Kanishka Narayan
MP for Vale of Glamorgan · Labour · United Kingdom
“May I, as ever, thank the Chair of the Select Committee for such a depth of expertise and experience, and in particular for the report that she mentioned, which has formed the basis of a lot of our thinking?”
“I first thank my hon. Friend for championing an incredibly important cause. Content promoting eating disorders is horrific, and I have to be clear that not just at the age of 16, but under the Online Safety Act 2023, platforms must already prevent children under the age of 18 from accessing content about eating disorders or self-harm.”
“This Government have led the world in tackling dangerous content online, including in law with illegal content duties that platforms must comply with, with our full backing for Ofcom’s enforcement of them, and by strengthening the law, with cyber-flashing, intimate image abuse and self-harm content all deemed priority offences needing to…”
“Do we want tougher accountability? Absolutely. That is why the codes published mean stronger review mechanisms, a direct line to law enforcement and a clear crisis playbook required of risky platforms. Do we want it to be faster? Absolutely. That is exactly why we have asked Ofcom to expedite those codes in particular.”
“Keeping people safe online at moments of real danger is a top priority for this Government. That is why we have asked Ofcom to expedite its work on updates to its codes of practice under the Online Safety Act 2023. All services face strict duties to deal with illegal content.”
“I first pay tribute to the families that I have met who have raised the issue of suicide forums, which the hon. Member rightly raises. I have committed to them in the past that we will continue to press for quicker remedies for them when they suffer the worst tragedies imaginable.”
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“I am not sure that we are where we could be in thinking about how to set a baseline for them. We have a lot of voluntary codes, which is fantastic—that is a really good starting point—but it is about the value of the voluntary and how much it requires behavioural change. What you see is that the organisations that are already doing well and taking security seriously are following the voluntary codes because they were already investing, but there is a really long tail of organisations that are not. Any policy approach, legislation or otherwise, comes down to the fact that you can build the best thing in the world, but you need a plan for adoption or the engagement piece—what it looks like to go into communities and see how people are wrestling with this stuff and the challenges that are blocking adoption.”
“It is hard to think about how to place more burdens on small and medium businesses, what they can reasonably get done and what resources are available. That said, that is the problem that we have to deal with; we have to figure out how to make progress. There is also a challenge here, in that we tend to focus a lot on the behaviour of the victim. It is understandable why—that is the side that we can control—but we are missing the middle piece. There are the bad guys, who we cannot control but who we can try to prosecute and bring to task; and there are the victims, who we can control, and we focus a lot on that—CSRB focuses on that side. Then there is the middle ground of enablers. They are not intending to be enablers, but they are the people who are creating the platforms, mediums and technology.”
“Q Thank you very much to both of you for your insights today. The question on my mind is related, in part, to the point that Jen raised. There are a range of levers at the Government’s disposal in thinking about and acting on cyber-security. I am interested in your thoughts on which parts of the economy ought to be in the scope of regulation and legislative measures, and where effective measures that sit outside of regulation and legislation—guidance being one from a range of non-regulatory measures—would be better suited. Jen Ellis: Again, that is a hugely complex question to cover in a short amount of the time. One of the challenges that we face in UK is that we are a 99% small and mediums economy.”
“You are then into the legislation side with procurement, because procurement will flow down. Although I might not be in scope directly as a small business, the reality is that the primes and Government Departments that are funding work will flow those requirements down on to the smaller MSPs. Although we might not be in scope directly, when it comes to implementing and meeting the legislation, we will have to follow those rules.”
“Of course, the larger organisations have multiple teams, multiple scopes and much more credibility in operating in different areas. As that flows down the supply chain, in many cases it becomes more difficult to really unpick the supply chain. For example, if I am a managed service provider delivering a cloud service from a US hyperscaler, who is responsible? Am I, as the managed service provider, ultimately on the hook, even though I might be using a US-based hyperscaler? That is not just to pick on the hyperscalers, by the way—it could be a US software-based system or a set of tools that I am using. There are a whole range of parts that need to become clearer, because otherwise the managed service community will be saying, “Well, is that my responsibility? Do I have to deliver that?”.”
“Q Thank you all very much for making time. I have an implementation-focused question, perhaps directed at Stuart, but open to all. In practice, it would be helpful to understand how frequent is the case that a single company might provide multiple of the possible services in scope: MSP services, cloud hosting, data centre support and cyber-security services. What ability might we have to identify parts of an organisation that are in scope for particular bits and those that are not? Stuart McKean: You are going to hear the word “complex” a lot in this session. It is hugely complex. I would almost say that everyone likes to dabble. Everyone has little bits of expertise. Certain companies might be cloud-focused, or focused on toolsets; there are a whole range of skillsets.”
“To touch on the point about Secretary of State powers, we feel that the door is a little bit too wide. If you look at legislation such as Australia’s cyber-security legislation from 2018, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, that also has some good Secretary of State powers, but there are lots of guardrails contained in it that make it clear that it is a power of last resort, where the entity is unwilling or unable to carry out the remedial action itself. There are also other guardrails contained in that legislation. We urge the Committee and the Government to look at that Act and take inspiration from it to think about where those guardrails could be worked into the UK law.”
“We have already talked about AI, and we have lots of quantum research taking place as well that will have a big bearing on cyber-security. It is right that the Bill has some agility in it, but it is clear from the responses today that there is a need to tighten it up in certain places. We talked about incident reporting, and having a simpler, more co-ordinated system for regulated entities to work with so that that reporting process is easier. The definition of “incident” itself needs to be looked at, we believe. The idea of an instance not only having, but being capable of having, an adverse effect on information systems opens the door very widely to lots of potential incidents that may need to be reported on. Having a tighter definition there would be very useful.”
“In that context, an approach that recognises best efforts in that first 24 hours but is focused on tackling the problem will be important for dealing with the issue. On the supply chain, I would say—and we have heard about this before—that there could be more clarity there in terms of who would be in scope for designated suppliers. Thinking a bit around both systemic dependency and the potential for wider disruption would be important factors to give it more clarity. Matt Houlihan: To round off the responses, on the question about finding the balance between specificity and agility, the Bill does a reasonable job at that. We can totally see the need to keep some of the doors open, because not only is the nature of the threat changing rapidly but the nature of technology—and of our capabilities to defend—is changing as well.”
“The world is moving fast, and I think that the cyber assessment framework is a good starting place for what a code of practice could look like, because it is already understood by industry and is outcomes-driven. I agree with the previous comments about incident reporting. I think that there is a lot of merit in the suggestion around a shared portal so that it is easier to report incidents in that moment of dealing with a cyber-attack. Within the regime as envisaged, probably the most important bit with reference to reporting is about improving that early clarity and visibility for the NCSC so that they can help. That is probably where I would place the emphasis, more than on regulators having that information within 24 hours.”
“We have five, six or seven different reporting portals that all characterise things differently and take different types of information, and bringing them together to have a single picture about the actual threat to the UK is incredibly difficult. A single reporting forum could fix that. Ben Lyons: I might distinguish between what organisations need to do and whether organisations are in scope. In terms of what they need to do, the outcomes-based approach is sensible. If you think about when the Johnson Government were consulting on the measures that would go on to form this Bill, that was a time when ChatGPT had not been invented and the geopolitical environment was very different.”
“Chris made the point that when you are being asked to report, you are at your most desperate, because you have just found out that you have been attacked and you do not know what is going to happen. A lot of legislation accidentally ignores the victim. When we set up the NCSC, one of the primary things was that we were there to support the victims. I urge you not to lose sight of that. Absolutely, go after and find the culprits later, but in the moment, the victims are absolutely key to this. The second part of that, about a single reporting timeline and a single reporting route, is that it is not just good for the victims but the only way that we generate strategic intelligence. That is one of the things that is missing in the UK—and has been for decades.”
