Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 9 October 2018.

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Photo of Paul Davies Paul Davies Conservative 1:49, 9 October 2018

You have broken your Assembly election manifesto—that is quite clear from what I've just quoted to you. And your party's manifesto not only committed to ensuring that all residential premises and all businesses in Wales would have access to next generation broadband by 2015, but it went on to pledge that 50 per cent of properties or more should have access to 100 Mbps. Now, we know that Government will be making a statement on the new contract, but as we've come to expect from so many of the Welsh Government's schemes, the implementation of this has slipped and slipped and slipped.

This contract should have been in place at the beginning of this year, and whilst we are still waiting, schoolchildren like Grug Williams have to be driven a mile away from their homes near Gwytherin in Conwy to find a signal to download school work. Let me also remind the First Minister that the annual NFU broadband and mobile survey also showed that two thirds of NFU members asked in Wales said that they were not able to access sufficient broadband speeds, which has a significant impact on their ability to do business effectively and efficiently. So, with that in mind, First Minister, and in light of the very serious impact that the lack of adequate broadband provision is having on Welsh communities, will you now apologise for failing to meet your 2011 Assembly manifesto commitment? Will you also apologise to those people living without a decent broadband service in Wales for your Government's failure to properly deal with this issue?