Lords Committee – UK Gov Needs Credible Plan to Tackle Digital Exclusion

A new Lords Committee report has today become the latest to try and tackle the age-old problem of Digital Exclusion (i.e. getting everybody online and ensuring they have the right skills). The Committee finds that the scale of the problem is a “direct consequence of political lethargy” and highlights the UK Government’s “lack of a credible plan.”

According to the report, some 1.7 million households have no mobile or broadband internet at home. Up to a million people have cut back or cancelled internet packages in the past year as cost-of-living challenges bite. Around 2.4 million people are unable to complete a single basic task to get online (e.g. opening a web browser) and over 5 million employed adults cannot complete essential digital work tasks.

Historically, such issues have been down to a mix of obstacles, such age (the oldest pensioners are less likely to be online), disability, the lack of basic IT skills (skills shortages cost the UK economy £63bn each year) and low incomes / money. In some areas, the lack of a viable fixed line or mobile broadband connection can be another issue, although this only impacts a small portion of users.

In response, the Committee’s report calls on the Government to “demonstrate leadership“, not least by urgently publishing a new digital inclusion strategy and establishing a cross-departmental government unit with a direct line into Number 10. The new strategy should, they say, focus on several key areas.

The Five Key Recommendations

➤ Act decisively to help with cost of living: to prevent more people becoming digitally excluded over the next 12 months the Government should cut VAT on social tariffs (available to those on state benefits) and work with businesses to help to scale-up internet voucher initiatives. It should ask public sector organisations to donate old devices to digital inclusion initiatives and encourage businesses to do likewise.

➤ Invest in basic skills: the most basic digital skills are now as important as maths and literacy. They should feature more prominently in schools, apprenticeships and adult learning courses. This is about teaching people the basics, not coding. More attention also needs to be paid to interventions that do not involve qualifications—community organisations in particular are key to delivering local-level interventions. Businesses must be engaged to help equip employees with the most basic skills.

➤ Boost digital inclusion hubs: there is inadequate support for community-based digital inclusion hubs. Domestic and international evidence suggests place-based inclusion support works. The Government should build on existing examples in the UK, focusing on libraries and other local amenities.

➤ Prioritise competition alongside local benefit: the Government is backing vital telecommunications upgrade programmes. But smaller providers may be crowded out. This would mean less market competition and fewer digital exclusion benefits provided by local alternative networks who connect and support poorly served communities. This trade-off deserves more attention from Ofcom and the Government.

➤ Future-proof public services: the Government must review the increasing use of predictive machine-learning tools in public services. Digitally excluded groups are likely to be poorly represented in some datasets that inform algorithmic decision-making. They face a growing risk of marginalisation as a result.

The suggestion of a cut to VAT on cheaper Social Tariffs from broadband ISPs and mobile operators (often indicating a reduction from 20% to 5%) is nothing new, and the industry has called for that on multiple occasions. But thus far the Government has shown no indication of a desire to implement it.

The report also calls on ISPs to improve their advertising of Social Tariffs to help take-up, which is already a common thread from Ofcom and the Government too, and there has been some progress on this front (here). But BT has previously warned that such tariffs could become unsustainable if everybody who is eligible were to adopt them.

On top of that, it’s interesting to note that the report touches on the issue of alternative network (AltNet) providers in the rollout of full fibre (FTTP) networks, albeit by warning Ofcom that smaller providers are at risk of being “crowded out“. But the catch is that quite a few of those smaller AltNets are now overbuilding each other, so this isn’t just a matter of the big vs smaller players. Everybody is also under pressure from rising costs and the need to meet take-up targets. Suffice to say that we do expect more consolidation and, past a certain point, the consequences of natural market dynamics are difficult to avoid.

Baroness Stowell, Chair of the Communications and Digital Committee, said:

“The Government has bold ambitions to make the UK a technology superpower and centre of AI development, but we can’t deliver an exciting digital future when five million workers are under skilled in digital and nearly two and half million people still can’t complete a single basic digital task. Tackling digital exclusion isn’t as sexy as searching for the next tech unicorn, but we can’t compete as a global player without getting the basics right.

We have found a distinct lack of leadership in Government to tackle this issue. It is shocking that a digital inclusion strategy has not been produced since 2014 and the Government sees no need for a new one. It is vital we get a grip of this now.

The cost of living crisis has made access to the internet unaffordable for many. We need urgent action to ensure people aren’t priced offline. This should include scrapping VAT on social tariffs and more efforts to promote their availability. The Government should also work with the private sector to expand internet voucher schemes and set an example by making more public sector bodies donate old IT equipment to digital inclusion projects.

Digital exclusion is a moving target. As technology develops people currently confident using IT at work and home will need to keep refreshing their skills to avoid being left behind. We can’t assume younger people are digital natives who won’t need to develop new skills. We need to ensure everyone and all age groups have the digital skills they need to operate and the opportunities to keep developing those skills as technologies change.”

At this point, it’s worth noting that, over the years, we’ve seen plenty of drives to resolve the digital skills problem and get everybody online, yet the issue remains. But as the new report itself recognises, “making things digital does not necessarily make them better” and “not everyone wants to be online, or online all the time.”

Suffice to say that forcing everybody online, such as by providing no alternatives, perhaps isn’t the right approach and, as a result, maintaining “accessible services and offline alternatives are essential to ensuring people are not left behind in an increasingly connected world.” But the Government could definitely be doing more to help than they are now.