Despite all regulatory and legislative responsibility for telecommunications resting solely with the UK Government, the Scottish Government has taken decisive action to greatly improve digital connectivity in Scotland. The £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has delivered transformative results across all parts of the country, including Dumfriesshire, where more than 31,000 properties in the constituency are now able to access fibre broadband as a direct result of the DSSB roll-out – with more than 27,500 able to do so at speeds of at least 24 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Of course, I recognise the ever-increasing importance of digital connectivity to all aspects of our lives – including education – and the COVID-19 pandemic has only served to reinforce that. Situations like this are why we made our commitment to ensure that 100% of properties in Scotland are able to access superfast broadband. This commitment will be delivered through three strands of activity – the main Reaching 100% (R100) contracts; a Scottish Government funded, nationwide superfast voucher scheme that will be demand-led; and continued expansion of commercial coverage. As you may be aware, the Scottish Government is funding £579 million or 96.5% of the £600 million R100 contracts with the UK Government contributing 3.5% of funding (£21 million), despite the latter having full responsibility for oversight of the UK telecommunications market.

With regards to the R100 contracts for the South and Central regions, surveys are being undertaken and we know that BT’s intention is to look to accelerate build wherever possible, with our expectation that work will begin in the South lot area this month. Of course in the South of Scotland, specifically, 100% of the build by BT, under our £134 million South Lot contract with them for R100, will be for a full fibre solution, with speeds of up to one gigabit per second. This is the current ‘gold standard’ and a tremendous outcome for almost all of the approximately 26,000 premises in the Lot area that have yet to receive a superfast broadband service.

We will launch an online checker this summer that will allow owners and tenants to determine if and when the R100 contracts will deliver a superfast broadband connection to their property.

Anyone who will be unable to access a superfast broadband service before the end of 2021 will be eligible for our new nationwide voucher scheme that will provide grants to customers in business and domestic premises; offering support to access a range of technologies and suppliers to deliver superfast broadband speed services. We are working through the details of the scheme, and I will update Parliament in due course.

Following publication of the updated Route Map on 18 June, which outlines the order in which we will carefully and gradually lift lockdown restrictions, I can confirm that all street-access retail throughout Scotland is permitted to re-open from 29 June.

Retail units are permitted to open providing they have entrance / exit(s) for customers to use connecting them directly to outside space. For non-essential retail, if the customer entrance / exit(s) connects to an indoor space, such as an indoor shopping mall they are asked not to re-open until Phase 3. This represents a change from the first iteration of the route map and previous guidance where a size threshold for Phase 2 was indicated.

We are making real and sustained progress in supressing the virus in Scotland but we must remain cautious and vigilant. COVID-19 remains a serious threat and any resurgence could rapidly undo the progress we have made.

We do not want to keep any part of the country in any lockdown measures for longer than necessary which is why we published Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland’s Route Map through and out of the crisis on the 21 May. It sets out the criteria to be met for progressing through the route map phases.

When the Route Map was published, the number of cases of coronavirus in Scotland was relatively high and community transmission was widespread. Since that time, we have carefully changed our lockdown measures following the Route Map phases, informed by the evidence on our progress in suppressing the epidemic in Scotland.

While this is real progress we must continue to work to suppress the number of infections across Scotland. We continue to monitor the virus, and data is published daily on the Scottish Government website by Health Board.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-trends-in-daily-data/

National Records of Scotland weekly COVID-deaths report also has a breakdown by Health Board.

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-report-week-25.pdf

We will continue to keep the option of geographical variation in Scotland under review.

Digital technology plays a key role in successful delivery of any blended learning model. We know that this will cause issues for some of our most disadvantaged children and young people who do not have access to an appropriate device; do not have access to the internet; or both.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing £25m to support digital inclusion amongst disadvantaged children and young people. We are in close discussion with local authorities through SOLACE, ADES and Cosla about how to deliver best value and impact on that investment to ensure as many children and young people as possible are lifted out of digital exclusion and are able to connect with their schools, their teachers and their learning.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing £25m to support digital inclusion amongst disadvantaged children and young people. We are in close discussion with local authorities through SOLACE, ADES and Cosla about how to deliver best value and impact on that investment to ensure as many children and young people as possible are lifted out of digital exclusion and are able to connect with their schools, their teachers and their learning.

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect data on children living in households without broadband. The Scottish Household Survey 2018 noted that home internet access had reached an all time high of 87%.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing £25m to support digital inclusion amongst disadvantaged children and young people. We are in close discussion with local authorities through SOLACE, ADES and Cosla about how to deliver best value and impact on that investment to ensure as many children and young people as possible are lifted out of digital exclusion and are able to connect with their schools, their teachers and their learning.

Learning at home or school should be teacher led and schools and teachers should work with learners, parents and families to take account of and adapt to circumstances such as lack of internet access when setting home learning tasks. To support teachers to deliver learning, no matter the home circumstances during school closures, Education Scotland is continuing to develop ‘Scotland Learns’ a resource bank of straightforward, open-ended learning activities which are challenging, and that develop children’s and young people’s independence in learning. These learning activities were designed to support learning at home during lockdown and can also be used to support a model of blended learning if required.

We understand that many learners who do not have access to broadband are suffering from socioeconomic disadvantage. That is why we are continuing with our commitment to invest £182 million from the Attainment Scotland Fund in 2020/21. For the first time, Pupil Equity Funding allocations have been confirmed for two years, to provide more certainty for head teachers and aid learning during the pandemic. We have also ensured that local authorities and schools have the flexibility they need to redirect Attainment Scotland Funding to help mitigate the impacts of school closures on our most disadvantaged families; and to make adjustments to existing plans to be delivered as schools return. For example, local authorities have used the funding to provide tablets to support digital learning at home, to provide transport to enable learners to attend hubs and supporting home-school link workers to maintain regular contact with children. In addition, the Scottish Government has committed to investing a further £25m in the provision of laptops, tablets and connectivity to support digital inclusion for our most disadvantaged children and young people.

The Scottish Government has developed a monitoring and evaluation framework to guide our examination of the impacts and outcomes of the new Private Residential Tenancy. This will compliment work to consider specific issues for joint tenants who experience domestic abuse as set out in PQ answer S5W-29931 on 26 June 2020.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government is aware of reported difficulties faced by domestic abuse victims who wish to exit a joint tenancy under the Private Housing (Tenancies)(Scotland) Act 2016. We are engaging with the working group looking at preventing homelessness for women and children experiencing domestic abuse, which is co-chaired by Scottish Women’s Aid, to explore this issue further and what measures might be necessary to support those in these circumstances.

Private sector tenants who are victims of domestic abuse should seek advice and support from appropriate advice agencies on their options for exiting a joint tenancy. There are provisions in the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) Scotland Act 1981 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004 on applying to the court for exclusion orders and for transfers of tenancies. The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre has published guidance on exclusion orders: https://www.scottishwomensrightscentre.org.uk/news/covid-19coronavirus-info/exclusion-orders-what-are-they-and-how-can-they-help-if-im-experiencing-abuse-at-home/

The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre also provides free and confidential legal advice with a Freephone number 08088 010 789, or the Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234.

In these unprecedented times, the safety and well-being of women and children who are at risk of experiencing violence during the coronavirus (COVID-19) is paramount. We have therefore, provided additional funding of £1.35 million to Scottish Women’s Aid, as part of the Scottish Government’s Communities Fund of £350 million.

Activities permitted under the various phases of the route map for exiting Covid 19 are kept constantly under review. This will be in line with maintaining physical distancing and suppressing the spread of the coronavirus. In addition, due to the impact of coronavirus, all driving tests in the UK have ceased until further notice, with the exception of emergency tests for critical workers. The timing of the resumption of driving tests is reserved to the UK Government, but any resumption of tests would have to be in line with the Scottish route map out of lockdown.