Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Official Report 430KB pdf

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Broadband Infrastructure Inquiry

For item 7, the committee is invited to consider a letter from the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee on its inquiry into Scotland’s broadband infrastructure. I refer members to the paper and invite comment.

Aileen McLeod and I attended a lunchtime briefing of the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee two or three weeks ago and learned a bit. A lot of statistics and figures were flying around, one of the most interesting of which was that, in age bands, the take-up of—oh, I cannot remember what it was. I meant to bring my notes today, but I did not. There were a lot of interesting statistics. Given the discussions that we had earlier this morning, we should keep a tab on what that committee is doing if we can, although I know that members are busy. We should probably have a reporter on that committee, but I am not volunteering to be it.

We might wish to volunteer you.

Do that committee’s meetings clash with ours?

Indeed, they do. It is having discussions about these things today at which we are not able to be present, and the context of the letter is not helpful to us. That is why we need to think seriously about appointing a reporter for its inquiry, as Alex Fergusson suggests. We need to be kept up to date with that. Does any member want to be our reporter? The question is whether we can get somebody to go along to those meetings at the same time as we are having our meetings. We need to find a way of doing that, and it would be best if members took the lead. However, if nobody wants to volunteer, I suggest that we ask the other committee to give us a weekly briefing on its proposals, if need be. We may also ask it to include some items that come to our attention once we know what its proposals are, making it plain to the committee that we want to have a part in the framing of its activities.

We could appoint a reporter who would not be expected to attend the meetings but who could receive all the papers that relate to this issue. They could then report back to us at our meetings. That would be one way of tackling it. It is unfortunate that both committees meet at exactly the same time.

And I think that we need to know about it. Is anyone willing to take on that duty?

I do not mind receiving the papers—I am happy to do that.

That is excellent. Elaine Murray can read, at least, although she cannot speak at the moment. It will be helpful to have somebody to perform that function. Are we agreed to write to the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee in those terms?

Members indicated agreement.

We agreed earlier to move into private, so I now close the public gallery to the people who are still in attendance. The next meeting of the committee will be held on 26 October.

11:44 Meeting continued in private until 12:03.