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Written question asked by Chris Elmore (Labour) on Wednesday, 30 October 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 4 November 2019. It was answered by Matt Warman (Conservative) on Tuesday, 5 November 2019 on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Broadband

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including prospective premises in the Open Market Review that takes place prior to the procurement exercise for a new fibre roll-out.

Answer

When an Open Market Review (OMR) data set is pulled together all serviceable premises which are eligible for funding are included. This uses a unique premises reference number, which is how the individual sites in a procurement are defined. This is allocated at planning permission stage so they could theoretically be included, however there would only be a benefit in doing so if the build timescales aligned to the proposed intervention of that particular project

In the recent Queen’s Speech, there was reference to our intention to bring forward secondary legislation in relation to new build. If successful this would compel developers to work with network providers to make gigabit capable infrastructure available from day one. This would make the inclusion of these premises in an OMR process academic.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
7755
Session
2019-19
Subjects
Broadband Procurement
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk