Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to introduce funding for public bodies to help ensure the provision of offline options for service users.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.

Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.

Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.