Edward Mountain’s question is founded on the false premise that there has been no progress whatsoever in the situation.
Highland Council, which is close to Mr Mountain’s heart, has seen progress between January 2014, when 20.3 per cent of premises could have had superfast access, and June of this year, when the figure is 80.5 per cent. That is an increase of 60 percentage points, reflecting a far faster rate of increase than there has been across the United Kingdom as a whole.
As Mr Mountain knows, broadband provision, like all telecoms issues, is a reserved matter. The Scottish Government is intervening to address market failure, and the R100 programme will deliver, although we have clearly been delayed by the current legal proceedings, which we cannot fast track—we will have to wait for their outcome.
I assure Mr Mountain and everyone whom he represents in the Highlands and Islands that they will be eligible for the voucher funding that will be available from this summer onwards. Through the online checker that we are developing to provide information at a premises level, his constituents should be able to tell whether they are eligible for R100 and when it will deliver to their premises. If that is likely to be beyond the end of 2021, they will be able to use the voucher funding to deliver a solution.