Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on improving digital connectivity; and what recent discussions he has had with that Government on improving broadband (a) connections and (b) speeds to new housing developments.

I have regular discussions with the Scottish Government to discuss a wide range of issues, including connectivity across Scotland. I also have regular discussions with DCMS regarding connectivity issues in Scotland.

The agreement brokered by DCMS between the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Openreach offers full fibre broadband to new builds at no cost to the developer when threshold conditions have been met. Virgin and GTC have similar agreements with the HBF. DCMS’s Barrier Busting Task Force are in the process of measuring the impact of these agreements and will report on them once that work is complete.