1. Will the Leader of the House provide an update on superfast broadband in Monmouth? OAQ52708

The Superfast Cymru scheme facilitated the roll-out of superfast broadband access to over 5,490 homes and businesses across the town of Monmouth, investing just over £1.68 million. Average speeds across the county of Monmouthshire are over 95 Mbps.    

That was the Monmouth constituency, as you rightly judged again, leader of the house. I've spoken to a number of residents recently who were at the public meeting that you attended a couple of weeks ago in Llanddewi Rhydderch, in a very rural part of my constituency. As you will be aware—it was along with the local county councillor, Sara Jones, I should say. As you are aware, there is a very poor broadband service in that area, and residents are looking for some solutions from the superfast broadband roll-out. I wonder if you could provide an update to me today on any developments in the wake of that meeting, and whether you have made any progress in getting a better broadband service to people in that area.

Yes, it was a very positive meeting, actually, and discussed quite a few innovative solutions that both we could do in co-operation with Monmouthshire council itself, and actually with a group of the residents who are very keen on looking to see if they could have a bespoke solution for their particular community. That does give me the opportunity to say to everybody in the Chamber—no doubt I'll say it quite often during the course of my questions, Deputy Presiding Officer—that we are very keen on supporting innovative community solutions across Wales where there are communities of people who are happy to look at those solutions. The team that facilitates that is engaged in that at the moment.