Govt sets up taskforce for digital economy

A new taskforce has been set up by the Government to speed up the roll-out of improved broadband and mobile phone services across the UK.

The new Digital Infrastructure Implementation Taskforce will be chaired by Culture and Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey and is one of a number of bodies set up by the new Government to keep tabs on what it calls its “most important cross-cutting priorities”.

In the digital economy, this means monitoring how well Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is doing towards its original target of connecting 95 per cent of the UK to superfast broadband by 2018.

It will also monitor how mobile networks are performing after they pledged to spend £5 billion on ensuring 90 per cent of the UK has reliable mobile coverage for voice and text messages. The four networks committed to the spending at the end of last year to make sure that gaps in coverage are plugged within the next two years.

The Taskforce will be required to update Prime Minister David Cameron and the Cabinet on progress at regular intervals. Other members of the group include Brandon Lewis, the Minister for Communities and Local Government, and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Liz Truss.

It will meet regularly to monitor progress and aims to spot issues in delivering services before they become problems, come up with workable solutions and ensure that policy pledges are met.

The Government has recently put the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in sole charge of its Digital Economy Unit, which was previously also part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Mr Vaizey will act as a ‘joint minister’ reporting to both departments.

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