The House of Lords is advising the prime minister to take “decisive action” and set out a cross-governmental plan to tackle digital exclusion, as up to 10 million adults in the UK now lack basic digital skills — like using a computer to surf the web, edit word documents, or even access online banking.
In its Digital Exclusion report released on Thursday, the Communications and Digital Committee warns that the Government lacks a creditable plan to tackle both digital exclusion and digital poverty, despite wanting the UK to become an artificial intelligence (AI) tech superpower.
According to the report, at least 2.4 million people are still unable to complete a single basic digital task to get online and five million workers will be acutely under-skilled in basic digital skills by 2030. This follows an Ipsos report in 2022 that found at least 10.2 million adults lack fundamental basic skills for getting online.
Added to this, around 1.7 million households have no broadband or mobile internet access. Last month, a Citizens’ Advice survey found that as many as a million people cut off their broadband last year because they could no longer afford it.
“We want the prime minister to care about digital skills as much as he cares about maths — it’s quite shocking that 2.4 million people can’t do a basic digital task, like connecting to wi-fi, using a mouse, or using a webpage,” Communications and Digital Committee chair Baroness Tina Stowell told the Standard.
“One interesting thing is that young people who we think of as digitally native...while they might be good on their iPhones, social media, or TikTok, when it comes to basic skills when they start work, they’re not equipped either.”
Despite ICT classes in schools and numerous initiatives focused on coding and computer literacy, the Communications and Digital Committee found there are huge numbers of people leaving school who lack even the most basic of digital skills and are unprepared to enter the workforce.
This is despite the fact that in 2022, 82 per cent of all jobs advertised listed digital skills as a key requirement.
A Government spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age. Steps we are taking include putting essential digital skills on an equal footing in the adult education system alongside English and maths.
“To boost access, we have worked closely with Ofcom and the industry to bring a range of social broadband and mobile tariffs, available across 99% of the UK and starting from as low as £10 per month, and our £5 billion Project Gigabit has already resulted in 76% of the UK being covered by gigabit broadband, up from just 6% at the start of 2019.”
To tackle the digital exclusion crisis, the House of Lords wants to see investment in teaching basic digital skills in schools, digital-inclusion hubs in communities where people can go to learn about how to access online services, and urgent action to help people cope with the cost-of-living crisis.
Fixing this problem will cost money, but the financial returns could be significant. A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found that that every £1 invested in basic digital skills could generate an overall return of £9.48 by 2032.
The CEBR estimated that filling basic digital skills vacancies would generate an estimated £2.7 billion for UK businesses, plus £586 million in increased worker earnings and £179 million in additional earnings from finding work. Increased tax revenue for the Government could amount to £483 million.
Young people leaving school without digital skills
In 2023, it seems unheard of that, in a first-world country like the UK, young people could be leaving school without having the most basic digital skills, especially since the Department for Education (DFE) developed the Essential Digital Skills Framework that sets out eight foundation skills that adults must know, including the ability to turn on devices, connect to wi-fi, log onto the internet, and how to keep passwords safe.
“It is hard to understand why it's not being promoted in the way you would expect,” said Baroness Stowell.
“People don't always leave school as qualified as they should — there should be more emphasis on delivering these skills in communities or the workplace.”
She added that, while the Government has had many initiatives, what the Communications and Digital Committee now wants to see is a strategy that spans across the whole government and is “constantly monitored”, as poverty and lack of access to technology are also key, not just a focus on education or qualifications.
One major issue, she stressed, is that although libraries are able to offer people a place to access the web and to print documents, many libraries struggle to help everyone and lack the support to provide digital literacy classes and assistance to people who need it.
The Government is to introduce new digital Functional Skills qualifications (FSQs) from August 2023, The Standard understands, and funding is available for essential digital skills training through the Adult Education Budget including in community settings as determined by local areas.
Elizabeth Anderson, interim chief executive at charity Digital Poverty Alliance, has some explanation for why education is so inconsistent. One reason could be that, in many schools, pupils do not have their own devices — and there is no device at home for them to use.
“During the pandemic, a quarter of children did not have access to a device suitable for learning. We’re not seeing a big change here since then,” she told The Standard.
“Yes, there was an initiative by DFE to get machines out to schools, they did provide several million devices to schools, but some schools did not have in-house IT departments, so they lacked the capability to get the devices set up and get them to children.”
Ms Anderson added that the charity sees vast numbers of children who might have access to a mobile phone, but this is not adequate: “We see children being bullied when they have to stay late after school to use the pool laptops, we're seeing parents desparately asking neighbours, trying to find somewhere for their kids to do their homework.”
To try to combat this, the Digital Poverty Alliance has teamed up with consumer electronics retailer Curry’s to offer refurbished computers with Windows 10 and an internet broadband connection for £49 to people who are eligible for Universal Credit or have disabilities, as well as to rural communities without access to technology, and to charities.
Digital Poverty Alliance also wants to see the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) actively signpost help to people in need, such as social tariffs, where people in difficult circumstances who are eligible for Universal Credit can request a subsidised broadband package from their internet service providers.
Highlighting such a service in letters already being sent to citizens about benefits or in job centres would not incur any further costs at all, Ms Anderson stressed.
“Take-up of social tariffs is currently only 5.1 per cent of all eligible people. There’s a lot of support that can be gained just by telling people it is there — there’s no central strategy signposting people to help they can access.”
