Oral Answers to Questions

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking to ensure that rural communities are supported in the transition from analogue to digital landlines.

[The Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms (Chris Bryant)]

One of the things that keeps me awake at night is how we ensure that people are protected—the most vulnerable and rural communities in particular—as we transition from the copper network to fibre. That is why I was glad that, in November last year, I was able to get all the network operators to sign up to a new code of conduct that will, I think, provide precisely that protection.

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

Dominic’s aortic aneurysm burst at his rural home five years ago. With no phone signal in their stone-built house, it was a 50-minute landline call to emergency services that helped his wife keep him alive while they waited for an ambulance. As Dominic waits for more open heart surgery, can the Minister reassure his family that we are doing all we can to mitigate the risks to him and other vulnerable people during power cuts?

[Chris Bryant]

I certainly can. I send my best wishes to my hon. Friend’s constituent. He said that it is a stone-built house; he is absolutely right that there are particular difficulties with mobile signal in stone-built houses—I live in one myself, in Porth in the Rhondda. One thing that we have done recently, as a result of the pressure that I have put on people, is to ensure that the battery back-up power is not just the Ofcom-guaranteed one-hour minimum, but considerably longer, and that is what lots of the operators are now providing.