Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the role of technology in creating a more accessible retail experience for British consumers.

Our forthcoming Digital Strategy will set out our ambitions for harnessing the power of digital technologies to the benefit of our economy and society as a whole. The strategy will highlight that digital technologies, through innovation, can drive better services across various sectors.

The Government believes that there are great gains to be made through the adoption of digital technologies across all sectors. According to ONS data, SMEs which use two or more business management technologies demonstrate productivity gains of up to 25%. That is why last year we announced our Help to Grow scheme which provides financial incentives for increased digital adoption by SMEs.