Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26: programme pipeline update - March 2022

Sector: Digital

Programme name: Reaching 100% programme (R100)

Programme description: The R100 programme is a commitment unique across the UK, to enable access to superfast broadband with speeds of at least 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) to every home and business in Scotland.

Estimated total investment: Over £600 million has been committed to the R100 contracts with additional investment also available through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS).

How is programme being funded: Government funding of £600 million has been committed to the North, Central and South R100 contracts (£579 million by SG and £21 million by UKG). As the R100 contracts are 'gap funded', the contract delivery partner BT, also contributes towards the capital costs of delivery which is currently £52.4 million.

In 2021, UKG announced that it was investing £4.5 million in the Central contract area and £8 million in the North contract area to flip around 9,000 properties from fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) to fibre to the premises (FTTP).

Programme delivery timetable: While high quality infrastructure continues to be built across the country through the £600 million R100 contracts and ongoing works by commercial operators, the R100 programme has been able to make sure that every address in Scotland can access superfast broadband by the end of 2021 through the provision of the R100 SBVS, meeting the Scottish Government policy commitment.

The R100 Central and South contracts were signed in December 2019 followed by the North in December 2020, with the overall contract build currently expected to complete in 2026-27.

Latest programme progress: The R100 contract build is well underway with connections now live in all contract areas. Airth, Dolphinton and Portlethen are just a few of the many communities where properties are now benefitting from faster broadband connections following works by Openreach. Survey work has also taken place for the delivery of 16 new subsea cables, which will provide connectivity to 15 Scottish islands. Subsea cable deployment is due to start in Spring 2022 and be completed later in the year.

All of the planned R100 build in the South and North contract areas and 95% in Central, will be gigabit capable. This is more than 30 times faster than the original commitment to deliver 30Mbps. As much of the technology delivered will go beyond the original superfast commitment, the engineering works will take time but it will ensure that a future-proofed and resilient broadband infrastructure reaches some of the most rural and remote areas of Scotland.

As at 31 January 2021, connections to 5,647 premises across the R100 contracts have been built.

The demand-led SBVS continues to provide homes and businesses access to superfast broadband where no contracted or commercial build is scheduled. As at 1 March 2022, 1,670 premises had received their superfast broadband connection courtesy of an SBVS voucher with another 1,023 in the pipeline. The interim portion of the SBVS ended on 31 March 2022 following a three-month extension. Applications for the £5,000 main subsidy continue to be accepted.

Contribution to economic development: The R100 programme continues to contribute to Scotland's economy. Access to superfast broadband is a key enabler for economic recovery and R100 public spending is focused where it is needed most – in rural Scotland. This can be illustrated through recent feedback from beneficiaries of the R100 programme:

Mairi from Assynt, Sutherland said: "This installation has enabled me to accept a remote working job offer following seven years out of work." And Morven from Banavie, Highland said: "I would often travel 400 miles per week for work; I haven't travelled at all for 21 months since my home broadband improved."

Contact for public enquiries: All public enquiries should be directed towards the R100 Enquiries Team at the Superfast Broadband - R100 Public Enquiries website Further information can be found at the Superfast Broadband website.

Programme name: Digital Public Services Programme

Programme description: Increased investment in developing common digital operating platforms and the transformation of key public services.

Estimated total investment: £110 million.

How is programme being funded: Capital funding for the programme fund covers financial years 2022-23 to 2025-26.

Programme delivery timetable: Programmes are currently in-flight and are on target to deliver benefit realisation over the parliamentary term.

Latest programme progress: Digital Payments Programme made its first success run of live payments in December 2021 and will begin live payments for its Beta partner in Summer 2022. Work is underway of developing the post-Beta business case to account for a wider service customer base.

The Digital Identity Programme continues to work with its partner Scott Logic and is moving towards launch of a minimum viable product in Summer 2022 with its Secure Sign-On project to be followed by the Prove Who You Are component later in 2022. Disclosure Scotland have signed up to be the first Service Customer for the Digital Identity service. Exploratory work has begun on phase three of the service which will introduce an 'Attribute Store' component for individuals to store and choose whether to share their own personal attributes in support of accessing public services. Avocco have been awarded a contract to support this exploratory work.

