THE UK Government has confirmed it is taking the responsibility for broadband roll-out in Scotland away from the Scottish Government and will for the next generation of broadband technology deal directly with local authorities north of the border.
The confirmation came as Matt Hancock, Minister of State for Digital, visited the Scottish borders, having previously claimed that the SNP administration had failed Scots on broadband with the nation having fallen behind England in terms of access and speed.
The Government’s decision came last week when Mr Hancock told MPs during a Commons debate: “In 2014, we gave the Scottish Government more than £20 million for Phase 2 of their superfast roll-out. Three years later, they have not only failed to sign that contract but have not even opened the procurement yet. The Scottish Government are three years behind the fastest English local authorities in contracting for their roll-out.”
He added: “As a result of our experience of delivering superfast broadband through the Scottish Government thus far, we have decided that for the next generation of broadband technology - full fibre - we will instead deal directly with local authorities across Scotland, as we do in England.”
His Conservative colleague, John Lamont, said: “It is not fair that Scotland’s small businesses continue to struggle because of poor broadband while their counterparts in England escape such issues. I was extremely concerned to hear that the Scottish Government has not even started its procurement for phase 2 of broadband roll-out, while many English authorities have already completed it and moved onto phase 3.
“In both rural and urban areas, Scotland is falling behind the rest of the UK and I’m glad now the problem has been recognised by Westminster and we can start fixing the SNP’s mistakes,” added the MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.
In October at the SNP conference, Derek Mackay, the Scottish Government’s Finance Secretary, told delegates that the Scottish Government had achieved its initial target of delivering access to fibre broadband to 85 per cent of premises in Scotland by March 2016 and was on track to make this 95 per cent by the end of this year.
Noting how more than 780,000 homes and businesses across Scotland now had access to fibre broadband in Scotland because of the actions of the Scottish Government, he pledged: “So by the end of this parliament we will roll out superfast broadband to 100 per cent of properties in Scotland.”
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