponding UK figure was 2% of premises.
Since then, the Government's Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme has been made available at http://basicbroadbandchecker.culture.gov.uk/ if customers cannot access an affordable broadband service with a speed of at least 2 Mbit/s.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made in giving access to download speeds of at least 2mbps to residents of (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) the South East.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Nearly 90% of homes and businesses in the UK currently have access to superfast broadband - and we are on target for this to reach 95% by the end of 2017. All premises which cannot currently get 2Mbps will be able take advantage of a subsidised satellite broadband service which can deliver speeds of 10Mbps or more.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of homes in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) the South East have access to superfast broadband.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In the Woking constituency the Government expects 98% of homes & businesses to have access to superfast broadband at the end of the Superfast Surrey project. At county level Surrey will have over 99% superfast broadband coverage by the end of the Superfast Surrey project.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to increase the availability of fibre-optic broadband to businesses in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) the South East.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Current superfast broadband coverage is almost 80% of UK premises and the Government remains committed to providing 95% coverage to homes and businesses by 2017.
As of June 2014, Surrey had 89% superfast broadband coverage (speeds of 24Mbps+) as stated in the Ofcom Infrastructure Report 2014. By the end of the current Superfast Surrey broadband project at the end of March 2015 there will be over 97% superfast coverage to businesses and homes in Surrey. Superfast broadband roll-out is managed at local authority level rather than regional level.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of households with access to fibre-optic broadband in (a) Woking constituency and (b) Surrey in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
House of Commons Library analysis (http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06643.pdf) of Ofcom postcode data related to June 2014 suggested the number of premises with superfast (NGA) availability across the Woking constituency was then about 97%. Historical constituency data is not available.
The following data taken from Ofcom Infrastructure Reports indicates coverage in Surrey between 2011 and 2014. The Department is not aware of data for 2010. Ofcom calculated 2011-14 coverage figures using different methodologies and in 2014 produced two sets of figures. Further details can be found on the Ofcom website: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/
County | Proportion of households in postcodes served by NGA networks 2011 | Proportion of households in postcodes served by NGA networks 2012 | Proportion of premises in postcodes served by NGA networks 2013 | Proportion of premises able to receive NGA broadband services 2014 | Availability of superfast broadband (30+Mbit/s) 2014 |
Surrey | 77% | 80% | 85% | 93% | 89%
|
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of adults in (a) Woking constituency and (b) Surrey who have taken part in at least one sporting activity each week in each of the last five years.
Answered by Helen Grant
Sport participation data is from the Active People Survey, which is the main measure of the number of people aged 16 and above taking part in sport in England. The 2013/14 data will be released 29 January 2015.
Woking | Surrey | |
2012/13 (APS7) | n/a¹ | 376,000 (40.8%) |
2011/12 (APS6) | n/a¹ | 375,800 (41%) |
2010/11 (APS5) | n/a¹ | 367,400 (40.3%) |
2009/10 (APS4) | n/a¹ | 371,000 (41.3) |
¹Sample size too small to provide figure
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of households with access to high speed broadband in (a) Woking constituency and (b) Surrey in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom is responsible the regulation of the UK broadband market and monitors and publishes broadband coverage data in its annual Infrastructure Report.
Ofcom’s 2014 report indicated an increasing level NGA coverage in Surrey since 2011, as set out below:
Premises with NGA network coverage | 2011 | 77% |
2012 | 80% | |
2013 | 85% | |
2014 | 93% |
Ofcom does not, however, publish data by constituency, but it has published data by postcode at http://infrastructure.ofcom.org.uk/ and http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/ir/Fixed_postcode.zip.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to tackle nuisance telephone calls; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Tackling nuisance telephone calls is a priority for the Department. A range of options for reform are being pursued, which includes both legislative and non-legislative measures that will protect consumers more effectively.
Our Nuisance Calls Action Plan of 30 March 2014, included proposals to enable the Office of Communications (Ofcom) to share information more easily with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about companies who may be breaching the regulations. We made this measure effective on 15 July 2014 and it will help ICO to take enforcement action against companies deliberately breaching the rules.
We are also soon to consult to lower the legal threshold, making it easier for ICO to take more enforcement action, including issuing monetary penalties to companies who currently manage to avoid having action taken against them. Work on improving the ability of communication service providers to trace calls is underway and led by Ofcom, with our encouragement. Consent and lead generation issues including how telephone numbers are captured and sold on, are also being considered by the Taskforce led by Which? that will report to the Department by the end of this year. Further details about the full range of measures outlined in our Action Plan can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nuisance-calls-action-plan-unveiled
Steps taken to date include the Department having improved signposting and information about whom to contact when needing to report nuisance calls, a simpler complaints process, and greater use by regulators of their powers, including the ICO and Ofcom having to date issued monetary penalties totalling more than £2.2 million for nuisance telephone calls and SMS text messages. We will continue to work with regulators, consumer group representatives and the industry to deliver improved protection for the benefit of consumers.