We asked the Department about concerns among some of our constituents who are feeling increasingly left behind as a result of private sector roll-out to the more commercially viable parts of constituencies. We asked it why its planning was slipping even further despite the procurement process having been made easier for it by commercial operators accelerating their build plans very rapidly and Government’s level of ambition with regard to gigabit promoting market activity. The Department told us that people in areas where commercial operators are not going to build would not necessarily be left behind and that they would be eligible to look to use broadband vouchers.39 The voucher scheme is available for homes and businesses which the Department defines as uncommercial, and is designed to allow pockets of community coverage to be provided by commercial operators at pace for people experiencing slow broadband speeds.40 Promotion and administration of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is led by commercial operators.41 These commercial operators include large firms like BT Openreach and Virgin Media O2, and smaller providers, known as alternative networks or “alt-nets,” including County Broadband and CityFibre.42 32 Committee of Public Accounts Oral evidence: Improving Broadband, HC 688, 9 November 2020, Q 121 33 DCMS, Project Gigabit Delivery Plan Summer Update, August 2021, p. 10 34 DCMS, Project Gigabit Delivery Plan Autumn Update, October 2021, p. 12 35 Q15–16 36 DRB0013 DCMS recall (Broadband), Talk Talk, November 4, p.3 and DRB00014 – DCMS recall (Broadband), Gigaclear, 9 November, p. 2 37 Q 6, 12 38 Q 10 39 Q 6–7 40 Qq 27, 59, 60 41 For Suppliers – Gigabit Vouchers (culture.gov.uk) 42 Q 12, 16 and 17 Delivering gigabit-capable broadband 13 2 Addressing the barriers to roll-out Delivering legislative change