Question reference: S5W-36209
- Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 11 March 2021
-
Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 24 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of (i) households and (ii) business premises have had access to superfast broadband in each year since 2014, broken down by local authority.
Answer
The Scottish Government, alongside our partners in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, has played a key role in extending the reach of fibre broadband across Scotland. Independent broadband analysis site, thinkbroadband (the same site the UK Government quotes in its own figures), states that 94.6% of premises across Scotland are now able to access superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps and above – up from just 59.3% in 2014, when DSSB deployment began.
Unfortunately, the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested. As telecoms regulator, Ofcom produces figures for numbers of properties in Scotland able to access superfast broadband - of 30 Megabits per second (30Mbps) and above - by year.
Unfortunately, the figures provided do not break down between residential and business properties and, on a directly comparable basis, only go as far back as 2017:
Year | Properties with superfast coverage (30Mbps+) |
2020 | 2,581,836 |
2019 | 2,573,289 |
2018 | 2,563,554 |
2017 | 2,276,309 |
Ofcom’s Connected Nations annual reports for 2019 and 2020 provide information on coverage percentages across residential and commercial properties in Scotland, as set out in the table below:
Year | Superfast coverage in residential properties (%) | Superfast coverage in commercial properties (%) |
2020 | 94 | 83 |
2019 | 92 | 83 |
Prior to 2019, these reports outline coverage percentages by non-SME properties and SME properties:
Year | Superfast coverage in non-SME properties (%) | Superfast coverage in SME properties (%) |
2018 | 92 | 86 |
2017 | 87 | 78 |
2016 | 83 | 72 |
More information can be found on Ofcom’s website at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research/connected-nations-2020 .
Independent analysis site, thinkbroadband, provides coverage breakdowns by percentage, but does not break figures down along SME/non-SME lines:
Superfast coverage (30Mbps and above) | |||
Local Authority | 2014 | March 2021 | Increase |
Aberdeen City | 71.6% | 96.9% | 25.3 |
Aberdeenshire | 16.6% | 84.1% | 67.5 |
Angus | 58.8% | 89.4% | 30.6 |
Argyll & Bute | 0.9% | 84.6% | 83.7 |
City of Edinburgh | 90.5% | 98.8% | 8.3 |
Clackmannanshire | 54.2% | 98.0% | 43.8 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 17.0% | 87% | 70 |
Dundee City | 95.2% | 99.2% | 4 |
East Ayrshire | 48.5% | 95.9% | 47.4 |
East Dunbartonshire | 77.6% | 98.2% | 20.6 |
East Lothian | 31.9% | 92.6% | 60.7 |
East Renfrewshire | 84.6% | 98.5% | 13.9 |
Falkirk | 85.2% | 97.7% | 12.5 |
Fife | 52.9% | 96.8% | 43.9 |
Glasgow City | 75.2% | 98.7% | 23.5 |
Highland | 20.3% | 82.1% | 61.8 |
Inverclyde | 72.0% | 97.7% | 25.7 |
Midlothian | 44.0% | 94.3% | 50.3 |
Moray | 6.9% | 88.1% | 81.2 |
Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Outer Hebrides) | 1.3% | 79% | 77.7 |
North Ayrshire | 40.9% | 97% | 56.1 |
North Lanarkshire | 77.3% | 98.8% | 21.5 |
Orkney Islands | 11.1% | 65.9% | 54.8 |
Perth & Kinross | 39.3% | 87.4% | 48.1 |
Renfrewshire | 76.7% | 98.2% | 21.5 |
Scottish Borders | 20.8% | 88.7% | 67.8 |
Shetland Islands | 28.9% | 75.2% | 46.3 |
South Ayrshire | 44.9% | 94.8% | 49.9 |
South Lanarkshire | 70.2% | 96.5% | 26.3 |
Stirling | 56.5% | 92.2% | 35.7 |
West Dunbartonshire | 88.7% | 99.3% | 10.6 |
West Lothian | 63.0% | 98.1% | 35.1 |