Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the extent of superfast broadband coverage in (a) England and (b) Northumberland; and if he will make a statement.

Current superfast broadband coverage is over 83% of UK premises and the Government remains committed to providing 95% coverage to homes and businesses by December 2017. Coverage of superfast broadband in England is 84% according to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report published in August 2015. The report can be found at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/cmr/cmr15/CMR_UK_2015.pdf

The Government has invested £9.69 million in the Northumberland project which aims to provide superfast broadband coverage to over 46,000 homes and businesses in the county. By the end of the Northumberland project, anticipated by December 2016, over 91% of premises are expected to have access to superfast broadband. As of 30 June 2015, 40,193 premises had access to superfast broadband as a result of the project.