Siobhan McMan yn cael ei ddechrau i ddechrau i ddefnyddio ym 2015 oedd y Cymru a Gwylfaenedd Cymru. Ond nid oedd ei ddechrau i ddefnyddio yn ei ddechrau i ddefnyddio'r ffons alsy�au i ddechrau i ddefnyddio'r systemu. As i ddechrau i ddefnyddio'r papodau ar y format digital, ddoddiadau i ddefnyddio'r tablets yn y ddechrau i ddefnyddio. Nid o fwy o obologi ac yn ddechrau i ddefnyddio'r mwy o ddefnyddio, gyfarwyddon mewn mynd i nôr. Beidio gweld ydw i'n maes cych tarech, ydy seentyn a'r eu ffrônid ac felaintio chi'i ei safiach triedr i gŵr i'w mwythbyr ei g 부탁. Mybi ar ddigwyddol ar yr afer ac mae'r mwyaf rydyn ni wedi hyd iidiol o gyfaerddau ei hysty discussionsol i gafoddau ar y cyf pis yma neu i eu ddweud hefyd bodiesibol o seřad, gyda gennych amser i chi'n drafodaeth yma甚麼 I ask the committee to agree to take agenda item 4 consideration of the committee's work programme in private. Are we agreed? Agenda item 3 is for the committee to take oral evidence from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy on digital infrastructure and participation. I welcome John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, Trudy Nicholson, head of broadband policy and Duncan Nisbit, senior stakeholder manager at the Scottish Government. Good morning. Thank you, convener. I welcome this opportunity to update the committee on our preparations to deliver high quality digital connectivity, which is a major priority for the Scottish Government. This underpins our economic strategy, helping our businesses to reach new markets and ensuring that people can work flexibly. Amongst the many benefits we are seeing, helping to reverse depopulation is amongst the most important for rural Scotland. The impact of our £410 million digital Scotland superfast broadband investment programme is being felt right across Scotland. Over 390,000 homes and businesses across Scotland now have fibre services available to them as a result of our investment. On average, the programme is connecting 7,000 new homes and businesses every week. Early take-up has been strong, and as a result of that, the contracts have generated a gain-shear return of around £18 million—a new funding that can be used to further extend the reach of the project. The investment is having a transformational impact as it connects premises across Scotland, but I recognise and share the frustration of communities that don't yet know when or if the programme will reach them. We are taking steps to address that. BT is about to start modelling the gain-shear funds, which will push the DSSB programme even further, but will also make it clearer where it won't go. That will allow community broadband Scotland to proactively work with those communities to develop alternative solutions. I am determined that communities that are ultimately not included in the digital Scotland programme are not left as an afterthought. Community broadband Scotland has a critical role to play. It is already working with 89 communities comprising more than 16,000 premises to help them to develop plans for faster broadband. Earlier this year, CBS provided almost £1 million to a group of island communities in Ergyll for a project that saw the internet contract to deliver superfast broadband to more than 1,400 homes and businesses. That is a fantastic project, an innovative technology solution, an alternative supplier, a community-owned asset and superfast broadband for some of the most challenging rural premises in the country. It is a great example of what CBS can do. Similar projects in Fife and Sky will start procurement in the coming weeks. We recently announced funding of £9 million under the 2014 to 2020 Scottish Rural Development programme to support this type of project. That more than doubles our investment in community broadband and should help communities across Scotland to follow the leader of the Giga Plus Ergyll. We are also looking at options for a second phase of superfast broadband investment. £21 million has been made available by the UK Government, which the Scottish Government has agreed to match fund. One option is to extend the current digital Scotland contracts and the modelling that BT is about to start will help to demonstrate potential impacts. However, BT will not only need to demonstrate value for money, it will need to fully complete its commission roll-out as planned and demonstrate a continued willingness to invest alongside the public sector going forward. There are other aspects to the whole issue of connectivity, issues around mobile connectivity, where we have seen an innovative project delivered on the island of Cal in partnership with Vodafone, where we brought 4G services to the island using a community-owned mast, which has demonstrated the impact that mobile coverage can have on remote communities. We are also focused on improving digital participation and on ensuring that the digital economies are well served by the investments that we make on skills and development support to ensure that we reap the full economic benefits of the investment in superfast broadband. We should not underestimate the progress that has been made over the past year. The benefits of our substantial investment across the digital agenda are being felt, but there is more to do, and the Government is focused on ensuring that we equip Scotland with the digital connectivity to ensure that we can meet the needs and aspirations of people in Scotland. Thank you very much, Deputy First Minister. You mentioned the progress that has been made in rolling out a digital Scotland superfast broadband programme. I understand that alongside the commercial roll-out of fibre broadband, the programme is intended to extend access to fibre broadband to 85 per cent of premises by 2015-16 and at least 95 per cent of premises, which equates to 750,000 homes and businesses across Scotland by 2017-18. Are those targets still on target to be met? Yes, they are. The progress that has been made in the roll-out of superfast broadband gives us confidence that we are on track to achieve those targets. There is, of course, as the committee will be aware, an important interrelationship at the heart of the contracts, which is about putting in place the necessary confidence of support for the investment programme that has been agreed, but also trying to secure even greater digital connectivity as a consequence beyond the 85 per cent and 95 per cent targets. I would be certainly one of my perspectives in managing this contract is to ensure that we have the right monitoring framework in place to stretch those 85 per cent and 95 per cent targets with the ambition of exceeding them if we possibly can do it. Clearly, by definition, if we are meeting a target of 85 per cent or 95 per cent, we are therefore not meeting the ambition to extend access to every home in Scotland. There will be homes and businesses that are excluded and that are subject to what is referred to as digital exclusion. What more can the Government do to address that? Essentially, I suppose that this is the moving feast that is at the heart of this process. I want to be clear with the committee that I do not support and the Government is not prepared to countenance digital exclusion. We have a commitment to work to ensure that every individual in Scotland and every business is able to secure digital connectivity of the quality that is envisaged in this programme. The challenge for us is about how to deliver that within a commercial contract. If the Government had not intervened in all of that, commercial coverage would have reached about 66 per cent, so we would have had a yawning gulf of connectivity within the country. The Government's intervention has improved the position from 66 per cent to what will be 95 per cent by the end of 2017, but we cannot leave it there. I want to be crystal clear with the committee that the Government is focused on ensuring that the remaining 5 per cent are able to be connected and have access to the technology. If we focus on that 5 per cent, some of that, I hope, will be eroded by the measures such as the gainshare announcement that I referred to earlier on, whereby the management of the contract and the roll-out of the programme has ensured that there will be greater access to superbast broadband than had been envisaged before. That is the first point. The second point is that, of course, we have a range of different interventions in place to try to further erode that 5 per cent working through community broadband Scotland. Part of the objective of community broadband Scotland is to find solutions for some of those hard-to-reach areas. The giga plus Argyll example is just one of the projects that CBS is working on. What makes all that work slightly more complicated is the fact that it is not absolutely clear where the 5 per cent are going to be. That is something that we work with communities to identify and work with BT to clarify. Obviously, we are prevented from putting in place what I might call a CBS solution if BT commercially or through the digital Scotland's superbast broadband programme are going to get there and make that provision. I appreciate that that is not an absolute definitive clarity for individual communities. Now, I quite understand the frustration that there are in different communities that they cannot quite get a definitive answer as to whether the commercial programme is going to get to them or not going to get to them. However, we are working very closely with BT to try to establish the parameters of that challenge and see how we can deliver that as effective as we can. You mentioned in your opening statement the substantial investment that has already been made and which will continue to be made by the Government in pursuing its ambitions to roll out digital connectivity across the country. Is it envisaged that there will be further financial investment necessary to achieve further progress? I think that that will be the case. The investment that has been made just now is aimed to deliver 95 per cent access by the end of 2017. As I have said already, I am optimistic that that investment will raise that level beyond 95 per cent simply by the way in which good working