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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of (a) premises in the Highlands and Islands he estimates will have indoor 4G coverage, (b) the Highlands area he estimates will have complete not-spots for voice and SMS text by 2017.

Improving mobile coverage remains a priority for the Government, and our landmark agreement in December 2014 with the four mobile network operators (MNOs) for each to provide voice and SMS text coverage to at least 90% of the UK landmass by 2017 will significantly improve coverage in the UK, including the Highlands area. The additional licence obligation on Telefonica will deliver significant improvements in 4G coverage as well and whilst we have no specific 4G coverage figures for the Highlands and Islands, the obligation will deliver indoor 4G coverage to 95% of premises in Scotland by end 2017.

These obligations will also more than halve complete not spots for voice calls across the Highland area landmass over the same period.