• 570,000 more rural premises in line for best broadband available via £5 billion Project Gigabit
• Includes Cheshire, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Essex, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, East Riding and North Yorkshire
• Follows £8 million broadband boost for 3,600 rural homes and businesses in northern Scotland announced at Budget

More than half a million more rural homes and businesses will be given access to better broadband as part of plans to level up the country with improved internet connectivity, Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced.

An estimated 567,000 hard-to-reach premises across Cheshire, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Essex, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, East Riding and North Yorkshire are in line to benefit from the government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit, which is bringing next generation gigabit-capable broadband across the UK.

Project Gigabit is the biggest broadband rollout in UK history and part of the Prime Minister’s plan to level up communities with the future-proofed connectivity they will need for the next forty years.

Most of the gigabit-capable connections will be delivered through full fibre broadband cables. This provides the speed and reliability needed for several people to work from home, stream ultra high definition video content and play next-generation online games all at the same time.

The increase in speed will help accelerate the country’s recovery from Covid-19, fire up high-growth sectors such as tech and the creative industries, and enable people to start and run businesses online from anywhere in the UK.

In Scotland 3,600 premises in Aberdeenshire, Angus, the Highlands, Moray and Perth & Kinross will get access to much faster gigabit speeds thanks to an £8 million cash injection announced by the Chancellor in Wednesday’s Budget. Many more premises across Scotland will be announced in the months ahead.

The government has already announced a raft of measures to bring better broadband to Wales and Northern Ireland. In Wales up to 234,000 hard-to-reach premises have been revealed as in-scope for an upgrade through Project Gigabit, and in Northern Ireland the UK Government has invested £150 million through Project Stratum to level up areas with slow speeds.

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

The latest stage of our £5 billion Project Gigabit plan will help hard-to-reach homes and businesses out of the broadband slow lane and plug them into the fastest and most reliable connections available.

This investment is levelling up in action – building new internet connections in our rural communities so people > have the speed, reliability and freedom to live and work flexibly, and take advantage of new technologies. The hundreds of thousands of properties across ten English and six Scottish counties are not currently due for a gigabit upgrade from broadband companies or other public schemes. So the government is subsidising the roll out of new internet infrastructure capable of blistering download speeds of 1,000 megabits per second.

The specific locations to benefit in the areas announced today will be named when the contracts to deliver the connections are out to tender.

The Scottish premises were due to get access to superfast broadband through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme, a Scottish Government initiative which aims to deliver connections capable of 30 megabits per second to every home and business in Scotland. But thanks to £8 million of funding from Project Gigabit, agreed between the UK and Scottish governments, these homes and businesses will now get even faster gigabit-capable broadband instead.

The projects will help the government deliver its target for at least 85 per cent of the UK to have access to a gigabit-capable connection by 2025. The UK has already hit 57 per cent gigabit coverage, up from less than six per cent in 2019.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Today the government has published the Project Gigabit quarterly update Autumn 2021, providing the estimated sequencing, scope and dates for the English Phase 3 rural projects:

Regional areas to benefit from Project Gigabit Phase 3

Today marks the latest in a series of announcements this year outlining the details of Project Gigabit:

• In March the government announced plans to connect the first phase of areas, with work set to begin in Dorset, Northumberland and Teeside from June next year. Other areas in Phase 1 include Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Durham, Essex, South Tyneside and Tees Valley.
• In August more phases were announced which included Shropshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Worcestershire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight as among the first to benefit, followed by counties including Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Surrey, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

The English projects are due to go out to procurement for broadband companies in 2023, with work to build the connections set to commence early 2024.

Hosted by the British Office in Taipei in partnership with the Taiwan Climate Partnership, ‘Achieving Net Zero: The Crucial Role of Business’ took place virtually on 28 October to share the experiences of influential Taiwan businesses that have already committed to Net Zero, as well as providing practical support on steps Taiwanese companies could take to reduce emissions.

The event encouraged Taiwan business to make a visible commitment to addressing climate change by signing up to Net Zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. More than 150 companies joined the event to discuss the need for stronger action on climate change.

The event saw a mix of speakers from the UK and Taiwan sharing about the crucial role of business in taking concrete climate action.

The meeting included the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Taiwan Lord Faulkner and the President of the UK Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Lord Bilimoria, discussing the crucial role that UK business has played in addressing climate change in the UK.

Two UK based advisory firms, Carbon Trust and ERM, provided guidance on what a commitment to Net Zero would mean in practice, and what companies could do to reduce emissions.

The meeting also heard the views from influential businesses in Taiwan on the steps they are already taking, including Microsoft, Standard Chartered Bank, cosmetics brand Armose and Delta Electronics.