practices, removal of obstacles and improvements in the digital participation that we are seeing. As a consequence of all the different measures and interventions, that 95 per cent will rise. However, the amount of money that we invest will not need to rise to deliver that. However, there will still be a proportion that requires further investment, and I think that that will require more money than we have already committed to CPS and to the Scottish Rural Development programme. When will you be in a position to update the committee on the actual detail of that? That feels to me to be some time off, convener, as to when. I am satisfied that, between the CPS resources available and the SRDP resources available, and the competitive pressure that I am applying on the contract is to secure an increase in the 95 per cent connection level. There are enough stretching factors within the contractual arrangement to keep the pressure on to maximise the value that we achieve for the investment that we are making. It is only after I have seen the performance of all those interventions that I make a further judgment about additional resources. That does not feel to me as if that is something that will be done within the next 12 months. It may not even be yourself that is taking that decision. Who knows how long I will be here for? I am sure that your long gravity is a politician. It is something that can be assured, if nothing else. Adam, do you have a supplementary on that point? Yes. Good morning, Deputy First Minister. A couple of questions. One was on the gain share issue that you discussed. Clearly, BT is the major people who are actually putting the infrastructure in and possibly even benefiting from the broadband connections through their services. Can we not be doing a little bit more in terms of squeezing, as you say, more value out of the contracts, given that BT seems to be in a position to gain quite a lot over time from the connecting up of Scotland? Yes, I think that we can do that. I want to assure the committee that that is uppermost in the contract management approach that we take as a Government. I do not see the 18 million gain share as the last gain share that we will get. I think that there will be further. Plain a wee bit what the gain share is about. Essentially, it is driven by the increase in the higher than modelled take-up rate. There is a modelled take-up rate of superfast broadband, which essentially underpins the justification of the investment of public funds in the project. Where that is exceeded, we obtain a gain share, so we essentially get a payback. For example, for argument 6, we thought that 10 per cent of the population would connect to superfast broadband, and it turns out to be 15 per cent. That is a pretty substantial difference of 15 per cent versus 10 per cent. That is what drives the gain share. There will also be efficiencies to be secured the more we roll out the contract, because lessons will be learned about the way in which the services and the fibre can be most effectively deployed. That also flows into the management of the contract into the bargain. We exercise very regular and robust management of these contractual arrangements. We do that to ensure that the investment that we are making from the public purse is able to be maximised to give us the greatest coverage possible and the greatest impact possible. That is why, in my answer to the convener earlier on, I was making the point that it is not immediately clear to me how much more money I would have to put in to close the final gap, because if I can use the £410 million that we have committed to get that 95 per cent up to 96, 97 or 98 per cent, then clearly I have stretched the value of this investment and I have minimised the call for additional resource that may well be required to ensure that everybody has access to digital connectivity as a consequence. There is a complex interrelationship at the heart of the contract, but I want to assure the committee of the attention that the Government has on making sure that the maximum value is realised for the investment that we have made. On the face of it, BT seems to dominate the market and arguably competition is at a premium, so it falls to the Government, does it not, to ensure that the value for money for the taxpayer is really maximised in this situation? I entirely agree with Mr Ingram's point. That is exactly the approach that we are taking on the management of this contract. There are wider regulatory issues here. Obviously, they are out with the legislative competence of the Scottish Government, but the regulatory framework around the roll-out of broadband and the provision of broadband is not fit for purpose. There is a universal service obligation on BT to provide telephony services to every household in the country. That was put in place in the 1960s. We are in a completely different world today to the one that we were in 15 years ago in terms of digital connectivity. The regulatory framework has not caught up with that and does not have the necessary obligation on BT to provide the type of connectivity that members of the public should expect in the 21st century, just like they were able to expect when the 1960s or 70s, whenever the USO came in for telephony services. That needs to be addressed. There are ways to get around that in the short term. Obviously, I am having a very regular dialogue—a very productive dialogue, I would have to say—with the board of OFCOM. I have met the chief executive of OFCOM, Sharon White, on two occasions now to stress much of that point. In the absence of a regulatory framework that puts a universal service obligation on BT, I am looking to OFCOM to really exercise the type of obligation and regulatory pressure on BT to make sure that the type of ambitions that Mr Ingram has quite understandably set out to the committee today are actually fulfilled. I think that it must be next week that I have seen the OFCOM board in Edinburgh. I very much welcome the interests that they are taking in the discussion and the provision in Scotland. I look forward to that discussion with the board. Can I ask you finally, Deputy First Minister, has the Scottish Government submitted its final intervention area proposals to broadband delivery UK-BD UK? No, we have not. That work is being modelled at the present time, and I would expect that modelling work will follow on from the modelling work that is done on what to do with the gain share resources. Once that is completed, that will be submitted to the UK Government. I would envisage that that would be done before the end of the year. Before I leave the issue of connectivity, I have mentioned previously to previous ministers that I live in a town in which we have a fibre broadband and a blaze of publicity a few years ago, but I cannot get it because I am connected directly to the exchange. In spite of the fact that the now First Minister suggested last year that I was being singled out for that treatment, which I do not believe, can you tell me how widespread a problem is in our town centre? I do not think that I have a definitive figure on the extent of that issue, but I know from my constituency experience that it is a not uncommon problem. If it helps to address the question that I was going to ask, where does that problem, or the solution to that problem, figure within the grand scheme? Essentially, it is an issue that has to be remedied as far as possible within the parameters of the 95 per cent connectivity that I talked about before. The solution to many of those questions, and I have a certain amount of technical understanding of all those processes, but the committee will forgive me if I do not get too much into the technical details. There is one particular village in my constituency that I can think of where, essentially, there is a three-part roll-out of super-vast broadband. Two thirds of it involves the placing of two cabinets in the village, one third of it is people who are in exchange-only lines. That is a more time-consuming issue to solve. Some of it may be solved by the provision of infrastructure that intervenes to address that point, but that is what occupies the time and the challenge in the roll-out of super-vast broadband to a lot of localities. There have been more than 70,000 exchange-only lines that have been activated or enabled for super-vast broadband already as part of the programme. It is not a peripheral problem, and it has also had a pretty substantial response, but that number I would expect to grow as the contract rolls out yet further. Moving on to the subject of connection speeds, what average broadband speed does the Scottish Government want Prime Assist in Scotland to be able to have access to? The average speed is at—the target speed is 24 megabytes per second, although the vast majority of the connections that have been made so far are receiving speeds of between 50 and 100. Are we in danger of getting to that old situation where the way to achieve the average is to push speeds higher and higher in the areas that it is easy to achieve and ignore the areas on the periphery where it is difficult to achieve higher speeds? Yes, but I think that the objective of our programme is to deliver the maximum speed that we can, although there will, by necessity, be challenges in the delivery of speed that further lines or properties are away from exchanges, and there will be that sort of technological challenges at that level. What is being done at the moment to raise the speeds that are below the average? I think that what we are trying to do is to maximise the effectiveness of the programme. We have essentially got 91 per cent of premises that are receiving at least the 24 megabytes, and of those, 69 per cent are getting speeds above 50. Now, the challenge will be what technical measures can be taken to try to deliver higher speeds for those below 24. Obviously, the priority for the programme is to try to get people into some sphere of Supervast Broadband. Supervast Broadband is only defined by 24 megabytes per second. Therefore, we are working with our partners to try to deliver that level of connectivity, and, of course, there