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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many premises in Banff and Buchan constituency are not connected to superfast broadband.

According to data from the latest Ofcom Connected Nations report (Summer 2021), there are 6,753 premises that are unable to access superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps in the constituency of Banff and Buchan. The latest data from Thinkbroadband shows that 85% of premises in Banff and Buchan can access superfast broadband (>30Mbps), up from 74% in October 2016.

Superfast broadband coverage across Scotland will be extended further through the ‘Reaching 100%’ (R100) programme. The first funding commitment from the UK Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit was announced in the summer to enable upgrades to gigabit speeds for over 5,000 premises which were within scope for superfast coverage via R100. The government will continue to work with the Scottish Government to extend gigabit coverage as far as possible through Project Gigabit.

Communities and businesses in rural areas not in line for commercial coverage or government-funded projects to provide gigabit coverage are also eligible for immediate help with the costs of installing gigabit through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme as part of Project Gigabit.

Those premises unable to access speeds of at least 10Mbps are likely to be eligible for support via the Universal Service Obligation, which gives every eligible premises the legal right to request a decent, affordable broadband connection, providing download speeds of at least 10 Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps.