That's all from Holyrood Live on Thursday 3 May 2018.

Scottish Labour has renewed calls for a public inquiry into mental health services at NHS Tayside, accusing the government of silence over the issue.

Party leader Richard Leonard raised the case of David Ramsay, who took his life in 2016 at the age of 50, during first minister's questions at Holyrood.

Mr Ramsay killed himself four days after he was twice rejected for treatment at the Carseview psychiatric unit at Ninewells in Dundee.

His family has been campaigning for a public inquiry into services at NHS Tayside and were present in the Holyrood chamber.

Ms Sturgeon said her "deep condolences" went out to Mr Ramsay's family and that the government had been in contact with them.

On the individual case, she said it would be up to the law officers to order a fatal accident inquiry.

Image source, SP

MSPs reject the Scottish Conservative amendment from the digital connectivity debate.

28 MSPs backed it and 84 voted against.

The Labour amendment is agreed to and the Lib Dem amednment is prempted.

The government motion as amended by Labour is agreed to.

Connectivity Secretary Fergus Ewing assures members that the Scottish government takes the issue of poverty and broadband access very seriously.

The new Scottish social security agency will also offer support for those without the technological tools or skills to be able to access help through other routes, he says.

The £600m investment is the largest of its kind in the UK, Mr Ewing states.

He suggests a UK body is essential to align a 10 megabit universal service obligation with those who we will not be able to connect by fibre.

The £600m is also only the first phase of the investment and will not deliver 100% coverage on its own, he states.

The cabinet secretary reiterates that once the tender process for R100 is complete there will be an announcement of when plans will take place.

Mr Ewing concludes by saying the 3% contribution from the UK government is insufficient.

Image source, bbc

Tory MSP Jamie Greene welcomes the Scottish government and UK government ambitions on closing the digital divide.

Mr Greene states: "I do wonder if in this afternooon's tit for tat we've missed a trick."

He says he still does not understand some issues around R100, for example the economic model for reaching Scotland's most remote rural and Island communities.

The Tory MSP wants a discussion about value for money in the tender process and detail about how the money will be spent.

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant welcomes the narrowing of the gap between Scottish and rUK connected premises and calls for more work to close it.

She suggests asking contractors to work with community companies and social enterprise to help them roll out further into harder to reach areas.

Ms Grant also warns about deprived communities in cities being left behind because companies know these people cannot afford some internet packages.

The Labour MSP also calls for public ownership of fibre which has been laid, suggesting that some of it has been laid over and over again.

Image source, PA

The UK government must act to fix Scotland's "unacceptable" mobile phone coverage, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is set to tell MPs.

The FSB says official figures show 17% of Scotland's landmass has 4G mobile coverage, compared to 60% in England.

It will also tell Westminster's Scottish Affairs Committee that superfast broadband availability still lags behind the UK as a whole.

The UK government say coverage where people live and work is improving.

Read more here.

Image source, bbc

Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles says people need to know over the next three and half years when the rollout of superfast broadband will reach them.

This should be included in the contracts, adds Mr Rumbles.

Image source, Getty Images

Aberdeen is to be the first city in Scotland to receive "full fibre" internet connections to nearly all its homes and businesses, we reported in February.

Broadband network specialist CityFibre is investing at least £40m in the project in partnership with Vodafone.

Work on building the network will begin this summer, with customers expected to receive gigabit speeds - 1,000 megabits per second or higher.

The companies said it would mean a "superior product at a lower cost".

Aberdeen is the second of 12 UK cities to be included in the rollout.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Last July we reported that Scotland's digital technology sector was forecast to grow twice as fast as the Scottish economy overall in the years to 2024.

Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish government-backed Digital Technologies Skills Group, in their joint report, said it was the economy's fastest-growing sector.

Their report found that it accounted for 5% of Scotland's total business base.

It also suggested that the sector now employed 2% of the national workforce.

Read more here.

Image source, Thinkstock

Edinburgh and Stirling are to be next cities for installation of ultrafast broadband cabling into customers' homes and businesses.

CityFibre announced the Scottish cities will follow Aberdeen in getting one gigabit per second potential speeds, along with Coventry and Huddersfield.

Those already set for the roll-out - in a tie-up with Vodafone - are Aberdeen, Peterborough and Milton Keynes.

CityFibre said it aimed to make digital inadequacy "a thing of the past".

Image source, bbc

Tory MSP Tom Mason commends the decision to push for 100% superfast connection.

Mr Mason warns: "We need to invest in technology infrastructure."

He says: "It does strike me as odd then that the Scottish government has only begun phase 2 of the broadband procurement recently, given that they received funding from the UK government four years ago."

Mr Ewing says it was not possible to proceed with the R100 programme earlier, as it had to wait for the DSSB programme to be completed.

Mr Bowman welcomes this new information and goes on to say that what is important is getting it done.

Image source, Digital Scotland

Click here for the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband website., external

Labour MSP James Kelly focuses his contribution on the link between poverty and the lack of access to technology.

He highlights schemes which have seen cheaper internet packages to people leading to higher uptake.

There are fundamental challenges around deprivation and poverty Mr Kelly says, and he calls for proper investment in IT facilities in libraries.

If we really want to open up the advantages of technology, we need a much wider debate he concludes.

Image source, BT

Scotland made faster progress on broadband coverage than any other part of the UK last year, according to the Scottish government.

More than 800,000 homes and businesses can now benefit from fibre broadband as a result of a £428m rollout programme.

Ministers say the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband scheme, external is on track to hit its target of supplying 95% of premises by the end of this year.

Their goal is 100% coverage in Scotland by 2021.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said Scotland was heading towards that success rate quicker than any other part of the UK.

He said: "Fast internet connection is vital to the economic and social wellbeing of our rural communities, supporting businesses and improving lives of local people.

Read more here.

The north of Scotland has been allocated £384m of the £600m programme, SNP MSP Gillian Martin notes.

It would be "grossly unfair" if the people of Scotland were excluded from the UK government's universal service obligation, she states.

However, Ms Martin goes on to criticise the UK Universal Service Obligation for only being for 10 megabits per second.

Image source, Thinkstock

Good question. The R100 is the Reaching 100% (R100) programme, a committment to superfast broadband for all.

The Scottish government says: "We want every home and business in Scotland to have access to superfast broadband by 2021 – this is our “Reaching 100%” (R100) commitment. By superfast, we mean speeds greater than 30 Mbps.

"No other part of the UKhas matched our commitment - this is unique to Scotland.

"This will deliver a future-proofed, national fibre network, placing Scotland as one of the best connected places anywhere in Europe, and underpinning our future economic growth."