Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Smith Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Huddleston]

Yes, absolutely; we will keep this under review. The Government did express an ambition to look again at increasing the annual sales limit to £100 million once we were satisfied that this would result in an increase in overall returns to good causes and would not negatively impact on the national lottery. That goal of making sure the returns to good causes are optimised will be at the front of our minds.

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

9. What assessment she has made of the impact of the rate of the delivery of the rollout of gigabit broadband on (a) rural and (b) urban communities.

[The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Ms Nadine Dorries)]

Through Project Gigabit we are ensuring that hard-to-reach areas of the UK gain access to world-class gigabit connectivity alongside delivering gigabit broadband to the rest of the country ahead of the demand. As I said in response to an earlier answer, connectivity stood at 6% in 2019, while today the figure is 69%.

[Nick Smith]

Rolling out gigabit broadband requires real leadership. The Prime Minister has brought his office into disrepute, so will the Deputy Prime Minister be his stand-by this summer?

[Mr Speaker]

Secretary of State, I am not quite sure that question is relevant.