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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the work of Building Digital UK in making subsidies available to the five or 10 per cent of properties that will not receive a commercial build as per its initial outside-in approach.

Over 97 per cent of UK premises now have access to superfast broadband with speeds of more than 30Mbps as a result of commercial delivery and coverage provided through the Government’s Superfast Broadband Programme. The most recent evaluation of this programme can be seen here.

Gigabit broadband coverage has increased from 6 per cent to 66 per cent of premises over the last three years. Through Project Gigabit, the Government aims to ensure at least 85 per cent of premises have gigabit coverage by 2025, with near-universal coverage being achieved as soon as possible thereafter. Over 600,000 premises which previously had sub-superfast speeds or which are outside the scope of commercial plans have already received gigabit coverage as a result of programmes managed by Building Digital UK. The Government’s most recent update on its further delivery plans for Project Gigabit is set out in the Project Gigabit Winter Update. Further reports on progress with delivery will be published quarterly. Building Digital UK will also publish results of evaluations of Project Gigabit as these become available.