Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 improve mobile phone coverage in (a) North East Bedfordshire constituency and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government announced in-principle support in October 2019 for the mobile network operators’ (MNOs) Shared Rural Network (SRN) proposal. The proposal would share investment costs between the MNOs and government and increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the United Kingdom to 95% by 2025. It will be underpinned by a legally binding coverage commitment from each operator.
The Government's in-principle support is subject to detailed negotiations. While this is not yet a done deal, the Prime Minister has made improvements to rural mobile coverage part of his first 100 days pledge. I will continue to work with the sector to make that happen, but I will also explore all possible options to meet our mobile coverage ambitions, including rural roaming.
The exact site deployment plans and timescales will be managed by the MNOs themselves in order for them to best deliver the agreed coverage outcomes. So until the operators’ final radio planning exercise is complete, neither the Government nor the operators will know the precise location or number of new or upgraded masts. However, the operators will be consulting with local communities as their roll out plans become clearer.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 improve broadband coverage in North East Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government has made significant progress in North East Bedfordshire, with over £8 million of central government funding allocated to the Bedford and Milton Keynes project area. As a result, 95.9% of premises now have access to superfast broadband - up from 54.3% in February 2012.
There are a range of options available to those in North East Bedfordshire suffering from slow speeds. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is available to those who are not due to receive an upgrade from a publicly funded rollout programme. Small to medium sized businesses can claim a voucher worth up to £2,500, and residents can claim a voucher worth up to £500 as part of a group project to offset the costs of installing gigabit-capable infrastructure. Increased funding is available to rural premises.
In addition to this, the government has pledged £5 billion to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to the most difficult to reach areas of the UK.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department is making on determining a permanent memorial to mark the Sikh contribution to the First World War.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
UK Government are not organising a memorial however the Sikh community have plans in place to unveil a permanent memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire in the autumn.