Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Timms Excerpts

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

The simple answer to that question is yes, of course I can. About 200,000 people use Liverpool Street station every morning and we anticipate that there will be about 45,000 to 50,000 extra during the games, many of whom will not be going in and out at peak time and will be going in the opposite direction to the normal commuter flow, but I take the hon. Gentleman’s point and will see what I can do about it.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

9. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on the likely effects on competitiveness of the change in the time scale for the delivery of a universal broadband service.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

I have not discussed this with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, but I have discussed it with the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and we both agree that the new target of having the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015 is the best way to proceed on broadband. I have also praised my right hon. Friend for having secured substantial funding for broadband roll-out.

[Stephen Timms]

This matter is very important for competitiveness, especially at a time when we need many new jobs to be created by companies in rural areas as well as in urban areas. Before the election, the Minister’s right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport described the plan to secure 2 megabits per second broadband access universally by 2012 as woefully unambitious, but since the election he has simply deferred the deadline by three years to 2015. What became of his ambition?

[Mr Vaizey]

Our ambition doubled, tripled and became superfast. We learned from broadband providers that they were already in a position to implement superfast broadband, so why should we push them down the slow channel when we could push them down the fast channel? That is why the pilots announced by the Secretary of State will implement superfast broadband for rural areas. I know that the right hon. Gentleman will welcome that given his experience in the previous Government.