“Other nations are already benefiting from this type of safeguard, including our oldest ally, Portugal, which has implemented them in its recent amendments to NIS2, which is the exact legislative equivalent of the process we are in today. In summary, please help us to defend the UK by protecting our defenders. Dr Ian Levy: To follow up on what Chris says, we strongly agree on early consultation on the technical detail of the secondary legislation. Somebody said in the previous session that, in security, the devil is always in the detail. Well-meaning text can be massively misinterpreted. We need to be very careful about that, so wide, early consultation is key. On incident reporting, I will make two points.”
“We cannot carry out basic identification and verification actions without potentially committing the offence of unauthorised access to computer material, because a ransomware gang, for example, is unlikely to give us authorisation to identify the command and control system they are using to attack the UK. We support the CyberUp campaign, which is proposing an amendment to the Computer Misuse Act to provide a statutory defence, resting on four strong safeguarding principles. We believe that that would help to protect our defenders while maintaining the integrity of the law. Based on the campaign’s research into the size of the cyber-security industry in the UK, the amendment would not only help to prevent incidents and mitigate incidents in progress, but add 9,500 highly skilled jobs and over £2.5 billion in revenue to the UK economy.”
“The reporting obligations trigger at a time of great complexity for an organisation, so we are calling for a single point of contact for reporting all cyber-security incidents in the UK and a single timeline. That may sound like a big ask—an impossible dream. Australia has already done it, and the EU is in the process of doing it in its digital omnibus streamlining package. Finally, in terms of cyber professionals, the passage of a cyber-security Bill through Parliament is a golden opportunity to address the serious problems with the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Cyber professionals who are defending the UK cannot currently do so without risking criminal prosecution.”
“Chris Anley: By our calculation, as you say, the number of organisations that fall under the scope of the Bill in terms of the Government’s impact assessment is 0.1% of the private sector, which is one one-hundredth of the tip of the iceberg. We are going to have to adopt a whole-of-economy approach if we are going to secure the UK—we have already talked about the public sector issues. On the Bill itself, we have three main comments. First, the secondary legislation forms the bulk of the technical measures, so we are calling for early consultation on that. Secondly, the Bill imposes additional reporting obligations, adding to an already complicated situation for reporting cyber-incidents in the UK.”
“Q One of the themes already emerging in the conversation and in the wider public debate is that, on one line of thought, the right framework is that the law should focus on outcomes, principles and responsibilities, and then delegate specificity to both agile definition over time and specific expertise in sectors. An alternative view says that in looseness there is uncertainty, and we in Parliament should prescribe activity and impact thresholds and what companies should be doing. I am interested in areas across the board where you think prescription is a helpful way to go, as well as in your general experience of the core way and framework through which we have regulated a number of these activities, which is to rely on the agility and expertise in particular sectors, rather than the prescription of activity in primary legislation.”
“By working with some of the top student talent in the country, we can scale to offer our member organisations across the country the latest advice and guidance, help them understand what the NCSC advice and guidance is, and then help them to get the right level of security policies, patch their systems and all that kind of thing. It helps them to take the first steps on their cyber-resilience journey, and hopefully be more mature consumers of cyber-security industry services going forward. We are helping to create a market for growth, but also helping those organisations to understand their specific vulnerabilities and improve from a very base level.”
“There have been instances where officers have literally got in cars and gone on a blue light to organisations to say, “You need to shut some stuff off now, because you are about to lose control of your whole organisation.” To that extent, it has been really impactful, but the challenge for us is how to scale. How do you scale so that people understand that it is there? How do you make it easier for organisations to install? That is one of the things that we are working on at the moment, so that everybody can benefit from the scans and the threat reporting, and we can benefit from a bigger understanding of what is going on. The flip side of the SME offer from our point of view is our cyber-resilience centres.”
“So they are getting a report from the police that tells them what they need to fix and what they need to patch. We do not publicly offer a lifetime monitoring service, because we would not want the liability and responsibility, and we do not have the infrastructure to run that scale of security operation centre. But, in effect, that is actually what we have been doing for a long time—maybe not 24/7, but most of the time—because we have been able to identify precursor activity to ransomware attacks on schools or other organisations, and have been able to step in and prevent it from happening.”
“Big organisations that provide cyber-security services and monitoring know what is impacting their clients or their organisation, but not everybody else. At policing, we get what is reported, which is a tiny piece of the puzzle. So everyone has a different bit of the jigsaw, and none of it fits together, and, even if it did, there would still be gaps. For SMEs, that is a particular gap. For us, we get the threat intelligence to drive our operational activity, which has been quite successful for us. The benefit for member organisations—we are up to about 12,000 organisations at the moment, which are mostly schools, because we know that they are the most vulnerable to attack for a variety of reasons—is that, having the free tool available, it can do the monthly vulnerability scans and assessments.”
“I think we struggle to bring that into one single narrative and promote it, which is a real challenge. People just do not know that those services are there. For those who are not familiar with Police CyberAlarm, it is a Home Office-funded policing tool focused on small and medium-sized organisations that probably do not have the skills or understanding to protect themselves as effectively. They can download that piece of software, and it will sit on their external networks and monitor for attacks. For the first time, it helps us in policing to build a domestic threat picture for small and medium-sized organisations, because everybody has a different piece of the puzzle. GCHQ has great insight into what is coming into the UK infrastructure, but it obviously cannot monitor domestically.”
“Q One of the things that we have heard over the course of the day is that the Bill is just one of a range of different ways in which public authorities engage with companies on cyber-security and resilience. I am interested in hearing about the impact the Police CyberAlarm programme has had on the cyber-security and resilience of organisations. What would you like to see going forward? DCS Andrew Gould: I love the fact that you have heard of it. One of the things that we struggle with is promoting a lot of these initiatives. Successive Governments actually deserve a lot of credit for the range of services that are provided. We aspire to be a global cyber-power, and in many ways we are. When you look at the range of services, tools, advice and guidance that organisations or the public can get, there is quite a positive story to tell there.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison. First and foremost, I thank the hon. Member for Bridgwater (Sir Ashley Fox) for securing today’s debate on the impact of the time taken to install gigabit-capable broadband in rural communities, and for once again drawing to the attention of the House the importance of delivering fast and reliable digital connectivity to them. I also thank all other hon. Members across the House who have persistently championed the cause of improving rural broadband, and not least for their gift of anticipation when it comes to the speech of the hon. Member for Bridgwater.”
“As at the end of September 2025, over 1.3 million premises in rural and hard-to-reach communities across the UK had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through Government-funded programmes. In addition, over 1 million premises are now included in signed Project Gigabit contracts worth £2.4 billion in total.”
“The Government recognise that delays in broadband delivery can be particularly frustrating for rural residents, who often have fewer alternatives than urban residents, and for whom a slow or unreliable internet connection can have a deep impact on their quality of life and economic opportunities. Our mission is to ensure that 99% of premises can access a gigabit-capable connection by 2032. According to the latest figures from the independent website thinkbroadband.com, over 89% of UK premises already have access to a gigabit-capable connection. Through Project Gigabit, we are targeting precisely the communities that have been highlighted in today’s debate. Commercial roll-out would not otherwise take place for these communities, and public investment is therefore essential.”
“I thank the hon. Member for making that point, and I am very happy to engage with him both individually and with my colleague, the Minister for Digital Economy, on the particular experience of his constituents. The contributions we have heard today from across the House again highlight just how essential connectivity has become to daily life. We have heard about its centrality to work, education and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) said, to healthcare, online banking, farming, running a business or simply staying connected with friends and family.”
“Our draft statement set out our position on infrastructure sharing, which has become one of the sector’s most important enablers of competition. In particular, Ofcom’s physical infrastructure access product has allowed over 100 alternative networks to roll out fibre using Openreach’s ducts and poles, lowering barriers to entry and helping to accelerate competition. We have asked Ofcom to provide greater transparency on how PIA pricing is calculated and set, because transparency is the underpinning driver of confidence for investors. We are reviewing responses to the consultation on our draft statement of strategic priorities, and we will set out the Government’s conclusions in due course. I of course note the hon. Member’s comments, and we are all hoping for pace as well as rigour in the response to the consultation.”
