6. 5. Statement: Superfast Broadband — The Next Steps

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:43 pm on 8 November 2016.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 4:43, 8 November 2016

You state that, given that the Superfast Cymru contract will end next year, you’ve already embarked on the preparatory work necessary to establish a successor broadband investment project. Obviously, Superfast Cymru is at 96 per cent. I referred last week in the Chamber, and I think in committee, to the UK Government’s £10 million innovation fund pilot, which ran throughout 2015, looking at their implementation for the final 5 per cent there. That reported its findings in February. Was Wales included in that or not, and if not, will you be basing your roll-out on that, or if not, why are we two years behind England?

Finally, last week, I asked you questions in the debate to which you’ve already referred regarding FibreSpeed north Wales. I wonder if you could answer how many millions of public money was spent on a Welsh Government project, resulting from a Welsh Government tender, which went horribly wrong, which went nowhere, and why FibreSpeed were placed in that position.