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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with representatives of the Church of England on enabling the erection of phone masts for broadband on church steeples.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in his previous role as Minister for Digital, co-chaired a meeting with the Minister for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity, with the rural Bishops, Church of England officials and the telecommunications industry on 13 December 2017, to discuss how the Church can support digital connectivity rollout in rural areas by hosting telecommunications infrastructure. This led to the Joint Accord between the Government and the National Church Institutions of the Church of England, which was signed on 18 February 2018, that seeks to promote the use of Church sites for such infrastructure.