will be significant improvements on existing speeds as a consequence of the roll-out of the programme. Although people may not get 24, they will be getting significantly better speeds than they are getting today. The last question that I have written down here is probably not a fair question, but the question is, when will the target be reached? Is it a target that we will ever reach or will the target keep moving? We do not have a target on connectivity. There is a definition of Supervast Broadband, which is 24 megabytes per second. The target that I am trying to achieve is to get 100 per cent access to Supervast Broadband for people in Scotland, and that is the one that we are aiming for. Obviously, we can be judged on whether or not we are able to secure such a level of connectivity. I have a couple of questions about the Broadband Connection Voucher scheme. I note that, on 3 September, the Government announced that over 40,000 vouchers have been issued in the UK, yet only 2,087 have been from Scotland. Given that the vouchers are issued on a first-come, first-served basis, do you have any idea why the uptake would be so low in Scotland and what the Government is doing to encourage Scottish businesses to take advantage of this scheme? We have got a number of awareness-raising measures in place that are delivered through our work with BDUK, through the work of the Digital Scotland programme, through the work of CBS to encourage more and more companies to take up Supervast Broadband. We obviously have to persistently take forward those steps to make sure that we raise full awareness about the opportunities and the possibilities because of the significant contribution that this can make to business. One of the steps that we take is through the wider work that we take forward in digital participation to encourage a greater understanding and awareness of the opportunities that are presented by digital connectivity. That is an area where we work closely with our enterprise agencies, the business gateway and some of the new start business organisations such as Entrepreneurial Spark and Scottish Edge to encourage companies to consider immediately the importance of having digital connectivity and what that can provide for the ability to undertake well-connected business activities on behalf of companies in the marketplace. Do you have a feel for why the uptake is being lower here than it has in the rest of the UK? I do not have any specific rationale for that. I can only talk anecdotally about the mood that I detect within the new start business community, for example, where they literally cannot get digital connectivity quick enough because it is seen as a major element of how they take forward their business activities and their business programme. I can see the advantages that are very clear to be seen and taken up by a range of organisations. Certainly what we do concentrate on is making sure that there is as wide an awareness as possible about the availability of the voucher scheme and we look to public authorities and enterprise bodies in other agencies to make sure that awareness is raised with members of the public. The provisions that you have outlined there are about trying to make sure that people are aware of the Government scheme but also incentivising them. Is there any other way to incentivise them to take partners? The key thing is about awareness raising. One of the issues about digital participation from the business community perspective is that we have to more and more encourage the business community to think about how it takes forward its business operations through the medium of digital connectivity. I think that there is a tendency at times for organisations not to think about how they can adapt their business proposition to operate through a digital medium, as opposed to the traditional way of operating that they may have. Awareness raising is the key thing that we can do to try to encourage and motivate more and more organisations to participate. I hope that the cabinet secretary will forgive me if I go over some territory that you have already covered, but I think that I will learn to live with that convener with your disapprobation. However, I think that those issues are really important and there is no harm in underlining them. First of all, I should say that I warmly welcome the expenditure that the Government is making with the fibre optic roll-out. Nothing is an island at all, my adult life. Nothing transformed my life more than the coming of the internet, the initial coming of the internet. Nothing I can think of in 36 years leveled the playing field between rural, remote rural life and urban life more than the coming of the internet. I warmly welcome the expenditure, but I feel that it is very important, because I have had numerous complaints from constituents now that the Scottish Government has taken ownership of this to a degree in providing a solution. I feel that constituents do not fully understand that this is a matter that is wholly reserved to Westminster and that you touched on the business of this, the preferred solution, and I can see the wisdom in that being a universal service obligation that is fit for purpose in the 21st century. Do you agree with me that that ultimately would be the best way to tackle this? I do, because it would put the onus on BT to essentially provide the foundations of appropriate connectivity in the 21st century—appropriate and relevant connectivity in the 21st century. I completely agree with Mr Mackenzie's analysis of the impact of this on rural Scotland. One of the points that I have made in countless speeches—I apologise to the committee if any of you have had any of the members have had the misfortune to have heard this line of argument before, but I will make it again, because I think that it is important. For the first time in history, the Highlands and Islands in an economic downturn has outperformed the rest of Scotland. To me, that is because of digital connectivity, because in every economic downturn in the past, what the people of the Highlands and Islands have had to do to overcome economic difficulty is to leave. Then we spend years trying to recover from the fact that people had to leave the Highlands and Islands and find economic opportunity elsewhere, and we have had to try to recover it and restore it. All my life, since the visionary interventions of the establishment of the Highlands and Islands development board have probably gone on, and what digital connectivity does is largely eliminates that disadvantage. People have been able to stay in the Highlands and Islands, remain digitally connected, make their living in the Highlands and Islands and continue to contribute to their communities. I am not sure if Mr Mackenzie was in the chamber yesterday for my speech in the debate on the economy, but I was at the opening of Loch Boysdale Harbour, a project that has been taken forward by Stora Suist, a community interest company in the south-east. I had a discussion with stakeholders about what would be the key interventions that would make all the difference to the community. I suppose that two of them lept out at me. One was digital connectivity, and the other, of course, was ferry connections, which are issues that the Government is currently addressing. However, the digital connectivity point was so significant to everybody that I talked to in that stakeholder gathering about how they could continue to live in a magnificent part of the world, how they could pursue their educational opportunities in that magnificent part of the world and trade from that magnificent part of the world, all because of digital connectivity. The point is absolutely central to how we tackle rural depopulation. The area in which Mr Mackenzie lives is a part of the Hans-Annes, which is still suffering from rural depopulation, but we have an opportunity if we get the right to start to stem the tide of that rural depopulation. It is about more things than digital connectivity, I readily concede, but this is one major contributor to how we can actually do that. I think that the task would be easier if we had the foundation of a universal service obligation, but in the absence of a universal service obligation, the type of constructive dialogue that I am having with OFCOM is designed to make sure that we make as much progress to ensure that sufficient regulatory pressure is applied to deliver, in my view, as much along the way to universal service obligations as we possibly can. I could not agree more with what you are saying, cabinet secretary. One aspect of difficulty appears to be the fact that I pay tribute to BT and HIE for the work that they are doing across the Highlands and Islands. From my previous career, I know just how challenging some of that work can be. However, one of the things that I have not been able to understand is why they are unable to tell us in some community areas whether or not they will actually be able to provide the fibre optic connectivity that people want and therefore who exactly, which communities exactly are going to be left in the remaining 5 per cent that will have to be covered by community schemes. Just in passing, I would pay a huge tribute to them all in the Iona community trust, who I think have led the way for the Argyll community broadband project. It seems to me, fatherless, as to why they are unable to tell us which areas, as yet, they will be unable to reach to allow some of those communities who have fears that they will be left behind to start to get to grips with community broadband schemes. Are you able to shed any light on that? First of all, I would like to reiterate a point that Mr Mackenzie made, which is about paying tribute to what BT has managed to achieve. It is very easy to criticise BT. In a whole number of respects, but there has been very effective roll-out of the service. By the end of August, 86,940 premises in the Highlands and Islands had connectivity and BT are on track to pass their quarter 3 2015 target of 93,946 premises by the end of September. Those are very significant achievements, given the terrain and the challenges. Nearly 300 cabinets have