Lord Faulkner the Prime Ministers trade envoy to Taiwan said:

If we are to avoid the most serious consequences of climate change, we must global emissions by 2030, and reach net zero by 2050. This requires rapid action across the global economy, which means the business community must be at the heart of the solution. We need the innovation, the influence, and the drive of the private sector on our side. Companies that make these adjustments now will be best-placed to thrive as the global economy undergoes a transition to a net-zero future by 2050. It is encouraging to learn about the steps Taiwanese businesses are taking, I urge others to be ambitious enough to set targets and to plan their own green transition.

John Dennis, Representative of the British Office Taipei said:

This is an opportune moment to come together with Taiwan business community to support and encourage greater action on climate change. To help Taiwan deliver its commitment to net zero there will need to be coalition of business, government and civil society. With support and encouragement of the business community, I believe that Taiwan can adopt a full-scale program of ambitious carbon reduction whilst continuing its robust economic growth and technology leadership. I have been pleased to learn today about the steps some businesses are taking. However, we must all do more. Making a commitment to Net Zero is a step I would encourage all businesses in Taiwan to take.

In the UK, a third of our largest businesses have already pledged to eliminate the carbon emissions by 2050. These firms have a market capitalization of over six hundred fifty billion pounds. That’s a huge commitment. And of course, there are always room to go farther.

Climate change is a global challenge. Just as there is more that the business community in the UK can do, so it is the case in Taiwan. Cutting emissions is something that each and every business can do as we all seek to address climate change.

We look forward to learning about more climate cooperation between UK and Taiwan.

• Medical regulator to work with manufacturers to assess safety and effectiveness of products
• Move supports government ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030 and to reduce stark health disparities in smoking rates

E-cigarettes could be prescribed on the NHS in England to help people stop smoking tobacco products, as Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid welcomed the latest step forward in the licensing process for manufacturers.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is publishing updated guidance that paves the way for medicinally licensed e-cigarette products to be prescribed for tobacco smokers who wish to quit smoking.

Manufacturers can approach the MHRA to submit their products to go through the same regulatory approvals process as other medicines available on the health service.

This could mean England becomes the first country in the world to prescribe e-cigarettes licensed as a medical product.

If a product receives MHRA approval, clinicians could then decide on a case-by-case basis whether it would be appropriate to prescribe an e-cigarette to NHS patients to help them quit smoking. It remains the case that non-smokers and children are strongly advised against using e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes contain nicotine and are not risk free, but expert reviews from the UK and US have been clear that the regulated e-cigarettes are less harmful than smoking. A medicinally licensed e-cigarette would have to pass even more rigorous safety checks.

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature death and while rates are at record low levels in the UK, there are still around 6.1 million smokers in England. There are also stark differences in rates across the country, with smoking rates in Blackpool (23.4%) and Kingston upon Hull (22.2%) poles apart from rates in wealthier areas such as Richmond upon Thames (8%).

E-cigarettes were the most popular aid used by smokers trying to quit in England in 2020. E-cigarettes have been shown to be highly effective in supporting those trying to quit, with 27.2% of smokers using them compared with 18.2% using nicotine replacement therapy products such as patches and gum.

Some of the highest success rates of those trying to quit smoking are among people using an e-cigarette to kick their addiction alongside local Stop Smoking services, with up to 68 % successfully quitting in 2020 -2021.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid said:

This country continues to be a global leader on healthcare, whether it’s our COVID-19 vaccine rollout saving lives or our innovative public health measures reducing people’s risk of serious illness.

Opening the door to a licensed e-cigarette prescribed on the NHS has the potential to tackle the stark disparities in smoking rates across the country, helping people stop smoking wherever they live and whatever their background.

Almost 64,000 people died from smoking in England in 2019 and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) is supporting efforts to level up public health and ensure communities across the country have equal health outcomes.

Reducing health disparities – including in smoking rates – and keeping people in better health for longer is good for the individual, families, society, the economy and NHS. To achieve this overall ambition, the OHID will work collaboratively at national, regional and local levels as well as with the NHS, academia, the third sector, scientists, researchers and industry.

The government will soon publish a new Tobacco Control Plan which will set out the roadmap for achieving a smoke-free England by 2030.

Notes to editors:

• The NHS can only prescribe e-cigarettes when NICE recommends them for use
• Smoking death rates for 2019 in England can be found here.
• Data on products used to support smokers trying to quit can be found here.
• Success rates alongside local stop smoking services can be found here.
• The international study on e-cigarette safety and effectiveness can be found here