“In July last year, we published a consultation on our draft statement of strategic priorities to Ofcom, setting out the Government’s view on the importance of promoting competition and maintaining a stable regulatory environment that gives investors confidence. A predictable and proportionate regulatory framework is essential for suppliers to continue investing billions in our fibre networks. Ensuring that regulation is not lifted prematurely is central to protecting our consumers, which is why competition must be properly established before we can relax regulatory safeguards. That is the approach needed to deliver long-term benefits. I know there has been a question about where the Government are in this process.”
“Commercial delivery has been and will remain the backbone of the UK’s digital transformation. The majority of gigabit-capable connections have been delivered entirely through private investment. The Government’s role is to create the right environment for such investment to continue at pace. That is why we continue to work in close partnership with both industry and Ofcom to support the roll-out of fibre networks across the UK, including in the most rural and hard-to-reach areas. Our approach is designed to complement commercial build, not to replace it, ensuring that public funding is targeted only where the market cannot deliver on its own.”
“Approximately 3,100 premises in the hon. Gentleman’s Bridgwater constituency are currently included in the Project Gigabit contract delivered by Openreach, and my hope is that this intervention will deliver gigabit-capable connections to homes and businesses across the constituency, such as those in Nether Stowey, North Petherton and Westonzoyland. Although 3,400 premises in Bridgwater were descoped from the previous superfast broadband contracts, almost half of those premises have since been connected through a supplier’s commercial roll-out, without the need for public subsidy. The remainder are included within the scope of the current contract change discussions we are undertaking with Openreach. A healthy, competitive broadband market is fundamental to achieving our national gigabit ambition.”
“Members that we are closely engaging with Connecting Devon and Somerset, and with suppliers, to establish a clear path forward. Following the announcement in 2025, descoped premises, particularly in the constituency of the hon. Member for Bridgwater, were made available for suppliers to bring forward proposals under the gigabit broadband voucher scheme. Several suppliers expressed interest, and I am pleased to say that approximately 3,000 premises are now included in approved voucher projects. Around 8,500 descoped premises remain without confirmed commercial or subsidised plans. However, these premises are now being considered for inclusion in the Project Gigabit contract with Openreach. We expect to finalise the amended scope of that contract in the spring. The hon. Member feels that work is urgent, and I do, too.”
“Between April 2024 and March 2025, 89% of the premises benefiting from our interventions in this sector were in rural areas, including proud farming communities. We remain absolutely committed to ensuring that these communities receive the gigabit-capable connectivity they need and deeply deserve. I also recognise, with honesty, that there have been delays to subsidised roll-out across Devon and Somerset in particular, as a result of premises being descoped from contracts under the earlier superfast broadband programme, including in the constituency of the hon. Member for Bridgwater. When suppliers encounter financial, operational or technical challenges, I know that rural communities feel the impact the most, and as a proud representative of rural communities in south Wales, I feel it, too. I want to reassure hon.”
“I know my hon. Friend is a deeply committed champion for his constituency, so I would be very happy to meet him—both on my own and with my colleague, the Minister for Digital Economy—to look at the issues in his constituency. We are making good progress on delivering these contracts. We have already celebrated the completion of the first three Project Gigabit contracts in Northumberland, Teesdale and north Dorset, which marks an important milestone in our programme. These early completions show that the programme is working, and rural communities are beginning to see the benefits of this investment. The majority of premises receiving Government funding for broadband upgrades continue to be rural.”
“Let me be clear that, although challenges remain, the Government are acting. We are committed to working at pace with suppliers, local authorities, communities and devolved Governments to ensure that progress continues. Rural communities must not and will not be left behind as we work towards our goal of 99% gigabit coverage. Given that the hon. Member for Bridgwater brought up wider support for rural communities, I put on record that this Government are squarely on the side of rural communities across the UK, which were abandoned by the previous Government on trade negotiations and farming funding and were not given appropriate representation. Question put and agreed to.”
