Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has had discussions with his counterparts in the Scottish and Welsh Governments on the implementation of the Outside-In programme in Scotland and Wales.

Matt Warman, Minister for Digital Infrastructure, met with Paul Wheelhouse Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands - Scottish Government on 16 December 2020, to discuss the UK Gigabit programme and the implementation of the Outside-In programme in Scotland.

He highlighted that UK government has started the roll-out of gigabit capable full fibre in Scotland with more than £22m invested already in a number of projects including:

a) The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme with over £4.9m committed

b) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £4.3m in the Highlands for 152 public sites

c) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £1.9m in Unst and Yell (Shetland) for 21 public sites

d) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £5.9m in Tay Cities for 228 public sites

e) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £1.4m in Dumfries and Galloway for 35 public sites

f) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £2.1m for NHS Scotland for 51 public sites

g) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £2m in the Highlands for 37 public sites (in addition to the Local Full Fibre Network sites above)

Similarly the UK government has also started the roll-out of gigabit capable full-fibre in Wales with more than £29m committed in a number of projects including:

a) Support to the Superfast Wales project, which is delivered by the Welsh Government, and has provided almost 733,000 properties across Wales with access to fast fibre broadband. The contract intervened where the Private Sector had no plans to do so (at the time of procurement). The current phase, which runs to June ‘22, will reach up to 39k more prems.

b) The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme with over £3.8m committed

c) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £8m in North Wales with 6 local authorities for 350 public sites

d) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £1.2m in Pembrokeshire for 70 public sites

e) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £12m to the Welsh Government for the South Wales Strategic Road Network project

f) Local Full Fibre Network project awarded £3.16m to the Welsh Government for the Cardiff Capital Region project for 174 public sites in the ten authorities in SE Wales

g) Rural Gigabit Connectivity project awarded £1.25m to the Welsh Government for 103 public sites in 11 Local Authority areas

The UK government, through BDUK, has commenced regular collaborative engagement with Scottish and Welsh Government Officials on the planning for the UK Gigabit programme. They have set up a number of workstreams to ensure the optimal mix of approaches to Outside-In in Scotland and Wales is achieved.

The Minister also met with Lee Waters MS, the Deputy Minister for Economy & Transport on 1 May 2020, to discuss the Shared Rural Network. They discussed the benefits of the programme and acknowledged that the SRN was positive but Mr Waters had some concerns about the length of time for the full benefits of the programme. Both ministers agreed to meet again in the near future to discuss how they can collectively create an environment in which they can accelerate developments whilst maximising existing resources and infrastructure to reduce overall cost on the public purse. The Minister is committed to continue working collaboratively with his Scottish and Welsh counterparts on the implementation of the Outside-In programme in Scotland and Wales.