Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
The National Audit Office’s report describes how the Superfast Programme was able to leave the...
Conclusion
The National Audit Office’s report describes how the Superfast Programme was able to leave the very hardest to reach premises until last when, in a bid to meet its timeline, the Department prioritised maximising the number of premises reached over providing for those in greatest need.53 We asked for assurance that, should the programme timetable start to slip, the people with the poorest broadband would not be sacrificed and put to the back of the queue once more. The Department told us it was committed to an ‘outside-in’ approach and that its priority was to ensure that those who do not have access to superfast broadband will receive decent broadband.54 The National Audit Office’s report referred to the final 1% of premises as “prohibitively expensive” and the Department explained that it was assessing the value for money of alternative technologies for delivering the fastest speeds possible to these premises.55
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
5.3 The department has set out how it intends to target the remaining premises which are without superfast broadband, or which are not within other coverage plans, in its consultation Planning for Gigabit Delivery (December 2020) and is about to announce the location of the first phase of new procurements. To accurately identify and plan the intervention areas, the department is already collecting Ofcom’s regularly updated Connected Nations data on current operator footprint and has begun collecting data on future build plans from a wider range of operators. It is implementing systems that will allow operators to update their data on a regular basis with their latest plans and, once assured, will be reflected in its delivery plans and the data made available in the public domain. In addition, a formal public review will be undertaken before each project under the new UK Gigabit Programme to enable all suppliers to provide information on their existing plans. The first public review under this new process, for the area of Cumbria, was published on 9 February 2021.