Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 19 October 2022.
It makes quite a big difference to how the planning system works, Darren. I'm just telling you, it makes a difference, and it's not a utility.
I also don't know what the UK Government's contract with Openreach to do this piece of work looks like, but why on earth doesn't it involve them in having to utilise existing infrastructure? Ours did. Theirs ought to have done. So again, I'm not in charge of that. It's about time they stepped up to their responsibilities. We've had to put economic development money into expanding broadband in Wales for a long time, because the UK Government have been absolutely dead asleep on the job.
However, I wasn't aware of the particular problem. If you want to write to me, I will certainly look into it, but I would imagine that it's to do with the contract provision, so I will probably want to ask you to write and ask the UK Government Minister whether they're prepared to discuss with me what the contract arrangements for Openreach are for that particular contract. But just bear in mind that, if it was a utility, the planning rules would be very different.