Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what his planned timeframe is for the (a) delivery and (b) start of the Shared Rural Network.

The Shared Rural Network began in March 2020 and has already achieved its main target, extending 4G mobile coverage to over 95% of UK landmass, which was achieved a year ahead of its December 2025 target and verified by Ofcom in May 2025. The programme has also met its targets to improve mobile coverage for an extra 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads. However, there are still rural parts of the UK where there is either limited or no mobile coverage, and we will continue to work with the industry to deliver new coverage to these rural communities until the programme is due to complete in January 2027.