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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what metrics he uses to measure digital inclusion; and whether those metrics include targets.

There are several sources that the government uses to measure digital inclusion. In August 2020 ONS published data stating that 96% of households in Great Britain had internet access, up from 93% in 2019 and from 57% in 2006. According to this dataset the number of adult non-users of the internet is now 2.7 million, down from 3.9 million in 2019. The 2019 Oxford Internet Survey also shows that internet use has stabilised at very close to 100 percent for almost everyone below the age of 50, and at over 90 percent for everyone with an income of at least £20,000 per year. The Lloyd’s 2020 Consumer Digital Index tells us that 78% (an estimated 42.5 million) of the population have Essential Digital Skills for life.

We do not have targets for digital inclusion.