4. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to roll out superfast broadband, and how this has been impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. (S5O-04399)

All regulatory and legislative responsibility for telecommunications rests with United Kingdom ministers. However, to improve coverage and address obvious market failure, and building on the success of the £463 million digital Scotland superfast broadband programme, our £600 million reaching 100 per cent programme has been developed to support every home and business in Scotland to have access to superfast broadband. Those programmes have been impacted by lockdown restrictions but have not stalled completely; new build activity has progressed and the maintenance of critical digital infrastructure has continued throughout the lockdown.

I thank all the telecommunications key workers involved for helping to keep everyone connected throughout the crisis. Broadband connectivity is at the forefront of our plans for a green economic recovery, and there will be a gradual ramping up of new build activity as we move through the phases of Scotland’s route map.

I seek clarification in relation to the minister’s answer to my written question this week. Will he commit to reporting to Parliament how the timescale for the physical deployment phase of R100 is being affected by safe working practices being adopted in the context of the need to prevent transmission of coronavirus?

That is a reasonable request from Rachael Hamilton. I am keen to keep her and other colleagues in the Parliament updated on progress. Our current estimate is that the physical build in the south lot area may start in July. However, as Ms Hamilton has outlined, we have to take account of the need for modified working practices in the sector, and we will engage with BT and Openreach in reaching a conclusion. We hope that work in the central lot area may resume in August and September. Survey work and a lot of desk-based work has been on-going throughout the Covid-19 period, which has prevented the work from stalling completely. We will try to keep members such as Ms Hamilton well informed on the physical build-out.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Can I have shorter answers, please? There is very little time left, and three members want to ask questions.