Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-02898

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to assist the 132,000 premises that were referred to at page 10 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update, which will not have broadband access, and how much it would cost to roll out such access to these premises,

Audit Scotland’s report estimates that 132,000 premises will not have access to fibre broadband following completion of the Digital Scotland programme. In the vast majority of cases, these premises will be able to access basic broadband (minimum of 2Mbps) or access funding, via the Better Broadband Scheme, to improve their service.

The Scottish Government has made a commitment to deliver 100 per cent superfast broadband access by 2021. All premises that do not have superfast access delivered commercially or via the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme will be eligible for inclusion in our programme for new public investment aimed at extending coverage.

There are no definitive cost estimates available at this time. This will be dependent on the exact number of premises remaining unserved and the nature of the technology deployed.

Question reference: S5W-02903

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it (a) has had and (b) plans with the UK Government regarding the impact of Brexit on the rollout of superfast broadband in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-02904

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many Community Broadband Projects (a) there are and (b) it plans, and how it will ensure that these are fully-funded.

The Scottish Government’s support for community broadband projects is delivered through Community Broadband Scotland (CBS). CBS currently has 14 projects underway and in build; and a further 49 projects either about to enter the procurement or consultation phase. CBS is working with these communities to refine their plans and, in some cases, to determine whether they still want to progress a community owned or managed project. If so, funding will be made available to help deliver that aspiration, where a sustainable business case exists.

Question reference: S5W-03018

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what minimum level of national broadband coverage by 31 December 2021 it considers will be acceptable, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S5W-02901

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government by what date 100% rollout of broadband will be achieved.

Question reference: S5W-02845

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will provide toward achieving the aim in the 2016-17 Programme for Government to "equip all our citizens with the skills they need to gain the full benefits of technology" and what the timescale for this is.

The Digital Participation Programme has been in place since 2012. The 2016 programme consists of a Digital Participation budget commitment of £1.9 million to raise the levels of digital participation. Public Library Improvement Funding of £450k has been provided to promote activity within libraries. Additionally, through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership, we have supported the delivery of the ICT and Digital Technologies Skills Investment Plan with funding of £8.5 million.

The overall impact of our investment so far is that of the four parts of the UK, Scotland has the highest level of basic digital skills. Since measurement began in 2007, the percentage of people in Scotland using the internet has steadily increased; 82% of citizens now have access to the social, cultural and economic benefits the internet can bring.

Extending Digital Participation is an on-going programme which is innovative and responsive to advances in technology. It offers choice to citizens, delivering options from basic digital skills through to employer recognised qualifications.

This approach ensures that in addition to being consumers, citizens have the opportunity to become digital makers. The programme therefore moves beyond ensuring basic digital skills to supporting extracurricular coding clubs, promoting the benefits of being on line and in some instances the provision of Wifi and supported learning in libraries and other community hubs to reduce the barriers to getting on line.

Question reference: S5W-02888

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many breaks in broadband service provision lasting (a) more than and (b) up to one hour there have been in each of the last 12 months in each Scottish Parliamentary (i) constituency and (ii) region, and what information it has regarding how many were due to (A) technical reasons and (B) over-subscription.

Question reference: S5W-02887

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with broadband providers in the last year regarding the speeds that they offer customers.

The Scottish Government has regular dialogue with broadband providers on a range of issues, including speeds. I most recently met with BT on 6 September 2016 at which broadband speed issues were discussed. Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, has a key role in overseeing the quality of service, and speeds, delivered by broadband providers. I recently met Sharon White, Ofcom’s Chief Executive, where broadband speeds, and wider quality of service issues, were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-02881

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking through its Better Broadband Scheme to increase the take-up of standard broadband services; how much of the funding that it allocated to the scheme (a) has been spent and (b) remains unspent, and how many applications to it (i) have been approved, broken down by amount awarded to each applicant, (ii) have been rejected, broken down by the reason, and (iii) are pending a decision.

The Better Broadband Scheme is a UK Government initiative. Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds the scheme; sets the eligibility criteria for vouchers; and approves suppliers to be part of the voucher scheme. All financial transactions are undertaken by BDUK. The Scottish Government’s role is to process applications in Scotland, assess these against BDUK’s eligibility criteria, and issue voucher codes. The Scottish Government has not allocated any funding to the scheme and is not sighted on how much funding remains available. The UK Government has not allocated a specific amount of funding to Scotland.

To date, the Scottish Government has approved 169 voucher applications. These vouchers do not have a specific fixed value but are capped at £350. As financial transactions are undertaken by BDUK, we are unable to confirm the amounts ultimately awarded to each applicant.

The Scottish Government has deemed 40 applications ineligible as these did not meet the criteria set by BDUK. Detailed reasons are set out in the following table:

Already has Satellite	5
Already connected to fibre	5
Part of CBS project	12
Scheduled to receive Fibre within next 6-12 months	9
Can obtain speeds in excess of 2Mbps	9

35 applications are currently pending a decision.

Question reference: S5W-02902

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of how it will fund the additional £42 million likely to be necessary to extend broadband that is referred to at page 12 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update.