Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
The Department describes the £5 billion it has budgeted for its gigabit programme as ‘critical’.
Conclusion
The Department describes the £5 billion it has budgeted for its gigabit programme as ‘critical’. It said that it was continuing as if the programme would gain approval from HM Treasury and expected the funding to be confirmed at the forthcoming spending review.19 We asked whether the spending review was a risk for the programme and the Department acknowledged that the outcome of the spending review was not yet clear but told us it did not expect there to be any change in the government’s commitment to investing in 8 HM Treasury, Spending Review 2020, CP 330, November 2020 9 Spending Review 2020, paras 3.5 & 6.86; table 6.22 10 Spending Review 2020, table C.6 note 2 11 HM Treasury, National Infrastructure Strategy, CP 329, November 2020 12 National Infrastructure Strategy 2020, p. 31 13 Q 40 14 Qq 54–57, 117 15 National Infrastructure Strategy 2020, p. 31 16 C&AG’s Report para 24, recommendation f 17 Qq 41–45, 111–114 18 Qq 60–66, 115–125 19 Qq 52–53, 74 10 Improving Broadband gigabit.20 Since we took oral evidence, the Department has received a four-year settlement totalling less than one quarter of the £5 billion it says it needs to reach most of the final 20% of premises.21 Progress in tackling barriers
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
1. 2 The 2020 Spending Review allocated £1.2 billion over 4 years to support the rollout of gigabit- capable broadband, as part of the government’s £5 billion commitment to support rollout to hardest to reach areas (under the UK Gigabit Programme). The spending profile takes into account extensive engagement 6 with suppliers in the telecoms industry, and what it believes the industry will be able to deliver by 2025 in these hard to reach areas at this stage. As set out in the National Infrastructure Strategy, the government expects that by 2025 at least 85% of premises will have access to gigabit-capable connections and the department will continue to work with industry to accelerate the rollout further to get as close to 100% as possible. The department remains committed to investing £5 billion in bringing gigabit coverage to the hardest to reach areas and will continue to work with suppliers to accelerate this investment, taking account of industry capacity.