Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Would you provide me with the following information on each of the agreed Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme suppliers over the last 12 months.

• Number of applications made under the scheme
• Number of installations carried out
• Number of installations carried out where a validation request email was issued to the beneficiary, who confirmed they were getting speeds of above 30 Mbps
• Number of installations carried out where a validation request email was issued to the beneficiary, who confirmed they were not getting speeds of above 30 Mbps
• Number of recipient of the voucher who have reported dissatisfaction with the quality of service they have received from the supplier at any point during the period they were a beneficiary under the scheme to administrators of the SBVS.
• Number of random audits carried out
• Number of audits carried out where the independent third party auditor have raised concerns over equipment installation or speeds provided to administrators of SBVS.

Response

Below is the response to all of the information you requested, for which I have used a data set ranging from 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024:

• Number of applications made under the scheme – 1710
• Number of installations carried out – 1202
• Number of installations carried out where a validation request email was issued to the beneficiary, who confirmed they were getting speeds of above 30 Mbps – 1,270 (Please note, this umber is higher than the number of installations carried out, as our beneficiaries have 28 days to validate their speeds,  following this they are sent a reminder, and given another 28 days to validate their speeds, so although we would have sent out validation request emails for every installation, some of these  confirmations would have been from installations in 2023.)
• Number of installations carried out where a validation request email was issued to the beneficiary, who confirmed they were not getting speeds of above 30 Mbps – 0
• Number of recipients of the voucher who have reported dissatisfaction with the quality of service they have received from the supplier at any point during the period they were a beneficiary under the scheme to administrators of the SBVS: Following the validation of speeds being above 30mbps, the commercial contract is between the beneficiary and the supplier. If there are any issues with their service, the beneficiary would raise this directly with their Internet Service Provider (ISP). The SBVS terms and conditions require that all registered suppliers are a member of an Ofcom recognised Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service.
• Number of random audits carried out – 142
• Number of audits carried out where the independent third party auditor has raised concerns over equipment installation or speeds provided to administrators of SBVS: There have been a total of 3 failed audits in 2024 due to issues with speeds on that day. These issues were followed up with the supplier and subsequently resolved.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.