Chamber and committees

The R100 programme is one of the most ambitious public investment programmes anywhere in the UK – with the Scottish Government investing over £600 million targeted at homes and businesses with the slowest broadband speeds.

As of 8 June 2023, £122.4 million has been paid to Openreach for delivery of the R100 contracts. Payments are made in arrears upon completion of build.

A further £5.4 million has been paid to a range of suppliers in the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

The project partners have not started the public consultation and engagement stage of the project yet and are working to secure resource to do this for the local pilot projects. They will engage with communities as soon as resource is in place for the engagement activities in order to shape the pilots and identify how best to deliver community benefits. The project team are currently working to design the engagement process.

Our investment through the R100 programme will be transformational for many of Scotland’s most rural communities and is providing a full fibre backbone that will enable reliable connectivity services to be delivered.

An individual’s ability to access digital healthcare can be impacted by a number of factors, not just their rurality and the availability of digital infrastructure in their area.

That is why, while recognising the importance of access to digital healthcare, it should be promoted as one choice for patients but not the only available option. Digital healthcare programmes are subject to Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) to assess the impact of accessibility.

The ethical framework will be used to deliver investment which meets the aims of the Scottish Government’s Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. Adherence to these principles is set out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the project partners and the framework will be secured through the terms of the MoU. If the principles are not adhered to, NatureScot and the Project Board will work to address this and, if necessary, NatureScot will withdraw from the partnership if the investment does not deliver against the principles in the way intended.

Of the 26 new buses that have space for transporting bikes there are 13 planned to operate on routes in Aberdeenshire.

The Additional Support for Learning Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. It is for individual authorities to determine the training required for all staff to ensure pupils reach their full potential.

All initial teacher education programmes must align with the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s Standard for Provisional Registration. The Standard sets out that student teachers are required to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of additional support needs and to take account of learners with such needs.

The Scottish Government is working closely with local government partners to improve the experience of children and young people with additional support needs at school, implementing the recommendations of the 2020 additional support for learning review, including those relating to the professional learning of school staff. In November 2022, we published an updated action plan and a second progress report . A further update is due to be published in May 2024.

The Drug Deaths Taskforce had an allocation of £9 million to invest in 2020-21 and £5 million in 2021-22.

The majority of funding allocated to the Drug Deaths Taskforce was dispersed via Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) and The Corra Foundation. The Taskforce also funded the Digital Inclusion Project.

Alcohol and Drug Partnerships received additional funding in 2020-2021 and
‎ 2021-2022 from the Drug Deaths Taskforce.In order to receive funding ADPs were required to submit a proposal, clearly setting out how they would use this funding to address gaps in delivering the Taskforce’s six evidence-based strategies to help reduce drug-related deaths. Funding allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships is subject to Scottish Government’s robust grant management process, outlined in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM). The SPFM provides guidance on the proper handling and reporting of public funds.

Through The Corra Foundation, a Research Programme Fund and an Innovation Fund was developed by the Drug Deaths Taskforce. The Corra Foundation facilitated review panels with members from a wide range of backgrounds, including those with lived experience, to review and consider applications made to both the Research Programme Fund and the Innovation Fund. The funds were created to contribute to the evidence base to inform future actions.

Monitoring of the projects was managed by The Corra Foundation. Monitoring and evaluation were a critical element in obtaining funding. When funding was awarded, each grantee signed grant offer paperwork which contained several conditions. These included conditions around payment and reporting. The content of the grant offer letters (including the conditions) were agreed with Scottish Government for each round and new conditions added as required. Additionally, a thematic evaluation was funded by the Taskforce through the Corra Foundation.

The independent Drug Deaths Taskforce concluded in July 2022 after publishing its final report, Changing Lives . The Scottish Government then responded to the recommendations and actions put forward by the Taskforce within the Drug Deaths Taskforce response: cross government approach .

Based on Ofcom’s latest figures up to the end of January 2023, 5% of all residences in Scotland do not currently have access to a superfast broadband connection of 30 Mbps (megabits per second) or more.

Through the R100 programme, all premises without access to superfast broadband are being supported to obtain an improved broadband connection - either through inclusion in the R100 contract build plans, or via eligibility for the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Some people choose not to upgrade to faster broadband speeds, even when they are available to them, with Ofcom estimating that only 71% of premises in Scotland take up superfast broadband service when it is available.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18902 on 22 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers