- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether any previously planned elements of the R100 programme have been discontinued.
Answer
The three strands of activity which form the Reaching 100% (R100) programme – the over-£600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and ongoing commercial build - continue to deliver faster broadband connections across Scotland.
The interim voucher portion of the R100 SBVS was originally intended to close on 31 December 2021, but was extended by three months and closed on 31 March 2022.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether any additional funding has been provided to the R100 programme beyond the original £600 million announced in December 2017.
Answer
In addition to the £600 million announced in December 2017, the Scottish Government has invested an additional £20 million with the UK Government's Project Gigabit programme contributing a further £31 million. This further investment has been deployed via the R100 contracts to extend and enhance the coverage footprint.
The R100 contracts form only one part of the overall R100 programme. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is demand-led and, as such, there is no pre-determined amount of funding allocated for delivering connections via SBVS. As of 31st August 2024, £10 million has been paid to suppliers to deliver connections via SBVS.
These figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of properties still to be connected within the Falkirk Council area under the R100 project.
Answer
Latest assured figure (from 31 July 2024) showed that around 1,000 premises were still expected to be connected through the R100 Central contract in the Falkirk Council area.
Latest coverage figures, including premises connected that were beyond the scope of the initial R100 contracts, are available on our website at Data insights | Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any funding directly from the UK Government to be spent on the R100 project, and, if so, where this funding was utilised.
Answer
The Scottish Government has received a total of £52 million from the UK Government for deployment via the R100 contracts.
£17 million of UK Government funding is being deployed via the R100 North contact, £7 million via the Central contract and £28 million via the South contract. These figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the R100 programme to conclude.
Answer
The Reaching 100% (R100) programme met its original aim of ensuring everyone could access a superfast broadband connection by the end of 2021. However, as per previous statements, the R100 contracts – which are now providing full-fibre and gigabit-capable connectivity – are expected to deliver connections until 2028.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what outstanding work is remaining on the R100 programme.
Answer
To date, the R100 contracts have delivered connections to more than 45,200 premises across Scotland, along with an additional 13,558 non-contracted premises connected while Openreach is delivering R100 contract build.
For those who live or work in premises beyond the reach of commercial and R100 contract build plans, the demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available and offers up to £5,000 with which to secure, as a minimum, an affordable superfast broadband connection.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether children and young people are taught about their own gender identity in school.
Answer
Children and young people are not taught about their own gender identity in Scottish schools. That is a personal matter for any individual and, in the case of young people, their family.
Relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the school curriculum in Scotland. Learning and teaching focusses on equipping children and young people with the knowledge, skills and values to make informed and positive choices about forming relationships. This aspect of the curriculum is intended to enable children and young people to build positive relationships as they grow older. Relationships, sexual health and parenthood education has been in place since 2010, the same year Curriculum for Excellence was implemented.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 24 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates that the reported £19 million reduction to mental health services will have on mental health waiting times.
Answer
Following the UK Chancellor's July statement, the Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution.
Whilst any reduction is regrettable, we remain committed to taking forward our work across mental health, working closely with key partners. Our collective focus has to be on making as much difference as possible with our funding.
We continually monitor both CAMHS and Psychological therapies (PT) waiting times performance and directly engage with all 14 territorial NHS Boards. The latest CAMHS and PT waiting times statistics published on 3 September 2024 show positive signs of improvement. However, we are not complacent and continue to direct enhanced support to those NHS Boards with the longest waits.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether public health campaigns will be reduced or stopped as a result of the reported reductions to its marketing.
Answer
A number of public health campaigns will continue to run. Public Health Scotland will continue to undertake targeted communications work for vaccine programmes, including Winter Flu, to ensure those who are eligible for vaccinations are aware and encouraged to take them up. The Scottish Government’s Detect Cancer Early and Dementia campaigns are currently running and a number of public health topics continue to be supported by social media, public relations and partner marketing, which is delivered directly by the Scottish Government Communications Directorate.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 August 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 24 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that individual artists can still apply for and have access to public funding, in light of Creative Scotland's recent change to its guidance on applications from individual artists.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides significant funding to Creative Scotland each year and will continue doing so. It is disappointing that Creative Scotland took the decision about the Open Fund before the Scottish Government could complete due diligence to release funding, as is normal practice. The due diligence has now been completed and the funding has been released to Creative Scotland.