been established by June 2015, and more than 800 kilometres of access cabling laid and 400 kilometres of subsea cabling laid. Again, I was able to discuss with the grouping in South East on Saturday the mainstay cables that have been laid across the minch to connect the western aisles. Essentially, a spine connection down the whole of the western aisles has now been laid from which the feeds can be taken to roll out the services. There has been a great deal achieved. I also want to put on record my appreciation of the work of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which has driven the project very aggressively as one of its key interventions to support economic development in the Highlands and Islands. It has been very well led by the team at Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Mr Mackenzie's question is the $64 million question, to be honest, because it is the one to which everyone is waiting for an answer. As I rehearsed to the convener earlier on, if BT is going to go somewhere in the provision of fibre broadband, we then cannot justify a non-BT programme solution to go in there. We cannot do it, it is against state aid rules. It would help if we had greater clarity about what are the areas that BT is unlikely to go to. That is difficult to define, because BT also has me on its back saying that I want that 95 per cent up at 96 or 97 per cent. It is not all an issue that can be attributed to BT, because I am trying to maximise the effectiveness of the £410 million that we have invested. If we do that, it minimises what else I have to put into the pot to try to deliver connectivity across the board. There are likely to be some more obvious areas where BT is unlikely to go. Therefore, there are probably more examples that could be shared with us about how there are limitations to what is going to be the reach of the BT programme and how we could then respond accordingly to put in place some of the early preparation of community-based solutions that would meet the needs of individuals in communities. If I could turn now to smartphones, which again I appreciate as an area of telecommunications that is fully reserved, it seems to me part of the way that these services in general are designed to operate is to integrate with each other. My perception on the ground is that and SPICE have very helpfully provided us with a pretty comprehensive briefing. A lot of the data is derived from the latest Ofcom data and yet I do not recognise that data. As a frequent traveller across the Highlands and Islands living there, this device works superbly and seamlessly here in Edinburgh integrates with the fixed line provision and so on. I now have an effective and efficient method of working here in Edinburgh, but it is not by no means a level playing field even in terms of the data in as much as I do not recognise the maps, I do not recognise the connectivity so that if I could perhaps explain it that 3G for instance is not what it was a year ago, because I think it is greater usage, so what used to be perfectly acceptable 3G coverage in certain areas now no longer functions well, in fact functions less well than 2G did 2 or 3 years ago. Is there anything that the fibre optic intervention, the community broadband, is superb and a terrific intervention? Is there anything that the Scottish Government can do to influence the mobile connectivity situation also? This is again a significant issue. I have two devices, an iPad and a smartphone, and they are from different networks, so I feel as if I have got a pretty good understanding of where you can secure connectivity around the country, because Mr Mackenzie will appreciate that I am on the road a fair amount into the bargain. I can sympathise with his point about the relevance of the maps. I was utterly conversant with every moment that you can get a 3G signal between Parliament and my house in Perthshire, every single moment, and I choose my moments to access the system given my knowledge of that connectivity, which was pretty intermittent, to be honest. I have to say that I am seeing an improvement on that journey, so I now have more. The connectivity is improving. I even, much to my surprise, my delight. I was sitting in a cafe in Eilith in my constituency and I happened to look at my smartphone to realise that I had a 4G signal. That may have explained why I had numerous complaints on constituents about the intermittent of the mobile network for a few days beforehand, but it was obviously the upgrade that was being undertaken. There are clearly improvements being made in the mobile connections, but I do not think that the maps that Mr Mackenzie refers to or the level of connectivity reflect the real world of people's experience. I have invited the four mobile network operators to meet me, and we met some weeks ago—I am just trying to think times passing so quickly. Was it July? To open up a discussion about accepting that the regulatory issues are not mine to resolve, because they are not, how we could, by collaborative work, try to improve mobile connectivity within Scotland? Three things are relevant in that respect. The first, is that the mobile operators are increasingly seeing the mobile infrastructure as having a relevance to the fibre infrastructure, and there is now a much greater connection between those two, a much greater proximity between the two. Of course, there are company acquisitions and transactions that will make some of that ever closer as a consequence of transactions that are under way. That is the first point. The second is that I was keen to identify practical ways in which the Scottish Government and other authorities that we work with could try to help to improve mobile connectivity. One of the issues has come down to literally the height of masts. As members of Parliament, we will all be familiar with the sensitivities around issues around masts and deployment. For me, I think that we have a duty. If members of the public are complaining about poor connectivity, to answer to try to help mobile companies to find some of the solutions by addressing some of the mast issues and saying to constituents and communities, look if you want better connectivity, maybe putting in fewer objections to masts might help getting that connectivity. Not an easy message to sell, I concede, but I might leave that to Mr Johnson to convey on my behalf. That is some of the debate that we have to have. We are going through a process of looking at what are the practical steps that we can take in that aspect. Thirdly, it is to encourage mobile operators to maximise the co-operation between themselves. They were anxious to assure me that they have co-operation around the sharing of masts and infrastructure, but I have encouraged them to go away and to reflect further on that. We have set out the agenda, which will be about the Government and public authorities looking at how we can take steps within our existing competence, whether it is around planning or the regulatory regime that we control, or about some issues around business rates, and how we can advance some of those questions to help to improve the roll-out. The companies are going away to try to see how better they can work together, and we are going to reconvene in about three months' time to take stock of how much progress we have made in that respect. I am personally going to chair those discussions and drive them to make sure that we make more progress in that question. We live in a world where I travelled from Oban to Loch Boysdale on Saturday morning. If there had been an issue with the ferry service, which there was not—it was a magnificent ferry service and ferry crossing—I might have wanted to access the CalMac app on my phone, because I could not have done it on the street in Oban, because I did not have any appropriate connectivity to enable me to do so. If people are coming to visit our country from cities around the world where 4G is yesterday's technology and they suddenly decide to share with us the beauty and the majesty of a CalMac ferry trip from Oban to Loch Boysdale, they will have a challenge of connectivity on the main street in Oban. Final question, cabinet secretary. I wonder if you agree with me that a lot of the other—this is perhaps important in other public policy areas and public policy difficulties in the Highlands and Islands. For instance, if we are going to advance telemedicine in the most rural areas, and if we are going to deal with the issues in attracting rural GPs and rural teachers, part of that problem is the perception that rural parts of Scotland are backwaters and that one way of addressing that is to give—to end this inequality of connectivity. There are areas that perhaps do not spring foremost to mind of public policy difficulties that can be eased and helped by good connectivity. I think that it is central and it is not only central to the issues around rural connectivity, it is central to the management of the public finance challenge that we all face, whether it is in urban or rural Scotland. For example, there is some excellent work under way in health and social care about very efficient integrated assessments of individuals that are undertaken by members of the staff who are out there in the field and they are feeding back their information and the data that they are gathering and all the rest of it through smartphone devices. It is some tremendous work going on. That is fabulous if you have connectivity. Some of that can be a challenge in urban Scotland as well, but there will be occasions where we can meet some of the challenges of rural service provision by having access to really high-quality digital connectivity that enables staff out in the field to do their job to fulfil their requirements and to be able to feed that information back into the system and to interact in a way that really supports the needs of vulnerable individuals in our communities. That is one crucial application. Another is about educational access. I was recently at Murray College in Elgin and I was delivering a speech in a lecture theatre. The principal of the college told me that, prior to my contribution, there was a lecture