“With increasing 5G coverage from mobile network operators, fixed wireless access is becoming an increasingly viable connectivity option. Ofcom estimates that fixed wireless access delivered over mobile networks is already available to 96% of UK premises, with wireless internet service providers offering fixed wireless access to around 8% of premises. I thank the hon. Member for Bridgwater for securing this important debate, and I thank all Members who have contributed. In response to the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth), I want to flag that, since Building Digital UK and Freedom Fibre mutually agreed to terminate the Project Gigabit contract for Cheshire, we have launched a new procurement for Cheshire. We expect it to be in place by the spring, and we will be sure to let her know of its progress.”
“Even with the scale of commercial investment and the ambition of Project Gigabit, the expectation is that some remote premises will remain too expensive to reach with gigabit-capable fibre in the immediate term. We are therefore continuing to consider what more we can do to enable high-quality alternatives for those in the “very hard to reach” category. The satellite market is developing at pace. We expect to see more competition in that market imminently, with rapidly improving terminal equipment, higher speeds and falling costs for end users. We continue to monitor and support the development of that market, recognising its role in connecting the most remote communities. I am conscious of the points made on mobile connectivity, not least those made by the hon. Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers).”
“Openreach has not made that representation to me. The Government are squarely focused on reaching the 99% target, and we are doing all we can to make sure that all providers are in a place to do so. I am happy to engage with Openreach if it wants to make a representation to me. To ensure that the commercial market can continue to deliver as fast as possible, the Government remain committed to removing deployment barriers. Whether that is done by reforming wayleave processes, improving access to land and multi-dwelling units, enhancing the co-ordination of street works or accelerating planning decisions, every barrier we remove helps the industry to build networks faster and more efficiently.”
“It would, of course, be remiss of me not to end on a note of acceptance of his kind invitation. I will be very happy, either directly or through my hon. Friend in the other place, to visit him and to support his hard work for the people of Telford.”
“We want to understand better the factors impacting investment in widespread high-quality mobile connectivity and what more the Government can do to support it over the long term. We will soon be publishing a call for evidence to support our assessment and we encourage all relevant parties to engage with this process. I also encourage all Members of the House to be champions of digital infrastructure deployment. It is only through working in our constituencies, with constituents and with the local planning authority, that we can together champion digital connectivity. Finally, I would like to repeat my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Telford for securing this debate on such an important topic, and to all Members who have intervened and contributed to the debate today.”
“To help operators achieve their ambitious roll-out plans, we continue to work closely with them to identify and remove barriers to deployment where it is practical to do so. That includes implementing the remaining provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 and launching a call for evidence to see where planning rules can be relaxed to support the deployment of mobile infrastructure. Alongside that work at national level, we have also provided funding to both the west midlands and Shropshire as part of our 5G Innovation Regions programme to increase the uptake of 5G services and to drive investment in networks. I know that we need to do more to ensure investment in high-quality mobile connectivity. That is why we are undertaking a full mobile market review.”
“I am happy to work with him and colleagues from both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency so that the matters that he has raised can be investigated by the correct authorities. As I know my hon. Friend will be aware, satellite services can provide another new means of connecting residents in otherwise hard-to-reach areas. I am pleased that the rapid advance of low Earth orbit technology for satellites means that the performance of services is also increasing through that measure. As well as satellite services offering home broadband that are already on the market, Vodafone and O2 have both announced that direct-to-mobile device services will launch and be available to consumers this year.”
“I am conscious that that, in particular, includes my hon. Friend’s constituency in Telford. I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns about flooding in his local area. I know he has brought that up with the Department. There are potential safety risks arising when flooding is combined with a lack of mobile signal, and I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue. Clearly, it is right to raise the risk to public safety so that it can be looked into and addressed accordingly. In relation to mobile signal, I hope that some of the information provided starts to give him some reassurance on what is available in the local area and what is planned for the future.”
