Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department plans to announce further details on (a) dates and (b) contract values for Project Gigabit; and what assessment he has made of the broadband needs of people in Tonbridge and Malling constituency.
Answered by Matt Warman
The government is committed to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband to everyone in the UK. Our plan - to stimulate investment, bust barriers and drive competition - is working. We're on track for one of the fastest rollouts in Europe and for 60% of all households to have access to gigabit capable speeds by the end of the year. It is a huge leap forward from 2019, when it was just 9%.
The government will announce the next areas to be connected via Project Gigabit shortly as it pushes ahead with efforts to connect at least 85 per cent of the UK to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025.
The telecoms market is thriving with new entrants and investments changing the picture on the ground. Project Gigabit is designed to be responsive to this and the ordering and timing of the procurement pipeline will remain dynamic with quarterly updates to the plan.
Kent is Phase 2 of Project Gigabit’s procurement plans. There will be a procurement process for a supplier to provide gigabit coverage to all premises within the area which are not scheduled to get coverage through any other route (subject to a cost cap for the very hard to reach premises).
Both the new voucher scheme and the procurements are part of Project Gigabit, which we are supporting with funding of £5 billion so hard to reach communities are not left out - starting to level up now, not waiting for the end of the commercial rollout, and adding to the half a million rural homes and businesses already given coverage through our support
To provide immediate support across the UK we are funding up to £210 million worth of vouchers over the next three years to help with the costs of installing gigabit capable networks to people’s doorsteps and up to £110 million to connect up to 7,000 rural public buildings such as GP surgeries, libraries and schools.
Currently 93.64% of the constituency of Tonbridge and Malling have access to Superfast broadband, which is slightly lower than the national average of 96.84%. Tonbridge and Malling has seen 292 voucher connections with a value of over £447,805. There are also a further 312 vouchers that are pending connection, totalling £982,778.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment was completed by the Government, in advance of the publication of the Government’s roadmap for easing covid-19 restrictions, for determining that (a) swimming pools could re-open on 12 April 2021 and (b) over 18’s competitive swimming clubs cannot restart until 17 May 2021 at the earliest.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Sports and physical activity providers and facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is front of the queue when easing those restrictions.
On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The roadmap outlines four steps for easing restrictions. There will be a minimum of five weeks between each step: four weeks for the data to reflect changes in restrictions; followed by seven days’ notice of the restrictions to be eased. The Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Adviser have made clear that this will give adequate time to assess the impact of each step and reduce the risk of having to re-impose restrictions at a later date.
Step 2 will take place no earlier than 12 April and as part of this indoor sports facilities including gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools will reopen for individual usage. At Step 3, no earlier than 17 May, indoor group activities including swimming clubs can resume.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether projects funded by the Rural Gigabit Connectivity vouchers, but not submitted by 19 February 2021, will still be eligible for new Gigabit Broadband Vouchers from April 2021.
Answered by Matt Warman
Since May 2019, eligible homes and businesses in rural areas that are part of a group project have been able to benefit from the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme funded by the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme. Voucher funding is a grant to individual residents and small businesses and is therefore committed when a voucher is issued to a beneficiary, at which point their supplier has 12 months to provide a connection. The Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is due to close on March 31 2021, by which point all voucher requests must be received.
Due to the success of the voucher scheme, and in line with the government’s ambition to provide access to gigabit-capable broadband to the hardest-to-reach communities in rural areas across the UK, a new gigabit broadband voucher is being developed as part of the UK Gigabit programme. This will target the hardest to reach areas which are least likely to benefit from commercial rollout. The government expects the new voucher to go live in April 2021 and, along with further details of the voucher, a new eligibility checker will be published in order to help consumers identify if they are eligible for a voucher. BDUK will also work with suppliers to help them transition existing projects, where they are eligible, to the UK Gigabit programme so that communities do not miss out on the opportunity for government funding to enable their access to gigabit capable connections.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department issued to Sport England on the criteria used to determine how much Leisure Trusts could receive under the Notional Fund Allocation of the National Leisure Relief Fund.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be allocated in a single funding round covering the period 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function.
To help ensure an equitable distribution of the National Leisure Recovery Fund, a Notional Funding Allocation has been calculated for each eligible local authority and funding awards will only be made in excess of the Notional Funding Allocation in the most exceptional circumstances. The basis of the Notional Funding Allocation is a per capita allocation. This has then been adjusted to take into consideration physical activity levels, number of facilities and health outcome indicators.
Government has worked closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible.