Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the 48-hour broadband outage window in the Automatic Compensation Scheme.

The government recognises that access to high-quality and reliable broadband is essential.

Operators have a statutory responsibility to take measures to identify, prepare for and reduce anything that compromises the availability, performance or functionality of their networks and services.

DSIT regularly engages Ofcom, the independent regulator of telecommunications services, who created the voluntary compensation scheme and any changes to the scheme is a decision for Ofcom.

We will continue to work with Ofcom to monitor the market to ensure that consumers are receiving reliable services and recourse for when things go wrong.