Business
MSPs have questioned whether the targets set by the Scottish Government in its broadband infrastructure plan “provide sufficient clarity of ambition”.
A report to be published this week by the Scottish Parliament’s Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee highlights other European countries with similar challenges to Scotland that “have set out very clearly the high standards they aim to achieve”.
In Sweden, 40 per cent of households and businesses will have access to 100Mbps by 2015 and 90 per cent by 2020.
The Scottish Government recently announced its objectives to deliver broadband speeds of 40-80Mbps for 85-90 per cent of premises in Scotland by 2015 and by 2020 “to deliver world-class digital infrastructure for Scotland”.
Maureen Watt MSP, committee convener, said: “The ability to access fast broadband connections is becoming more and more important in all aspects of our lives.
“A reliable and fast broadband connection helps us in our social lives but it is especially crucial in enabling businesses to be able to compete on the world stage.
“High quality digital infrastructure in Scotland is essential and the committee welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to delivering this.
“The committee received evidence from a wide range of individuals, communities and businesses concerned about unreliable and slow internet connections. These issues were shown to have a particularly detrimental effect on small and medium-sized businesses outside the main urban centres of Scotland.
“To ensure that Scotland has the broadband services it needs, ambitious targets for the roll out of broadband infrastructure are needed, with a target of delivering a world-class broadband infrastructure to 100 per cent of Scotland’s population by 2020.”
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Scottish companies are falling short of achieving the UK ambition of 25 per cent female representation in corporate boardrooms by 2015. According to a study by the Scottish Review (www.scottishreview.net), of the 66 directors of six FTSE 100 companies headquartered in Scotland, only 12 are women. At 18 per cent, this is slightly better than the UK as a whole (16 per cent), but markedly worse than France (22 per cent), Finland (27 per cent) and Norway (42 per cent). Glasgow-based generator company Aggreko has no women on its 11-strong board, according to its most recent annual report; Weir Group, one out of 11; Cairn Energy, two out of n...
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Rail passengers in Scotland will soon be able to access the internet via wi-fi in a project backed by the Scottish Government and operators. Transport Minister Keith Brown told Holyrood: “One of the big issues which has arisen over recent years has been connectivity on the railways. For that reason, we are looking into wi-fi availability on trains and will soon be announcing the details of a trial scheme.” Wi-fi is available on East Coast mainline trains. But for the majority of people travelling within Scotland, using ScotRail, internet access depends on having a phone, or a mobile broadband device plugged into a laptop, and paying fo...
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The major energy provider SSE has made a significant intervention into the debate on Scottish independence by warning that the ongoing uncertainty over Scotland’s future “represents increased risk”. SSE said it had no position on the independence issue, and that its existing planned investments would not be affected, but that new investments would have to price in the risk of regulatory and policy changes resulting from Scotland ceasing to be part of the United Kingdom. “All investments have to be adequately remunerated and additional uncertainty about key issues such as regulation and legislation makes decision-making in long-t...
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Unemployment in Scotland has risen by 0.7 per cent to 8.6 per cent, with 19,000 more people unemployed between September and November 2011 compared with the previous quarter. However, GDP grew over the same period, by 0.5 per cent, in line with the rest of the UK and with strong growth in services offsetting continued falls in construction output. Responding to the figures, Finance Secretary John Swinney called for a jobs summit bringing together the governments of the devolved regions and the UK coalition. "These new figures show that there is a need for further sustained activity to support Scotland’s economic recovery – that is w...
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