Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a legal requirement for broadband and fibre providers to provide 2 month contracts.

Ofcom, the independent regulator of telecommunications, is responsible for setting the rules on contract lengths for telecom services in the UK. Under Ofcom’s General Conditions, providers must offer at least one 12-month contract for each service, e.g. landline, broadband.

Consequently, Government has not made any such assessments on the provision of a two-month contract. We would expect that any assessment would need to include the practical and financial implications of such short contracts for the operators as well as potential clients.