3. What action is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that appropriate digital infrastructure is available for businesses? OAQ51392

Through the Superfast Cymru scheme, we've connected businesses across Wales to superfast broadband, and our ultrafast connectivity voucher scheme is providing up to £10,000 for businesses to acquire an ultrafast connection. The Airband project has also connected around 2,000 premises on industrial estates across Wales.

I'm very grateful for your response, Cabinet Secretary and leader of the house. I'm also grateful for the fact that you're going to be visiting my constituency to talk about the Superfast Cymru roll-out in rural Denbighshire in particular, where, as you will be aware, the current statistics suggest that it's lagging behind significantly in terms of progress when compared to the rest of Wales, with just 84 per cent of premises actually connected versus 92.5 per cent across the rest of the country. That does have an impact on rural businesses in particular, many of whom already face difficulties because of rurality in getting their goods and services out to the marketplace. I appreciate that we've got the ultrafast voucher scheme in place, but many suppliers of alternative services are simply not able to supply either in those localities, so what are you doing to work with the industry to come up with something that is more commercially viable in order to extend the opportunities that superfast and ultrafast broadband speeds can provide to businesses in these situations in my own constituency?

So, the issue with the industry is really complex, but basically the industry assures me—and I've asked for that assurance on a number of occasions—that business products are available everywhere in Wales. However, a large number of businesses can't afford to buy the ethernet connection that's being talked about there. We've put the ultrafast connectivity voucher in place in order to reduce the cost for businesses and, actually, it's more generous in Wales than anywhere else because of the proportions that we pay. There are issues, though, about market failure and the issue around the cost of some of the ethernet services. I've been on to Ofcom for some time about what they want to do about that. I'm happy to write again if the Member wants to give me specific businesses that are experiencing that issue and, of course, I will be in the constituency tomorrow to hear them for myself.

Obviously, the superfast roll-out is nearly complete at the end of this year. It isn't equal across Wales, as the Member will know—the contract is let on an all-Wales basis and it will be complete by the end of this year. We will then be putting in place the Superfast 2 project, and one of the things I'm very much looking forward to discussing in the Member's constituency tomorrow is what that community particularly wants to see in terms of the superfast project, and what we can do to make up for some of those shortfalls. It will be an interesting discussion, I'm sure. But if the Member wants me to write to Ofcom again about specific businesses or in general about his patch, I'm more than happy to do so.