Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Department is taking to improve mobile telephone signal in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England.

Communities and business across the country rightly expect to have the mobile connectivity they need to participate in the modern digital economy.

Through the Shared Rural Network programme, there have already been improvements in 4G mobile coverage across rural England. This includes two masts that have been upgraded using government funding in Hexham, with a further mast having been upgraded in North Northumberland. The programme continues to deliver 4G coverage improvements across Great Britain.

But we want to go further, our ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. Government continues to work closely with the mobile network operators, ensuring that we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment into mobile networks and competition in the market. This includes removing barriers to deployment where they exist.