delivered there that went to 40 locations digitally. People are able to get access to quality interaction education from 40 locations around the Highlands and Islands, from one place in Elgin, and nobody has had to go very far. Some people might have had to go far even to get to that digital point, but they have not had to leave an island community or travel long distances. Crucially, that enables people to remain within their localities and to make a significant economic contribution as a consequence. I refer back to the minister's previous comment. I note that, 15 years ago, the most common thing in my mailbag was people complaining that they believed that they were going to suffer physical damage as a result of mobile phone mass. Today, the biggest thing that I get in my mailbag is people complaining about poor mobile phone signals. I think that we have gone through a change there and we can perhaps drive that on. Just another observation. I heard the other day that it was on radio force that it must be true that you can get a 4G mobile signal on the summit of Mount Everest. I know that you tell me that you can get one mail with as well. Are we at a point where we actually have to reconsider our priorities and perhaps look at using the mobile infrastructure that is developing rather than carry on with relentless quest to get a physical connection to every property? Well, I think that this in some ways fits into the issue about finding the right solution for all properties. We are a product of our history as a society and our correctivity has been built around the roll-out of cables to all properties and that is fundamentally what underpins our infrastructure. However, one of the interesting points in my discussion with the mobile network operators is that one of the points that I made in my response to Mr Mackenzie is that it was very clear to me that they view the delivery of a mobile solution or the delivery of a fixed line solution as part of the same consideration. It may well be that we get to the point where for some users in the country, a mobile solution is infinitely more practical and infinitely more affordable and infinitely more sustainable and probably infinitely more future-proof than a fixed line solution. That is part of the iterative process that we have to go through to meet my objective of making sure that every individual is properly supported by digital connectivity and having access to digital connectivity. Some of those individuals in remote areas may well find that the solution lies in an affordable broadband solution. Thank you. Thank you very much, convener. You touched on the importance of digital inclusion earlier on in your remarks. We have recently seen the UK Government coming up with a digital inclusion outcomes framework. Will the Scottish Government be using the framework or do you intend to benchmark progress yourselves? We are having a look at that framework to see if it would be the most appropriate and suitable for us to take forward. That issue is currently being examined by the Government. Once we get further in the road of that analysis, I am very happy to share the conclusions with the committee. Apart from the physical infrastructure investment that is going on, what other areas would you regard as very important in terms of promoting digital inclusion? The first thing to say is that we have generally had a general sense over the years that Scotland lagged behind in digital participation. I have always been pretty sceptical about those numbers, but I have never really believed them. Recently, we had data that showed that about 82 per cent of the population were using the internet for personal use, which I think rather more closely relates to what I would have thought would have been the position. I think that we are now seeing—I was up in Alipwll. The cabinet was meeting Alipwll a few weeks ago, and I observed a marvellous project that takes place in the library in Alipwll, where older members of the community can come in to meet up with teenagers who sit with them with their iPads and their smartphones and explain to them what to do. In every respect, it was just a marvellous thing to observe. Apart from the atmosphere of mutual respect between older people and younger people and younger people and older people, there was a genuine appreciation among the older people who were there that those young folk were helping them to get access to the modern world. We should not understate the significance of what that can contribute to enabling everybody to be participants. If we go down the route that I was talking about with Mr Mackenzie of seeing many of our public services delivered through in a digital context, then we need to have everybody able to access that technology and to be able to do it in a fashion that meets the needs of all citizens. Our participation efforts are designed to ensure that, as well as the physical connections that are in place, more and more people of different backgrounds are able to contribute to the process within our society. It goes hand in hand with our efforts to tackle social exclusion. There is also relevance in terms of the wider agenda on ensuring that public services meet the needs of individuals. Having apps on a smartphone that enables people to monitor their health condition or to take off prescribed medicines or even their exercise regime are all powerful elements of what can be delivered to meet the needs of individuals. I am committed to making sure that we improve and increase awareness and encourage the maximisation of participation in this area of activity by all elements of society. On a slightly different tack that is related, what can the Scottish Government do to help employees of small and medium enterprises to achieve the necessary digital skills to push forward their business? As you point out, that technology is developing all the time and skills are required. We have just launched a new digital skills academy called Codeclan, which is a partnership with the private sector. That is one of the measures that we are putting in place to ensure that there is the ability to generate the skills pipeline that we require within the country. Obviously, there is a very significant obligation on our further education and higher education institutions to be able to contribute in this process as well as the school sector. We have to make sure that the type of support that is available meets the needs of the emerging marketplace. We will continue to review that, because, as I said in the chamber yesterday in response to an intervention from Mary Scanlon, I rarely go through a discussion with the business community just now, or for some considerable time, without digital skills being raised as a significant issue. I can ask you about the international dimension and perhaps ask you to reflect on what lessons Scotland can learn from the roll-out of broadband infrastructure in other European countries, particularly countries that have similar geography in terms of remoteness to Scotland. The key thing that I would say is that we have to have a very focused programme for the delivery of this infrastructure. I am satisfied that we have got that, but I could see how it could be easier for us if we had the type of regulatory environment that I talked about earlier on in my answer. That would make it a great deal easier to pursue the subjective and it would make it a great deal more focused. There is good focus in the programme now. There is impetus behind the programme. There is the necessary drive to deliver it. Comparatively speaking, our programme is very ambitious in world terms. You always get very worried when civil servants tell you that your programme is ambitious. It is always a moment to be nervous about what you are doing, but we have a very ambitious programme. However, I think that the lessons that I would learn that I would take from it are about ensuring that we have a real drive and focus around how we can deploy those interventions. Is that something that your officials have looked at in terms of what other smaller European countries approach has been to the issue of the roll-out of broadband? It is. It is part of the work that is under way to support the development of the world class programme that we are looking at, as to how we can ensure that all of what we are doing is equipping Scotland with some real strategic advantages and benefits for the years to come. Okay. The European Commission has identified the completion of the digital single market as one of its own 10 political priorities and launched a digital single market strategy earlier this year, which includes a series of initiatives to be delivered by the end of 2016. So, can I ask you what are the implications of the digital single market for Scotland and what work is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that the benefits from that are available, particularly in terms of better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services across that digital single market? That is a fundamental opportunity across the board within Scotland. What we aim to do is ensure that we seize the opportunity that emerges for businesses and consumers alike. It is very clear to me that, and I used this illustration earlier on, that many of the new start companies in Scotland, if I go back 25 years to when I was working in the business development sector in Scotland, one of the early things that would suggest a company that was trying to embark on market development was to print a brochure. On 25 years on, it is nice to have, but it is not going to get the type of presence in the marketplace that digital connectivity can deliver for companies. I am very struck by, in the new start business community, the extent to which people think that once they have their smartphone, that is them off. They are international traders. The world is their oyster because they have that connectivity. We have to make sure that we have the infrastructure that can fit into what is an increasingly digitised marketplace, and that the digital single market is an illustration of that. Our infrastructure commitment will be important in supporting access