Mobile Broadband: Rural Areas

Question

This Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas. Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 more neighbourhood police by the end of the Parliament, whilst also ensuring each community, including rural communities, has a named, contactable officer to turn to. Rural communities can be assured that visible, neighbourhood policing is returning to our communities.

The Emergency Services Network (ESN) has been planned to provide coverage to the whole of the UK providing effective mobile services for all of the emergency services. EE’s Network is being upgraded to support the ESN radio infrastructure across the country. Supplementary to this the Home Office are managing and deploying an extra 292 sites filling in the coverage not spots within the most rural parts of Great Britain, ensuring these areas have coverage levels that support effective communications for the Emergency Services.

Additionally, the core Airwave network service, funded by the Home Office, provides vehicle levels of radio coverage across the entirety of Great Britain and this is well understood by all Police forces. Several forces have elected to enhance this coverage to provide hand-held contractual coverage depending on their own operational need and practices.

The delivery of ESN has estimated total economic benefits of £2.4 billion (present values) most of which are from ESN 999-calls. Additional identified benefits of connecting ESN 999-calls to police in England and all emergency services in Scotland and Wales, are currently being assessed and will add considerably to the programme’s future monetisable benefits. The strategic case around providing a prompt and high quality 999 service, the obsolescence risk of TETRA and other significant non-monetised benefits, further enhance the value for money assessment.