The Cloud First Programme continues to provide services to Digital Payments & Digital Identity, which are crucial to these programmes and has successfully completed the migration from on-premises hosting of existing Digital Connectivity R100 and Digital Data GISaT to the SG Cloud Platform. The next stages of the programme have begun including the design and build of the scalable SG Cloud Platform Services offering AWS and Azure environments and associated services for SG core services and agencies hosting requirements from winter 2022 and commencing the procurement process to secure a One Government Value Agreement with discounts of up to 21% for SG core services and agencies that use the SG Cloud Platform. The SG Cloud Community continues to develop guidance & learning and share best practice on using cloud based services for the Scottish public sector.

To date, there have been six complete CivTech Innovation Flows. In 2021-22, CivTech handled a total of 15 Challenges (12 on the main Accelerator, 2 as Sprints outwith the Accelerator, and 1 major Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) project for NatureScot). The main CivTech 6 Accelerator was completed in February 2022, with eleven of the teams receiving post-Accelerator PCA funding. The CivTech 2021-24 Outline Business Case underwent a successful Assurance Gateway 2 in September 2021 with independent evaluation confirming significant value for money in both economic terms and societal terms. This coincided with the Programme for Government (PfG) commitment of up to £46 million funding for Challenges and £13.5 million operating costs over the lifetime of the parliament. As a result, submission of the Full Business Case to Ministers, which had been scheduled for late 2023, was brought forward and will be submitted in April 2022 and the FBC (Full Business Case) itself has been re-profiled to match the PfG commitment. During 2022-23, will see up to 20 Challenges delivered, both on the main Accelerator and as Sprints: CivTech 7. The main Accelerator is being prepared for launch in May/June 2022.

Working with CivTech, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy Delivery Programme has taken forward a number of innovation projects to deliver commitments in the strategy on transparency and accountability of public sector algorithms. The data platforms programme has delivered a first phase analytical workbench that now supports over 100 users. Subsequent phases of the platforms programme are being scoped through a series of design workshops which are being run during March/April 2022.

Contribution to economic development: The 2021 Digital Strategy commitment to Common Platforms, Payments and Identity, will drive efficiencies across the public sector in terms of re-use of common digital platforms. Digital Identity Scotland will provide a single digital identity for Scottish citizens to access public services in Scotland. The Payments platform will provide a centralised payments out/in digital service for public sector organisations to consume as required.

The Cloud First Programme enables the Scottish public sector to realise the benefits of Cloud services by accelerating the adoption of modern cloud technology by providing a SG Cloud platform, associated implementation & migration services, Cloud learning & community. The programme will consolidate technical resources across SG to ensure public services are secure, sustainable and cost effective while supporting delivery of the SGs ambitions for a modern, flexible and responsive organisation, delivering services for the citizens of Scotland.

Over a ten-year period, independent evaluation of the CivTech programme has established return on investment in real economic terms, this is currently evidenced by the CivTech 1-6 innovation challenges up to March 2022, resulting in:

• Over 600 applications from pre-starts and SME's (small and medium-sized enterprises), with over 90% of alumni companies realising significant growth, leading to a marked acceleration of investment flow from £4.2 million to £62 million, into these companies
• Creation of net 239 jobs in the tech sector at an average salary of circa £35,000 per year, delivering significant tax and National Insurance revenue and local economic impact

The AI Strategy programme is supporting innovators to bring new products to market which support Scotland's commitment to become a leader in the development and adoption of trustworthy, inclusive and ethical AI. The strategy development process showed that this is critical for adoption in public services and a differentiator in the AI market. Alongside this, the data platforms programme supports the effective use of data to support policy development and evaluation across a range of economic and social challenges facing Scotland, adopting a 'once for Scotland' approach to data analytics platforms.

Contact for public enquiries: Digital Identity Programme email: digitalidentityscotland@gov.scot / Digital Payments Programme email: SGpaymentservice@gov.scot / Cloud Programme email: Cloud1st@gov.scot / CivTech Programme email: Mark.Elliott@gov.scot / AI Strategy email: Jeremy.Darot@gov.scot