in that respect. Our inclusion support will ensure that we have people who are able to participate in the single market. Crucially, our dialogue with Ofcom is important in ensuring that the interests that we have and the concerns that we have about the digital single market are properly and fully advanced by the United Kingdom Government as the member state who will be involved in these discussions on our behalf. Is there any direct dialogue and discussion between the Scottish Government ministers and officials and the European Commission on this, or is it all directed through the member state in London? We obviously maintain dialogue with the European Commission on all questions, but the primary dialogue in this area is undertaken through the United Kingdom Government. You mentioned world-class connectivity. Are you in a position to provide us with a status update on where that work is at? The work that we are undertaking here has been taken forward by the Scottish Futures Trust. It is involved in a great deal of dialogue around the industry and with the public sector to identify how we can create—it is essential that it is at the heart of what SFT does for us. It draws together different players and identifies how we can maximise investment as a consequence of collaboration. That work is under way. I am awaiting further feedback from SFT about those questions. We have some progress in relation to projects such as the Isle of Cal project that I mentioned in partnership with Strathwed University and some support to the SME community around Edinburgh University. However, we hope to have some further work identified to be taken forward beyond March of next year, which will be informed by our contribution to the infrastructure investment plan, which will be published alongside the budget. Do members have any other questions for the Deputy First Minister? In that case, I thank you, Deputy First Minister and your officials for appearing before the committee this morning. I also thank you for your leadership in the area of digital connectivity and participation and the roll-out of superfast broadband across Scotland more generally. Thank you very much indeed. We look forward to further updates in the future. I will now suspend our meeting briefly to allow the witnesses to leave the room.


Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. It's fantastic, of course, to be here in Manchester at the best attended conference for years.  And I want you to know, I understand that some of you may have been lightly, mildly peppered with abuse on the way in. Were you? Well, they're good. Good. I'm delighted that you weren't. But even if you were, even if you were, I don't think any of us are abashed by that kind of thing or downcast because we're conservatives and we get on with serving the people of this country. And speaking of service, I should begin by paying tribute to my predecessor, Theresa May.  And yes, we will continue with your work of tackling domestic violence and modern slavery and building on your legacy. I've been prime minister for only 70 days, but I've seen so many things that give me cause for hope. Hospitals that are finally getting the investment to match the devotion of the staff. Schools where standards of reading are rising through the use of synthetic phonics. Police colleges where idealistic young men and women are enrolling in large numbers now to fight crime across the country. Shipyards in Scotland that are building superb modern Type 26 frigates for sale around the world. And every one of those high-wage, high-skill jobs in shipbuilding, in government is a testament to the benefits of belonging to the United Kingdom. The most successful political partnership in history, which we will protect and defend against those who would wantonly destroy it. And I say to Ruth Davidson as well, thank you, Ruth, for everything you did and have done for the cause of conservatism in Scotland and we will honour your legacy too. And I'm proud of the role that this government is playing in every one of those investments. And of course, they are only possible because it was this conservative government that tackled the debt and the deficit left behind by the last Labour government. It was because we cleared up the wreckage they left behind that we now have record employment. Wages rising the fastest for 10 years and we have record foreign direct investment of £1.3 trillion, more than any other country in the EU. So we have so many reasons to be confident about our country and its direction and yet I feel sometimes we're like a world-class athlete with a pebble in our shoe. There is one part of the British system that seems to be on the blink. If Parliament were a laptop, then the screen would be showing, I'm afraid, the pizza wheel of doom. If Parliament were a school, if Parliament were a school, instead would be shutting it down or putting it in special measures. If Parliament were a reality TV show, then the whole lot of us, I'm afraid, would have been voted out of the jungle by now. But at least we'd have had the consolation of watching the speaker being forced to eat a kangaroo testicle. The sad truth is that voters have more say. Voters have more say over I'm a celebrity than they do over this House of Commons, which refuses to deliver Brexit, refuses to do anything constructive and refuses to have an election. Just at the moment, when voters are desperate for us to focus on their priorities, we're continuing to chew the super-masticated subject of Brexit. When what people want, what leavers want, what remainers want, what the whole world wants is to be calmly and sensibly done with the subject and to move on. And that is why we are coming out of the EU on October 31st, come what may. Conference, conference, let's get Brexit done. We can, we must, and we will, even though things have not been made easier by the surrender bill, we will work for a deal with our EU friends, but whatever happens, we must come out by the end of October. Let's get this thing done, and then let's get ready to make our case to the country against the fratricidal anti-Semitic Marxists who were in Brighton last week. Last week, Jeremy Corbyn had a number of damaging and retrograde ideas in his speech. He wants a four-day week, which would slash the wages of people on low incomes. He wants to ban private schools and expropriate their property, and he wants the taxpayer £7 billion to educate the kids. He wants to stamp out excellence in schools by banning off-stead the inspectors who ensure that schools are safe for our children. But he had one good idea. He had a whole paragraph repeating what he has said every week for the last three years. He wants an election now. That is what he was going to say. Poor fellow. The only trouble is that the paragraph was censored by John McDonnell or possibly Keir Starmer, so we have the astonishing spectacle of the leader of the opposition gagged prevented by his colleagues from engaging in his constitutional function, which is to try to remove me from office. In this age of creative litigation, I am surprised that no one has yet sued him for breach of contract. Well, though it now appears that the SNP may try to bundle him toward the throne like some Constantine Chernenko figure, look it up, reluctantly propelled to office in a Kremlin coup so that they can get on with their programme of total national discord, turning the whole of 2020, which should be a great year for this country into the chaos and cacophony of two more referendums. A second referendum on Scottish independence, even though the people of Scotland were promised that the 2014 vote would be a once-in-a-generation decision, and a second referendum on the EU. Can you imagine another three years of this? But that is the Corbyn agenda. Stay in the EU beyond October 31st, paying a billion pounds a month for the privilege, followed by years of uncertainty for business and everyone else. As for the Lib Dems, their idea of serving the national interest was to write to Jean-Claude Juncker, urging him not to give this country a better deal. Well, when the leader of the Liberal Democrats has called for a second referendum, while pledging to campaign against the result, it's time to respect the Trade Descriptions Act, my friends, and take the word Democrat, out of Liberal Democrats. After three years, after three and a half years, people are beginning to feel that they are being taken for fools, and they're beginning to suspect that there are forces in this country that simply don't want Brexit delivered at all. And if they turn out to be right in that suspicion, then I believe there will be grave consequences for trust in our democracy. Let's get Brexit done on October 31st. Let's get it done because of the opportunities that it will bring, not just to take back control of our money and our borders and our laws, to regulate differently and better to take our place as a proud and independent global campaigner for free trade. Let's get it done because delay is so pointless and expensive and debilitating. Let's get it done because we need to build our positive new partnership with the EU. Because it cannot be stressed too much that this is not an anti-European party. This is not an anti-European country. We are European. We love Europe. I love Europe anyway. I love it. But after 45 years of really dramatic constitutional change in our relationships, we must have a new relationship with the EU, a positive and confident partnership. And we can do it. Today in Brussels we are tabling what I believe are constructive and reasonable proposals, which provide a compromise for both sides. We will, under no circumstances, have checks at or near the border in Northern Ireland. We will. We will respect the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement and by a process of renewable democratic consent by the Executive and the Assembly of Northern Ireland, we will go further and protect the existing regulatory arrangements for farmers and businesses on both sides of the border. And at the same time, we will allow the UK whole and entire to withdraw from the EU with control over our own trade policy from the