3. Will the Leader of the House provide an update on the Welsh Government's progress on improving digital inclusion in South Wales Central please? OAQ52366

Yes, indeed. Good progress is being made on improving digital inclusion across the South Wales Central region. Digital Communities Wales is working in close partnership with a wide range of organisations and programmes to support more people to gain maximum benefit from the life-changing opportunities digital technologies offer.

Thank you, leader of the house, for that answer. I've always highlighted some of the concerns in rural Wales and, in particular, the inability for many communities to get connected up, because of the logistical challenges that are faced there. But in my own electoral region of South Wales Central, in Pentwyn, in Cardiff here, there's a community of 200 residents who, because Openreach will not empower the cabinet to enable high-speed broadband, are excluded from the process. So, even in our capital city there's that exclusion going on. What pressure are you bringing to bear on Openreach, as the sole contractor, to provide these services, so that communities, such as the one in Pentwyn and others around Wales, can benefit from high-speed broadband, which is hugely frustrating when residents are walking past the facilities they know are in their community but they're not switched on and are able to be used by that community? 

Yes, well, there are several different strands to that. So, in the superfast intervention area, so outside the central conurbations, if you bear in mind that the whole of the superfast programme is a market intervention, we can only go where the market doesn't go. So, assuming you're in a superfast intervention area, and that's happening, then you'll be part of the next procurement or the discussion that we're having with BT about the use of the gain share, or you could be part of a community-based solution that might act for you. Unfortunately, if you're outside of the intervention area and you're in the commercial roll-out area, then you're at the vagaries of the commercial operators, and we've put a lot of pressure on them in terms of influence, but I have no direct ability to intervene in one of the areas that isn't.

I'm afraid that I'm not familiar enough with the area you're talking about to know if it's in or out of the intervention area. Assuming it's in the superfast area, so it's outside of central Cardiff—I think that's what you were saying—then either we can help you to get together a community bespoke solution for that—and I'm happy for one of my officials to come and see if we can help you with that; I'm off down to Paul Davies's constituency tomorrow, I think it is, actually, to meet with a number of people, so I'm happy to facilitate that for you—or it'll be in one of the next-stage roll-out programmes, which is designed to assist with either lack of capacity in a cabinet or lack of connectivity with a cabinet. But I'd welcome a conversation with you about a specific community.