Committee to hold one-off evidence session into Broadband Delivery UK

The Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt announced in July 2010 the Government’s aim of having the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015. As virtually all of the UK is now connected to a broadband enabled exchange, the speed of the service received is now potentially the key decisive factor in promoting economic growth as this determines the kind of applications and services that can be accessed online.

Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is a unit based within DCMS set up to deliver the Government’s broadband strategy to provide superfast broadband to 90% of the UK and a minimum of 2Mbps to the whole of the UK.  BDUK’s main role is to allocate and distribute £530 million of funding to bring superfast broadband to the third of UK homes and businesses which would not otherwise be served by the broadband market alone.

This evidence session provides the Committee with an opportunity to discuss the Government’s targets for broadband delivery, how the project is being funded and the procurement processes being used for the provision of individual broadband projects.

Witnesses:

At 10.30 pm

• Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
• Simon Towler, Deputy Director, Department for Culture, Media and Sport
• Robert Sullivan, Chief Executive, Broadband Delivery UK

Further information

• About Parliament: Select Committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees