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-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-02886

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 a breakdown of how the £20 million advance paid by HIE to BT that is referred to at page 10 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update, was spent; for what reason this advance was paid; whether payment of such advances is normal practice, and what (a) its position is on whether this was in line with and (b) action it took to ensure that this did not breach EU state aid rules.

The £20 million advance payment was made to enable the delivery of the substantial subsea backhaul deployment as part of the Highlands and Islands Digital Scotland contract. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) liaised with the Scottish and UK Governments at that time to confirm that the payment was in line with relevant procurement and State Aid rules. The payment was held in a separate account by BT and the funds were drawn down following evidence of eligible expenditure. The interest earned on the funds, which totalled £606,000, was returned to HIE when the £20 million had been drawn down in full. These funds will be used to extend coverage across the region.

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.

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-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-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-02900

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 its investment priorities are for the new round of procurement for superfast broadband rollout and, if these have not been agreed, by what date it will do so.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring superfast broadband access for 100 per cent of premises across Scotland. Commercial investment will play a key role in delivering this target. We would anticipate that public sector funding will be focused primarily on extending superfast connectivity to rural areas, with commercial roll-out covering urban areas.

Precise investment priorities will be determined once an Open Market Review (OMR) has been completed and the findings analysed. It is not possible, at this stage, to specify a precise date; though we expect the OMR to begin in the coming months.

Question reference: S5W-02910

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, in light of the pledge in the 2016 SNP manifesto, for what reason it has extended the target date for 100% roll-out of superfast broadband to 2021.

The Scottish Government set out a commitment to extend superfast broadband access to 100 per cent of premises by 2021 in the Programme for Government, published on 6 September 2016. There was no previous Scottish Government commitment around superfast broadband access so there is no question of a target date having been extended. Our 2020 commitment relates to the delivery of world class, future-proofed digital infrastructure, rather than superfast broadband access.

Question reference: S5W-02908

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 has had in the last year to discuss extending the 100% roll-out target for superfast broadband to 2021, and who attended.