Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Today, I want to provide you with an update on our Superfast Cymru project and progress towards a successor project. The current Superfast Cymru project continues to make good progress. To the end of March 2017, BT has told us that more than 645,000 premises have been given access to fast-fibre broadband by the Superfast Cymru project. BT has confirmed that sufficient premises are currently in build to realise its contractual commitment to provide access to superfast broadband delivering 30 Mbps download speeds to around 690,000 premises ahead of contract closure on 31 December this year. Also, additional premises will also be able to access speeds of between 24 Mbps and 30 Mbps.

I can further report that market information indicates that the commercial deployment of superfast services has also exceeded forecasts, yielding additional premises beyond our intervention area that can now access superfast broadband services. Members will be pleased to note the progress that fixed wireless provider Airband has made in delivering our contract to extend broadband access to numerous business parks across Wales. I am pleased to confirm that this deployment is now complete and covers a verified footprint of around 2,000 business premises across north and south Wales.

Our programme for government, ‘Taking Wales Forward’, is clear about our ambition to offer fast and reliable broadband to every property in Wales. As I have outlined in previous statements, we have already embarked on the preparatory work necessary to establish a successor broadband investment project. The new project will be underpinned by a public sector budget of around £80 million, which will in turn leverage private sector match funding to further extend broadband coverage to the hardest to reach premises across Wales by 2020.

We launched an open market review in November to establish, on a premises-by-premises basis, where superfast broadband has been delivered to date and where the market plans to invest over the next three years. We also began a series of industry engagement events in December to help shape and inform the future intervention area and procurement strategy. We intend to begin the next stage of the procurement process in September. The open market review process has yielded a list of over 98,000 premises that cannot currently access superfast broadband, and where telecommunications companies have no plans to reach them in the next three years.

Throughout this open market review process and our ongoing engagement with industry, we have invested considerable effort in improving the quality of the data that underpins our understanding of where the broadband gaps are across Wales. We are seeking to move from the postcode level data that we have relied on previously to data that can identify the broadband status of individual premises. We also adopted a cautious approach and tended to include premises, rather than exclude them, where there is doubt as to whether some locations should be classed as eligible premises. This means that some premises have been included that may not have been under previous open market reviews. We now need to test this data through consultation.

Today, I am launching a four-week public consultation on the results of the open market review. We are keen to hear the views of both the telecoms industry and residents and business owners on whether any further premises should be included, or whether any premises currently on the list should be excluded. To support this, the data available on our website will be at a very granular level. I encourage everyone afflicted by poor broadband to ensure that their individual premises are identified correctly on the map. I encourage Assembly Members and local authorities to apply their local knowledge to help ensure that this data is robust and accurate.

The consultation will help us to further refine the list of unconnected premises. Given the scale of the numbers involved, inevitably, the list of premises remaining will not be perfect, but the more responses we receive, the more comprehensive the list will be. To help respondents locate individual premises, an interactive map is available on the Welsh Government website. I would, therefore, ask that all Members share the list as widely as possible, and I will ensure that Members have the web address. The results of the public consultation will help to determine the procurement strategy, both in terms of the number and location of potential bidding lots, and whether any prioritisation criteria should be included. There will be further engagement with the industry and key stakeholders over the summer to refine our procurement approach. We intend to be in a position to invite formal tenders to deliver the new project in September, with the project commencing in early 2018.

Through this consultation period, I am keen to ensure that all views are heard. If there are communities that have an interest in driving their own solutions, I want to hear from them. If there are views on how we should lot the procurement, I want to hear them. And if there are views on how we should prioritise or target the funding, I want to hear those too.

It is clear to me that in parallel to the work set out above, our broadband voucher schemes will continue to offer a vital lifeline to homes and businesses. I am pleased to confirm that these schemes will remain, and will adjust and evolve to ensure that they remain relevant. I am pleased to announce today that in response to feedback from businesses, we have adjusted the terms and conditions of our ultrafast connectivity voucher to encompass a broader range of options. This change will introduce greater flexibility and will appeal to businesses that need assistance with construction and installation charges for mid-range broadband products, rather than switching to more high-end leased line products.

I am committed to achieving our ambitions in ‘Taking Wales Forward’ to offer fast, reliable broadband to every property in Wales. Diolch.