7. 6. Statement: Superfast Broadband in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:04 pm on 11 October 2016.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of David Rowlands David Rowlands UKIP 5:04, 11 October 2016

I will try to make my comments a little more succinct, I promise. First of all, Cabinet Minister, I would like to thank you for your comprehensive statement this afternoon. First, can I sincerely congratulate the Welsh Government, on behalf of my party, for their extraordinary achievements over the last three years in making Wales the best-performing country in the UK, after England, at providing superfast broadband? I sincerely mean that, but can I draw your attention to the Government Social Research report in September of this year, which identified the lack of visibility on business take-up of superfast broadband due to the absence of relevant data? However, it was estimated that this was as low as 28 per cent after six months of availability. I think Dai Lloyd actually touched on this when he spoke to you earlier on. And given that the take-up by business is the main driver of economic growth anticipated through superfast broadband, can the Secretary indicate whether these two shortcomings have been, or are being, addressed? Can you also comment on the disparity in different areas of Wales? One may, to a certain extent, understand Powys lagging some way behind other areas, though, of course, this is not entirely acceptable, but it's very difficult to understand why Torfaen, one of my constituencies, also lags behind similar built-up regions.