To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) for his assessment of the impact of the 2017 Electronic Communications Code reforms on (a) farmers and landowners who lease their land to communications operators; and (b) the speed at which rural telecommunications improvements have been, and will be, made; and (ii) to detail any steps he is taking to address this issue.

I would answer your questions as follows:

Telecoms is a reserved matter and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) are leading on changes to the Electronic Communications Code (ECC).

The legislative responsibility for Northern Ireland input to the ECC sits outside my Department’s remit. To date, Northern Ireland’s interests in the ECC have been represented by the Department of Finance, the Department of Justice and the Department for Infrastructure. The Department of Finance have been liaising with DCMS on behalf of Northern Ireland during the latest amendments to the ECC.

The main impact on farmers is through wayleaves, as you will be aware wayleaves are a commercial matter between the installer and the farmer, however I would hope that installers/suppliers would treat farmers fairly when negotiating wayleaves.

I am aware that the supplier is slightly ahead of targets with over 19,000 premises connected. Full coverage of ultrafast broadband through Project Stratum is due to complete in 2025.

(ii) My Department is part funding (£15m) Project Stratum with Department for Economy (£150m) and has recently announced a further joint investment of £9.9m with DCMS also contributing £22.2m bringing the total investment just over £192m.