Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to support the (a) development and (b) use of 5G technology in Hampshire.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is committed to becoming a world leader in 5G, and for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027. Following the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review which sets out the Government’s national, long-term strategy for delivering world leading telecoms infrastructure across the UK, the Government is working to create the right conditions for the deployment of 5G.
We are investing in a nationally coordinated programme of 5G testbed facilities and application trials. Government has so far allocated £200 million from the National Productivity Investment Fund to the 5G programme to help establish new business models and revenue streams.
It is important to note that the vast majority of commercial rollout of 5G services will be delivered by industry, with services launching in the UK later this year. Hampshire has specifically had Vodafone commit to launching its 5G network by the end of the year in Southampton and Portsmouth, meaning that the county will be one of the first places in the UK with commercially viable 5G networks.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2019 to Question 206860, on Stonewell: National Lottery, what processes are in place to ensure that providing information for key public sector institutions does not constitute lobbying or break any rules on political funding.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Big Lottery Fund (BLF) has a process of review and due diligence on the award of all grants to ensure that BLF money is spent in the ways agreed through the grant making process, supported by a robust approach to the monitoring of grants over their lifetime. All Big Lottery Fund programmes clearly state in their guidance that they cannot fund political activities. Each programme is assigned a BLF member of staff as a point of contact who works with the organisation after the grant is made, supporting the grantee and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of their grant.
A further protection is provided by charity law which prohibits charities from supporting or funding a political party. This is enforced by the Charity Commission, as independent registrar and regulator.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of whether the recently reported £494,000 Big Lottery Fund grant to Stonewall (a) constitutes funding political lobbying and (b) broke the rules on political funding.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Big Lottery Fund is an arms-length body that has its own independent decision making processes. It does not fund projects to undertake political lobbying. The £494,818 awarded to Stonewall is to develop trans leaders, to work with them to establish best practice and to develop their skills to deliver training and information for key public sector institutions. Big Lottery Fund is confident that the activity supported by this grant does not constitute political lobbying and does not break any rules on political funding.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will implement a review of the misuse of lottery grants for political and issue-based lobbying.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Big Lottery Fund is an arms-length body that has its own independent decision making processes. It does not fund projects to undertake political lobbying. The £494,818 awarded to Stonewall is to develop trans leaders, to work with them to establish best practice and to develop their skills to deliver training and information for key public sector institutions. Big Lottery Fund is confident that the activity supported by this grant does not constitute political lobbying and does not break any rules on political funding.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of his Department's ability to meet the universal service obligation for superfast broadband coverage in Hampshire.
Answered by Margot James
The Universal Service Obligation was set in secondary legislation in March 2018 and is now being implemented by Ofcom so that by 2020 everyone will have the legal right to high speed broadband of at least 10Mbps. It is designed as a safety-net to ensure no-one is left behind.
In terms of superfast broadband coverage, thanks to £1.7bn investment of public money in the Broadband Delivery UK Superfast programme, 95% of Hampshire now has access to at least 24 Megabits per second.
We also have ambitions for full fibre coverage, which will deliver future-proof broadband connections. We announced £200 million of funding in the Budget to trial a model to deliver full fibre to premises in rural and remote areas. This is the first step of an ‘outside-in’ approach which seeks to ensure rural areas will be connected at the same pace as the rest of the country.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he will make it his policy to ensure that mobile operators share a proportion of the 5G radio spectrum with local communities that seek to build and deploy 5G base stations.
Answered by Margot James
In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, the Government set out that spectrum sharing might enable more efficient use of spectrum and could help to maximise the potential benefits of 5G to the UK.
The design of auctions to assign spectrum for 5G or other services is a matter for Ofcom, the UK's independent spectrum regulator which is accountable to parliament
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the level of coverage provided by 5G-ready infrastructure.
Answered by Margot James
We are committed to providing the world-class digital infrastructure the UK needs to compete and grow in the modern economy. The Government wants the UK to be a world leader in 5G and to ensure that the majority of the population have access to a 5G signal by 2027.
As 5G is still in its developmental stage it has yet to be rolled out. However, definitive standards are due to be agreed in 2019 and incremental deployment is expected over the following decade.
In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, the Government set out that it expects 5G to be rolled out in phases around the country, and for Mobile Network Operators to deploy 5G equipment first on existing sites.