Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
Thirty-Fifth Report - Supporting mobile connectivity
Published 28 May 2024
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Supporting mobile connectivity All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Department’s plans for supporting investment in 5G infrastructure are undeveloped and it has not articulated what it has achieved from taxpayers’ 8 Supporting mobile connectivity investment to date. Since 2017, the Department has committed over £500 million to determine how 5G technology could be used by consumers and businesses in the UK, to promote investment in 5G, and for research into more advanced technologies. The Department has published information on the outcomes of its spending programmes but has not brought information together to make it clear what it has achieved to date. Nor does the Department currently plan to directly support the roll-out of 5G infrastructure in the same way as it has done for 4G. There have been calls for the Government to act quickly to support 5G deployment in areas where the market is unwilling to deliver, but the Department is waiting to see how willing the mobile network operators are to invest and how far the commercial roll-out progresses before deciding if government investment is needed. It has set an ambition for standalone 5G to be available in all populated areas by 2030, but has not yet defined all populated areas or the level of 5G performance it considers the UK needs. Recommendation 7: The Department should set out more clearly what it has achieved from its investment to date in 5G, as well as setting more meaningful and measurable targets for assessing its progress in supporting the roll-out of standalone 5G mobile coverage. Supporting mobile connectivity 9 1 Delivering the Shared Rural Network programme
From: Public Accounts Committee, Thirty-Fifth Report - Supporting mobile connectivity (HC 650), 28 May 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 11 July 2025 (deadline 28 July 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the seven recommendations in the report, giving target implementation dates between December 2024 and January 2027.
- On cost certainty, the government says the grant structure "moves the majority of the financial risk for delivery outside government" and that a capped fund for the Total Not Spot element means its contribution "cannot exceed £300.7 million".
- On areas left without 4G, the government says it "is not possible to predict with a high degree of certainty" which areas these will be at this stage; identification will be undertaken "upon completion of the site acquisition phase". Target date: January 2027.
- On coverage data, the department "will ask that Ofcom examines any cases where areas have lost all mobile connectivity following 3G switch off" and will work with Ofcom to "consider other ways that consumers can report gaps in coverage". Target date: January 2025.
- On 5G, the government says standalone 5G is commercially funded "with no government subsidy", and that it will provide an evaluation of the Open Networks Programme and 5G Innovation Regions "following their conclusion in 2025".