Gigabit in Scotland: public review report - revision 2

5. Next Steps

The Scottish Government has used this information to define the eligible Intervention Area for potential future procurements under the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy Scheme^[8] and is in the process of finalising the design of procurement areas as a subset of the intervention area. These have been discussed with the market via a Pre-Procurement Market Engagement exercise. In line with the scheme, potential procurements are likely to include both “Local Contracts” using the existing Dynamic Purchasing System and “Regional Procurements” using the restricted procurement procedure.

A map showing the potential local (Type A) and regional (Type B) procurements can be found in Appendix C. 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.

Further detail of the Lot 1 procurement can be found in Appendix D. This will be followed by regional Lot 5 procurement which includes an initial 48,914 properties in the North East. A further 19,518 properties are included as deferred scope and will be considered for inclusion in the latter stages of contract delivery should they not be connected by other means. Further detail is provided in Appendix E.

The process required for the provision of gigabit broadband infrastructure under the scheme across all of Scotland is expected to take around 5 years with the first contracts awarded in the second half of 2024.

The UK Government plans further interventions beyond those described above as part of Project Gigabit.