Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the implementation of the report, Tackling dormant assets: recommendations to benefit investors and society published by the Independent Dormant Assets Commission in March 2017.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Government published its response to the Dormant Assets Commission’s report in February 2018. In June, Ministers announced four senior industry champions, who will spearhead the expansion of the current dormant assets scheme, with the support of government, to include a wider set of financial assets across the financial services sector.
The champions will report to Ministers on an implementation plan for their respective sectors in due course.
Asked by: Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the timetable is for completing the phase 4 roll-out of the Superfast Essex scheme; and what steps will be taken to support people in target areas who fail to receive the intended higher levels of broadband connectivity.
Answered by Margot James
Superfast Essex is one of the first BDUK projects to undertake a Phase 4 and has an ambition to ensure that at least 99% of premises in Essex have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2021.
Superfast Essex’s Phase 4 is a two-part procurement with Phase 4a currently at the evaluation stage. Phase 4b of the procurement is planned for launch in the summer. Deployment plans are not yet set and will be published by Superfast Essex once Phase 4 has been contracted and mobilised. Plans for the remaining ‘unconnected’ areas will be shaped once Phase 4 contracts are awarded and the size of the remaining gap is known.
As confirmed in our announcement in December 2017 we are pushing ahead with our plans for a Universal Service Obligation (USO) so that, by 2020, everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to 10 Megabit per second broadband.