Chamber and committees

Despite all regulatory and legislative responsibility for telecommunications resting solely with the UK Government, the Scottish Government has taken decisive action to greatly improve digital connectivity in Scotland. The £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has delivered transformative results across all parts of the country, including Dumfriesshire, where more than 31,000 properties in the constituency are now able to access fibre broadband as a direct result of the DSSB roll-out – with more than 27,500 able to do so at speeds of at least 24 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Of course, I recognise the ever-increasing importance of digital connectivity to all aspects of our lives – including education – and the COVID-19 pandemic has only served to reinforce that. Situations like this are why we made our commitment to ensure that 100% of properties in Scotland are able to access superfast broadband. This commitment will be delivered through three strands of activity – the main Reaching 100% (R100) contracts; a Scottish Government funded, nationwide superfast voucher scheme that will be demand-led; and continued expansion of commercial coverage. As you may be aware, the Scottish Government is funding £579 million or 96.5% of the £600 million R100 contracts with the UK Government contributing 3.5% of funding (£21 million), despite the latter having full responsibility for oversight of the UK telecommunications market.

With regards to the R100 contracts for the South and Central regions, surveys are being undertaken and we know that BT’s intention is to look to accelerate build wherever possible, with our expectation that work will begin in the South lot area this month. Of course in the South of Scotland, specifically, 100% of the build by BT, under our £134 million South Lot contract with them for R100, will be for a full fibre solution, with speeds of up to one gigabit per second. This is the current ‘gold standard’ and a tremendous outcome for almost all of the approximately 26,000 premises in the Lot area that have yet to receive a superfast broadband service.

We will launch an online checker this summer that will allow owners and tenants to determine if and when the R100 contracts will deliver a superfast broadband connection to their property.

Anyone who will be unable to access a superfast broadband service before the end of 2021 will be eligible for our new nationwide voucher scheme that will provide grants to customers in business and domestic premises; offering support to access a range of technologies and suppliers to deliver superfast broadband speed services. We are working through the details of the scheme, and I will update Parliament in due course.