Chamber and committees

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:

35 applications are currently pending a decision.

The funding allocation announced in the Programme for Government is aimed at encouraging more Internet Service Providers, content providers and local businesses with an online dependency and customer base in Scotland to join IXScotland – the first Internet Exchange point in Scotland, which we helped launch in 2013.

We are currently working up detailed proposals for the scheme, in conjunction with key partners including the IXScotland Steering Group. We will announce more details in due course.

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.

The Scottish Government has not extended the timeframe for achieving our 100 per cent superfast broadband commitment, which was set out in the Programme for Government on 6 September 2016. We had no prior commitment to achieving 100 per cent superfast access.

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

Those who would benefit the most from being online are often those who are the more vulnerable in society. We have formed a unique partnership with Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. An umbrella organisation for charities which already hold a trusted position within their communities to deliver bespoke digital inclusion projects. In addition we work with Housing Associations and other social landlords providing support to help their tenants to gain or improve their digital skills.

Libraries are also valued delivery partners with an important part to play in increasing the levels and quality of digital participation in Scotland. A network of Digital Champions from each of the local authorities help support the investment in training and growing skills within staff and the public.

Our partnership with Scottish Union Learning is increasing skills within the workplace and our support for extracurricular coding clubs encourages young people to increase their digital skills and improve employability.

The Digital Scotland contracts agreed between the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and BT contain clauses that generate revenue for the public sector if broadband take-up on the new infrastructure exceeds a certain level. BT brought forward almost £18 million of this so-called Gainshare funding in 2015 which can be reinvested in the contracts. BT has modelled this funding, alongside other residual funding within both contracts, in recent months in line with criteria laid out by public sector partners. This process is not yet complete across both contracts. We will announce further details of the coverage impacts arising from the modelling in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise has regular discussions with BT around the management of the Digital Scotland contracts. This includes ensuring that funding within the contract is fully utilised to extend coverage, making use of resources freed up as a result of BT’s actual costs being lower than expected.

BT’s calculation of the estimated take-up rate across both Digital Scotland contracts was based on analysis of historical take-up data, BT’s own deployment experience and BDUK’s assessment of similar projects in other parts of the UK.

At least 95% of premises across Scotland will have fibre broadband access by the end of 2017, as a result of our investment in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme and commercial rollout.

It is not possible to state definitively at this stage what speeds will be accessible by 2018. Much of this is dependent upon the commercial deployment of superfast broadband, which the Scottish Government does not hold information on.

The Scottish Government plans to launch an Open Market Review, ahead of new procurement activity in 2017, to determine (a) what has been delivered commercially and (b) what will be delivered commercially over the next 3 years. This will require suppliers to provide speed information at premise level. We will use this information to define a new intervention area for future public investment in broadband.

The savings outlined on page 10 of the Audit Scotland report emerged due to BT’s actual costs being lower than expected. These calculations were made by BT not by the Scottish Government or Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The budget freed up by lower than expected actual costs will be redirected into extending the coverage footprint of both projects further, reaching more premises than originally anticipated.