start. And we will protect our precious union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And yes, yes, this is a compromise by the UK and I hope very much that our friends understand that and compromise in their turn. Because if we fail to get an agreement, because of what is essentially a technical discussion on the exact nature of future customs checks, and technology is improving the whole time, then let us be in no doubt conference of what the alternative is. The alternative is no deal. And that is not an outcome we want. It is not an outcome we seek at all, but let me tell you, my friends, it is an outcome for which we are ready. Are we ready for it? Yes, we are. Are we determined to resolve this? Yes, we are. Let's get Brexit done by October 31st because we have to get on and deliver on the priorities of the people. To answer the cry of those 17.4 million who voted for Brexit, because it is only by delivering Brexit that we can address that feeling in so many parts of the country that they've been left behind, ignored, that their towns were not only suffering from a lack of love and investment, but their views have become somehow unfashionable or unmentionable. And let's get Brexit done for those millions who may have voted remain, but who are first and foremost Democrats and who accept the result of the referendum and want to get on. And when I say that I want us to work together now to bring this country together, of course you're entitled, it's the first time I've spoken to you as party leader and Prime Minister at this conference, you're entitled to ask about the interests and the ideals that drive me and are going to drive me as your Prime Minister. And I'm going to follow the example of my friend Sajid Javed who gave a brilliant speech. I'm going to quote that supreme authority in my family, my mother. And I know that there are some keen students of alleged divisions in my family on matters of the EU.  My mother voted leave. My mother taught me one thing she taught me many things, but she taught me to believe strongly in the equal importance, the equal dignity and the equal worth of every human being on the planet. That may sound banal, that may sound banal, that may sound trite, but it is not. You have to understand that and believe in that. And there is one institution in this country that sums up that idea. The NHS is holy to the people of this country because of the simple beauty of its principle. That it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, but when you are sick, the whole country figuratively gathers at your bedside and does everything it can to make you well again. And everybody pays to ensure that you have the best doctors and the best nurses and the most effective treatments known to medical science. And after 70 years, the results are on the whole amazing. When I was a kid, the word cancer heart attack was a terrifying thought. Well, we are slowly beating back the legions of disease. This country has seen the fastest falls in breast cancer in Europe, but we have so much more to do. On Monday I went to the North Manchester General Hospital and I saw the incredible work that they are doing with maxillofacial reconstructive surgery. On people who only a decade ago would have been probably permanently disfigured by their traumas. People for whom hope and confidence is so important. And I talked to the patients, every one of them bursting with praise for the staff, for their energy and care. But that conference, that fantastic hospital was built in 1876 to serve the work house. And we were walking down long narrow nightingale wards that were designed by the pioneer of nursing. And as one of the managers told me, it's asking professionals, asking professionals to work in that environment is like asking a premiership footballer to play on a plowed field. And so I was proud to tell them that under this government we will totally rebuild that hospital. And thanks to the work of Health Secretary Matt Hancock we're not only recruiting more doctors and nurses and training them, but in the next 10 years we will build 40 new hospitals in the biggest investment in hospital infrastructure for a generation. Because after 70 years of the existence of the NHS and 34 of them under a conservative government, it is time for us to say loud and clear we are the party of the NHS. And I claim that title. I claim that title because it is our one nation conservatism that has delivered and will deliver the economic growth that makes those investments possible. And it's we conservatives too who will solve the problems of social care and end the injustice that so many people have to sell their home to pay for their old age. And if you ask me how are we going to do it? How are we going to pay for it all? How are we going to grow the UK economy? I will tell you it is by raising the productivity of the whole of the UK, not with socialism, not with the deranged and ruinous plans borrowed from the playbook of Bolivarian revolutionary Venezuela, but by creating the economic dynamic free market capitalism. Yes, you heard that right. When did you last territorially to talk about capitalism? We are the party of the NHS precisely because we are the party of capitalism, not because we shun it or despise it. And we understand the vital symmetry at the heart of the modern British economy. We need dynamic enterprise culture and great public services. And I have seen that formula in action for a long time myself. Now who comes from London? Hands up. It's all right, it's all right, who lives there? Don't worry, nothing, no discrepancy. I used to be mayor, I used to be mayor there. It's one of the fantastic place, greatest city on earth, greatest city on earth. And it's one of the many astonishing things about our nation's capital. It is the most productive region in the whole of Europe for lots of reasons in 1863 amongst other things we were the first place to think of putting trains in tunnels and that kind of thing. Yet there are many other regions of the country that are far less productive. And that represents not just an injustice, though of course it does, but a massive opportunity. Because I believe that talent and genius and hutzpah are evenly distributed across the UK, but it is also clear that opportunity is not evenly distributed. And it is the job of this one nation Conservative government to unlock talent in every corner of the UK. Because that is the right thing to do in itself and because that is the right way to release the economic potential of the whole country. And the first thing you've got to do, basic hygiene if you're going to spread opportunity is to insist on the equal safety of everybody's street wherever they live. And that's why we're recruiting 20,000 police officers. Pretty indeed, thank you, Saj. And that is why we are committed to rolling up the evil county lines drugs gangs. The evil county lines drugs gangs that predate on young kids and send them to die in the streets to feed the cocaine habits of the bourgeoisie. And we will succeed. And yes, we will be tough on crime. We will make sure that the police have the legal powers and the political backing to use stop and search because it may be controversial, it may be controversial, it has to be done politely and in accordance with the law but believe me when a young man, and I'm afraid it's almost invariably a young man, is going equipped with a bladed weapon there is nothing kinder or more loving or more life saving you can do than to ask him to turn out his pockets and produce that weapon. And yes when people are found guilty of serious sexual or violent offences we will make sure that they serve the sentence they should if only for the protection of the public. But we will also as one nation conservatives do everything we can to stop people becoming criminals with rehabilitation, with education in prisons so they are not just academies for crime but also by investing in youth clubs and better FE funding, further education funding to give young people the best possible antidote to the criminal instinct that is the prospect of a good job and indeed the best way to level up and expand opportunity is to give every kid in the country a superb education. So that's why that's why we're levelling up education funding across the country with the schools that have fallen furthest behind now seeing the biggest increases every child has the chance they deserve to express their talents and it's so that they can get the jobs that we are creating so that they can get the fantastic jobs that we are creating that we're improving connectivity investing in transport a fantastic project of Northern powerhouse rail that is now getting the go ahead from Manchester to Leeds just the first leg and of course a huge new program of rail rail improvements but of course of road improvements as well and I think of the M60, the A66 what are the other ones sad you've recited them yesterday the A3, the A3, the A5 the A3, the A3 they're huge the Lincoln roundabout we're doing there's a huge range of things that we will be investing in now and furthermore I admit that it's been exposed in the past I am a bit of a bus nut I confess that I like to make and to paint slightly inexact, very inexact models of buses with happy passengers inside I'm actually more interested in the passengers and the buses it's not just that I am a bus nut that we want to expand just because I'm a bus nut that we want to expand bus transport we want to make our buses cleaner zero carbon zero emission across the country with contactless payment by card or by phone so that people want to use those services we get the cars off the road we reduce congestion we reduce pollution and a good bus service can make all the difference to your job to your life, to your ability to get to the doctor, to the livability of your town or your village and indeed to your ability to stay there and start a family have a business there and it's for exactly that reason to increase connectivity and livability that we are now accelerating the program for gigabit broadband so fast and it's going to be to be truthful I'm not entirely sure of the exact technical details of gigabit broadband we're bringing it forward by eight years and it will mean that everybody has not just super fast but incredibly fast speed of light broadband spreading into every home in the country like super informative vermicelli and bringing people together giving people opportunity giving people certainty that they can as I say start a business raise their family where they are and that is the way I think with better connectivity with better transport better education to unite the country and to bring it together but there is of course another vital effect of the right infrastructure technology you increase the productivity of the whole UK economy if the streets are safe, if the transport links are there, if you have good Wi-Fi, good broadband connections what else do you allow to happen Eddie you allow new housing to go ahead huge numbers of new houses on brown field sites that were never considered viable before and that's the way forward and you allow young people to get a foot on the housing ladder and you allow young people to live near the good jobs and above all with safe streets and affordable housing and fantastic Wi-Fi we give as I say business the confidence to invest and to grow is the virtuous circle, the balance and the symmetry at the heart of our One Nation project and there are so many ways in which this country is pulling ahead London has overtaken New York as the number one city for investment in FinTech firms and that's before we've even delivered Crossrail which by the way was on time and on budget when the last mayor left office and isn't it isn't it time isn't it time we had a mayor isn't it time we had a mayor who is focused on the job of running London and isn't it and isn't it time isn't it time we got behind our fantastic candidate Sean Bailey let's back Bailey for London in 2020 and here in Manchester things are stormy and we're seeing an extraordinary growth in genomics a flood of inward investment from banking and insurance to IT and that's before we've delivered northern powerhouse rail linking up the whole of the northern region in the way that we're going to do in the west midlands we are already seeing a 21st century industrial revolution in battery and low carbon technology just as the west midlands led the world in the previous industrial revolution 19th century absolutely true one in five electric vehicles sold in Europe is now made in this country it's a fantastic thing and we're going to increase it we're going to accelerate we are going to have a battery a battery gigafactory a battery gigafactory and that is before we have even begun with Andy Streets mayor Andy Streets brilliant vision of a west midlands metro system that's the future and it's a linking up the urban centres of the west midlands in the way that needs to be done and what we conservatives are going to do it's always conservatives who lead the way on great infrastructure projects and with infrastructure education technology we are going to drive up the productivity of this country and bring it together now look I don't for one moment doubt the patriotism of everybody on all sides of the Brexit argument but I'm fed up myself of being told that our country can't do something we believe that it can and thanks to British technology there is a place in Oxfordshire my former constituency actually in Oxfordshire that could be soon the hottest place in the solar system I think they told me it was already the hottest place when I went there it is the Tokamak fusion reactor in Cullum and if you go there we told that this country has a global lead in fusion research and that they are on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature fusion reactors for sale around the world delivering delivering virtually unlimited zero carbon power now I know that they have been on the verge for some time it's a pretty spacious kind of verge but I think they tell me now I'm on the verge of the verge but I remember all you skeptics I remember it was only a few years ago when people were saying that solar power would never work in cloudy old UK and they said that wind turbines would never pull the skin off a rice pudding remember that well there are some days now when wind and solar power are delivering more than half our energy needs and we're going to be zero carbon neutral by 2050 we can do it with new technology we can do it we can become carbon neutral by 2050 we can beat the skeptics we're already using gene therapy to cure blindness this country leads the world in satellite technology and we're building two space ports one in Sutherland and one in Newquay and soon we'll be the whole of the UK benefit from these investments and soon we'll be sending missions to the heavens geostationary satellites which will be by the way infrastructure in space will be of huge value to this country now conference can you think of anyone who could trial the first mission can you think can you think which communist cosmonaut we should coax into the cockpit let's well there you go let's the invitation is there let's get brexit done on October the 31st not just because we have such an immense agenda to take this country forward but because of course brexit is an opportunity in itself we will take back control of our fisheries and the extraordinary marine wealth of Scotland and it's one of the many bizarre features of the SNP that in spite of being called names like salmon they wanted to hand back control hand back control they want to hand back control of those fish to the EU Alistair we want to turbo charge the Scottish fishing sector they would allow Brussels to charge for our turbot you see that one coming you can see but it's true we will be able to allow UK business when we leave the EU we will be able to allow UK businesses and manufacturers to have bigger tax breaks for the investments they make in capital and new technology out of the EU we can do free ports we can use the tax regime to do free ports and new enterprise zones we can ban the cruel shipment of live animals that has offended the British people for so long and yes we will have those free trade deals so as I have the honour to tell you just actually in the last few months I've seen an Isle of Wight shipbuilder that exports vast aluminium leisure catamorans to Mexico we export Jason Donovan CDs to North Korea would you believe it and we exported Climate Change to America though he seems to have come back across the world there are countries and anybody who's involved the foreign side anybody who travels abroad will testify to this across the world there are countries that are yearning to engage with us where we have old friendships and burgeoning new partnerships and that and particularly in the Commonwealth it was that was that pretty heckling me from the front interjecting from the front from a sedentary position you're quite right the Commonwealth 2.4 billion people the fastest growing economies in the world amazing opportunities and and that is our vision for Britain a country that is open outward-looking global in mindset insisting on free trade a high wage low tax high skill high productivity economy with incomes rising fastest for those who are lowest paid a country where we level up and unify the entire United Kingdom through better education better infrastructure and technology a country where provided you obey the law and do no harm to others you can live your life and love whomever you choose a country a country that leads the way with clean green technology and reducing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change a country that is happy and confident about its future that is the vision for the country we love and when the opposition finally screw their courage to the sticking point and agree to have an election when the chlorinated chickens finally waddle from the Henkoop where they are hiding that is the vision for the country that we will put to the British people and the choice is clear we put up wages with the biggest expansion of the living wage for a generation Corbyn Corbyn would put up taxes for everyone we back our superb armed forces around the world and look after our veterans Corbyn has said he wants the armed forces disbanded we want an Australian style points based system for immigration Corbyn has said he doesn't even believe in immigration controls if Jeremy Corbyn were allowed into dining street he would whack up your taxes he would foul up the economy he would rip up the alliance between Britain and the United States and he would break up the United Kingdom we cannot allow it to happen but he's it is worse than that because it's become absolutely clear that he's now determined to frustrate Brexit what do we want to need do we want more dither and delay do we want to spend another billion pounds a month on EU membership when that could be going on the NHS no let's get Brexit done let's finally believe in ourselves and what we can do this country has long been a pioneer we inaugurated the steam age here in Manchester we inaugurated the atomic age the age of the genome we led the way in parliamentary democracy in female emancipation and when the whole world had succumbed to a different economic fashion this country and this party under a female Prime Minister pioneered ideas of free markets and privatisation that spread across the planet every one of those ideas every one of those ideas was controversial every one of them was difficult but we always had the courage as a country to be original to do things differently and now we are about to take another giant step to do something no one thought we could do to reboot our politics to relaunch ourselves into the world and to dedicate ourselves again to the simple proposition that we are here to serve the democratic will of the British people and if we do that if we do that with optimism if we do that with optimism and confidence then we I tell you we will not go wrong so let's get on with sensible moderate one nation but tax cutting conservative government and figuratively figuratively if not literally let us send Jeremy Corbyn Corbyn into orbit where he belongs conference let's get Brexit done and let's bring this country together thank you very much