By means of commercial and subsidised delivery, the Government are ensuring that gigabit-capable connections are available to 99% of UK premises by 2032 through, for instance, Project Gigabit. This is critical for all UK communities if the public are to take advantage of the opportunities of technology, including the transformational investment in AI that the Chancellor announced yesterday, and if the United Kingdom is to win the global race for AI and be at the forefront of quantum computing as a result of the Government’s pledge to procure those connections. If everyone in every community across the UK is to win, they need to be connected, including those in Hexham.
Yesterday I spoke to my constituent Luca, who has spent months campaigning for the investment that is needed to secure a reliable internet and phone connection for his community in the village of Lambley. He has been pushed from pillar to post between private companies, national agencies and local government, and meanwhile the residents of Lambley continue to live without effective internet connection. The solutions depend on funding and co-operation, which are challenging owing to the location and the lack of accountability. Will the Minister meet representatives of Coanwood parish council, Luca and me to try to find a way forward for Lambley and other rural communities?
I am happy for that to be arranged with Luca, the parish council and my hon. Friend, along with officials from Building Digital UK, so that we can explore the solutions that are possible for his constituents. The Minister for Digital Economy, who sits in the other place, will be holding a surgery for Members of this House on 14 April, and I think my hon. Friend should go along and discuss these issues with her as well.
I could reel off countless examples of villages in my constituency where hard-to-reach areas simply have no broadband at all, let alone fibre broadband. Constituents and businesses are tearing their hair out. At what point will the Government possibly accept that if the millions—if not billions—of pounds are to reach those hard-to-reach places, it would probably be better to help those people to get, for instance, satellite broadband instead, so that they can have access to the internet now rather than having to wait for years?
I am happy for the hon. Gentleman also to meet representatives of BDUK and the Minister for Digital Economy. He is absolutely right; while there will continue to be gaps for the very hardest-to-reach places, there are solutions out there, like wireless solutions, fixed-wireless access and, indeed, satellite broadband, which BDUK is examining now.
Starlink is a US telecoms company owned by a South African American who advocates civil war in the United Kingdom. OneWeb is a European satellite telecoms company, which is part-owned by the UK. Yesterday the Science Minister told my Committee that OneWeb could be used to ensure domestic communications resilience in remote areas. Can the Minister tell me whether our critical rural broadband infrastructure is more dependent on Starlink or on OneWeb?
We are a shareholder in Eutelsat, of which OneWeb is a part, and we will be examining all these issues. We have asked for Eutelsat to come forward with proposals to ensure that we have that resilience here in the UK, and we want to make more use of that shareholding.
The roll-out of Project Gigabit in my constituency has been a failure because Freedom Fibre has handed back the contract, with many thousands of properties unconnected, and the replacement contract is likely to take many more years to deliver gigabit access to thousands of my constituents. The all-party parliamentary group on digital communities, which I chair, has suggested some solutions to the problem. Will the Minister come to one of our meetings, and meet us, in order to understand how critical this is for rural communities?
I am happy to ensure that the Minister in the other place who deals with this particular issue meets the APPG. However, Project Gigabit is designed to adapt in the event of a contracted supplier no longer being able to complete its planned delivery, using a mix of contracts and interventions. We are keen to hear from the hon. Lady about the experiences of her constituents.
One of the defining impacts of this Government is the action that we are taking to tackle violence against women and girls, and that means making illegal online that which is illegal offline. Intimate image abuse is now a priority offence; cyber-flashing is a priority offence; nudification apps are being banned, and we are standing up to Grok, and as a result the spread of intimate deepfakes has stopped; and non-consensual intimate images are now taken down within 48 hours. We will of course continue to engage with the BBFC and a range of other organisations in fulfilling our demands for parity.
Like many colleagues in this House and the other place, I am deeply concerned about the current unacceptable regulatory gap between online and offline pornography, and the public share that concern. The findings of recent research conducted by the BBFC indicate that 64% of pornography users believe that violent pornography contributes to violent sexual behaviour in the real world, and 80% would support new regulation. Does the Minister recognise the clear public demand for online-offline parity, and will he commit himself to introducing legislation to ensure that content that it would be illegal to supply on our high streets is no longer permitted online?
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s engagement in her constituency and on this debate nationally. She has been a strong champion for the voices of victims, particularly in relation to this question. I entirely agree with her demands for parity, and that is exactly the commitment we have made as a Government. We have set up a cross-Government unit to make sure that we deliver on that plan within six months.
Some 50% of boys aged 11 to 13 have already viewed online pornography. Clearly, frequent exposure to violent sexual content is damaging young people’s minds and their understanding of relationships. Does the Minister agree that, alongside engagement with platforms, the criminal law must be modernised to ban online extreme pornography?
I thank the hon. Member for that incredibly important point. That is exactly why we have already made a series of legal changes, not least to ensure that cyber-flashing and intimate image abuse are priority offences under the Online Safety Act 2023. We have mandated highly effective age assurance on pornography sites and sites with content that is harmful to children. We want to go further still where there is clear evidence to do so, and we will do that through the national consultation that we have launched.