Gigabit in Scotland: public review report - revision 2

Appendix D: Lot 1 Procurement Details

The first procurement (Lot 1) launched in May this year and included 11,394 properties throughout the Scottish Borders and parts of East Lothian, Midlothian and South Lanarkshire. The Lot 1 boundary plan shown below has been defined as being bounded by the Scottish national border in the South and the North Sea coast in the East/ North East. The Lot broadly follows the boundary with the Local Authority areas of Dumfries & Galloway and South Lanarkshire in the West with the exception of the moorlands between Broughton and Moffat where no premises exist. This creates a natural barrier in the west of the lot. The North of the Lot area is bounded by the natural barrier of the Pentland Hills and crosses through East Lothian to the coast dividing the Edinburgh commuter belt area (where commercial activity exists or is planned) with the more rural part of the Local Authority area.

The Scottish Government has carried out market engagement to seek feedback from suppliers on the Scotland-wide intervention area and individual Lot design, including procurement type and market capacity to bid for potential procurements.

The total public funding investment has been based on the number of premises requiring subsidy. The Scottish Government confirmed a budget drawn from public funding for this area within the tender documentation. Details of any restrictions on the use of public subsidy are explained within the tender documentation.

Lot 1 is a Type A (local) procurement with 11,394 in-scope premises for a subsidy amount of £26,296,482. The in-scope premises for the procurement are shown below, with the sub-superfast (< 30 Mbps) premises shown in a different colour for transparency. Full details of eligible premises are included within the tender documentation and are available to suppliers on request.

This procurement was designed utilising data from the PR conducted in Scotland referred to in this document and supplemented with information derived from the October 2023 rolling Open Market Review undertaken by the Scottish Government and subsequent supplier and programme updates received up to the 19^th January 2024. Premises identified as no longer valid in our baseline Ordnance Survey data were also removed. This ensures that we have used the most up to date information about suppliers’ existing and planned commercial build with supplier submissions being used to inform eligibility across Project Gigabit in Scotland procurements.

The Scottish Government is confident that integrating these rolling OMR findings will ensure the best possible outcome for this procurement area, maximising both coverage and value for money accordingly. Our interventions will always flex to respond to both changes in the dynamic marketplace, and the appetite for our procurements.

The procurement for Lot 1 is being carried out in accordance with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015^[9]. Scottish Government procurement approaches are designed to address the scale of the individual procurements. The Lot 1 procurement is being conducted in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner. The Scottish Government reserves the right to amend or withdraw the procedure for the competitive sourcing process at any time. Any amendments will be done in line with the Procurement Regulations.

Suppliers acknowledge and accept that by issuing this document, the Scottish Government shall not be bound to progress or conclude any related procurement activity.

Under no circumstances shall the Scottish Government incur any liability in respect of the information contained in this document or any supporting documentation.

Timescales

The following table summarises the indicative timescales for the Lot 1 procurement:

Activity: Procurement start date

Date: May 2024

Activity: Estimated contract award date

Date: November 2024