Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 125135, on Housing: Broadband, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government’s brokered agreement to connect new build developments in Scotland; and what recent representations he has received from (a) Scottish Government Ministers and (b) local authorities on that agreement.

I have regular discussions with the Scottish Government to discuss a wide range of issues, including connectivity across 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 conditions of threshold 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. DCMS meet regularly with representatives from the Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities on a wide range of issues, including connectivity and new build developments.