“It is an experience familiar to me, both from my constituency and more widely, and Government recognise that there are discrepancies in cases between the lived experience of people and the level of coverage that Ofcom reports. The launch of our Map Your Mobile tool in June last year was a positive step forward, but the work of our Government does not stop there. We have restated in our proposed statement of strategic priorities for Ofcom the importance of continuing to improve the reporting of mobile coverage, for example, by building on the launch of the tool through the exploration of measured and crowdsourced data. Alongside that, I also point out that the Streetwave coverage checker is a tool available on the River Severn Partnership website which has also been funded by Government and the 5G Innovation Regions project.”
“I recognise that in our modern economy and way of life, services need to be reliable for everyone in all parts of the country. Communications providers have legal obligations to ensure that their services are appropriately resilient, as overseen by Ofcom, and I recommend that if customers are having continuing difficulties, as my hon. Friend has mentioned, they can contact their provider and, in the instance of serious and repeated failures, also report to Ofcom. At this point, may I raise the particular issue that my hon. Friend has highlighted about the discrepancy between people’s lived experience and the reported data?”
“VodafoneThree has confirmed that stand-alone 5G coverage will increase in the Telford constituency to 100% by its first reporting milestone in 2028, in line with its merger commitments. Virgin Media O2 has made strides to improve mobile coverage across the west midlands, including boosting 4G and 5G capacity across Coventry and deploying stand-alone 5G small cells in Birmingham city centre in 2024. That feedback from operators starts to show the significant progress being made in rolling out stand-alone 5G across Telford and the west midlands region. I encourage all Members to contact the operators if they too would like to understand plans for their constituency. I am deeply sorry to hear of the difficulties that my hon. Friend reports about the reliability of services in the region.”
“VodafoneThree has committed £11 billion as a result of the merger, BT has an ambition to deliver stand-alone 5G to 99% of the UK population by the end of financial year 2030, and Virgin Media O2, as part of its mobile transformation plan, committed £700 million of further investment in its mobile network nationwide. In preparation for this debate, officials have engaged with the operators to understand their specific coverage improvement plans in my hon. Friend’s constituency and across the west midlands. BT has confirmed that, in line with its announcement of October of last year, 99% of residents across the Telford constituency can now access stand-alone 5G. I will come to points of dissatisfaction between that claim and the wider experience of people in Telford imminently.”
“I am also conscious that the picture has slightly updated in recent months, and I will take the opportunity to shine some light on that. The published coverage stats were last collected in July last year, and there has been some improvement in the picture since then. We expect that the figure will further increase significantly in the next report published by Ofcom as reporting catches up with network roll-out. Mobile network operators are investing significantly to improve coverage and I know that progress continues at pace. I have been assured that that is leading to coverage improvements in many areas, including Telford. The operators’ significant investment plans are public.”
“Access to high-quality, reliable and secure mobile connectivity is critical for people to participate effectively in the modern digital economy. It is essential for day-to-day life in many cases. Whether it is to run a business online, to access essential public services, to manage finances online, to contact GP surgeries or to stay in touch with loved ones, we all need reliable mobile connectivity. The Government have an ambition for all populated areas to have access to higher-quality stand-alone 5G by 2030. That of course includes Telford and areas right across the west midlands. It is true that Ofcom currently reports that stand-alone 5G is available outside of only 1% of premises across my hon. Friend’s constituency. That is clearly unacceptable.”
“First and foremost, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Telford (Shaun Davies) for securing this Adjournment debate. Throughout his entire tenure as the local MP, he has been a relentless champion for the people of Telford on the question of 5G and mobile coverage. He has listened closely to those he represents in person and through surveys. He has represented their voices in the media and to my hon. Friend the Minister for the Digital Economy in the other place, and he has done that again in this debate with both an impressive speech and a deep understanding of Telford. Mobile coverage is an extremely important topic, which is reflected in the amount of interest shown across from the House in any parliamentary activity on the subject.”