Event Report: Data Poverty APPG’s State of the Nation Report Launch
On Tuesday 25 October, the Data Poverty APPG held a reception launching its first annual State of the Nation report. The session took stock of a year of APPG activity and looked ahead to how the recommendations contained in the report can be enacted in a practical sense, especially as the UK enters a cost-of-living crisis.
The session was hosted by the Data Poverty APPG’s Treasurer, Lord Clement-Jones, and chaired by the Group’s Chair, Darren Jones MP. Attendees heard from a wide range of stakeholders and representatives including Helen Milner OBE, CEO of the Good Things Foundation, Paul McKean, Director of FE and Skills at Jisc, Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet, Helen Burrows, Policy Director at BT, and Max Fernando, Head of Regulatory and Compliance at Glide.
Please see below for minutes of the session:
Lord Tim Clement-Jones began by welcoming attendees and thanking APPG Chair Darren Jones MP for setting up the group in 2021. He noted energy prices have dominated cost-of-living headlines lately, but that data poverty is also a serious and under-reported issue. He thanked members and collaborators for their role advising the group’s work and said the issues in the State of the Nation report now need addressing. He ended by expressing his hopes that the APPG can reach out to other relevant organisations.
Darren Jones MP began by thanking attendees and Lord Clement-Jones. He recapped how the pandemic brought data poverty to light and that as the news cycle rolls on, he wants to keep the debate prominent. He told attendees data poverty still affects millions across the country, and that if we’re serious about modernising public services and making the economy more productive, data poverty needs fixing. He said this is why the APPG’s report had been made, which he now intends to send to all MPs and relevant ministers. Continuing from this, he highlighted that data poverty needs fixing in partnership with industry, civil society and communities.
Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet, thanked all parties involved in the APPG, especially Darren Jones MP and the team behind the report, which he emphasised as very important. He gave context of the cost-of-living crisis being seen as something ‘on the horizon’ at the last APPG meeting, but that has now arrived. In particular, he said, as the clocks go back the choice between heating, eating and internet will need making for the 8 million people in the UK currently struggling to pay their bills, and the 4.2 million who have recently missed a bill or loan payment. He described the APPG’s report as framing the issue for people across the country, and pointed this is the first cost-of-living crisis in the digital age, where connectivity is needed to gain support. He reflected on previous work he’d done at the Samaritans, where issues people rang them about predominantly stemmed from debt and financial worries. He expressed concern that the cost of data means people will be worried to reach out in case it costs money, and pointed out that this is where data poverty manifests itself – in personal circumstances - and this makes it hard to quantify or survey. He said the standout part of the report for him was the shift implied in viewing digital consumers as digital citizens, and that he looks forward to all stakeholders working together to implement its recommendation.
Helen Milner OBE, CEO of Good Things Foundation, underlined her belief that the most important function of the Data Poverty APPG is gaining cross-government support. She said it is on all of us to raise data poverty up the agenda, and this is an increasingly important mission. She noted that even before the cost-of-living crisis, millions couldn’t get online, and told the story of a young woman who cried with joy at being able to speak to her mother online after support from Good Things Foundation’s National Databank. She linked this to the work of the Foundation acting with local organisations around the country to help them provide digital access to those in need, before also pointing to the work of their data poverty fellows, databank, and partnership with Virgin O2. She called for an end to VAT on social tariffs, calling them unethical. She by saying she was delighted that MPs will be able to read the APPG’s report, and hopes the new Secretary of State at DCMS will too.
Darren Jones MP picked up on the VAT point, calling it comical that biscuits are deemed an essential item under VAT guidelines, but social tariffs are not.
Paul McKean, Director of FE and Skills at Jisc, began by saying he was delighted to be present. He affirmed Jisc will continue to support the APPG, while also tackling data poverty by rolling out their eduroam service to local government. He explained eduroam as a free to access Wi-Fi service that is in place across higher education institutions, and set out Jisc’s desire to see this expanded to local and combined authority buildings too. He also spoke about Jisc’s product EduBox, and how the company hopes to place these in student’s homes to allow them free Wi-Fi access there too. He said those involved with the APPG now need to turn their thoughts to the short term, and the need to look after those who we’re already aware of being in data poverty, as well as those about to fall into it. He ended by reaffirming that the dilemma between eating, heating and connectivity is here.
Helen Burrows, Policy and Services Director at BT, framed the data poverty issue as something BT have been working on for years, but which came to the fore during the pandemic. She shared BT have had lots of recent requests for short term help on data poverty, and are also searching for long term solutions. As part of this, they have renewed their own social tariff and built their own interface with the Department for Work and Pensions. She said telcos are the only industry that have this capability, and that there are lessons to be learned there for energy and water suppliers. She pointed out BT have 90% of the UK’s social tariff customers and were the first telco to waive charges for customers needing to move onto a social tariff. She called for standardisation around the price, speed and quality of internet connections, and said it was good to see Labour calling for that in their recent policy commitments. She set out a wish to see a sustainable funding plan for social tariff auto-enrolment, with full funding for the 1.5 million households who couldn’t afford social tariffs in the spring, and smaller measures of support for the 5 million who are struggling to afford one. She suggested the APPG continues its work in the new year by pulling together an evidence base on the value of connecting these 6.5 million people and the fiscal benefits on institutions such as the NHS, and via increased education and productivity gains.
Max Fernando, Head of Regulatory and Compliance at Glide, began by introducing himself and Glide to attendees. He expressed a belief that implementing the recommendations of the report would provide a step change to eradicating data poverty in the UK. He also drew on the wider context of a need for devices to ensure connectivity, and called for certainty around government funding for connectivity and the rollout of broadband to rural areas. He further called for universities to offer low bandwidth video streams, a digital right of way to be implemented across the higher education sector, and a standard definition of what a ‘vulnerable’ person is across all markets and industries in order to better identify who needs support. He said that most importantly, the eradication of data poverty requires ongoing collaboration between industry, politics and society. He noted when implementing the solutions of the report, care should be taken to ensure smaller providers aren’t disadvantaged. He thanked attendees and said he looks forward to continued engagement with the APPG.
Tanya King, Head of Inclusion at Stockport Homes, spoke on behalf of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in order to provide a regional perspective on data poverty. She informed attendees a quarter of tenants at Stockport Homes don’t use the internet at all, and 41% of Greater Manchester residents – 1.2 million people – are digitally excluded in some way. She said this problem coexists with other disadvantages such as child poverty, healthcare issues and financial inequalities, and that these combined during the COVID-19 pandemic to cause high levels of social isolation and poor mental wellbeing. She spoke of Stockport Homes’ role working with vulnerable households to offer support through furniture, food, employment and financial advice, and how the cost-of-living crisis has already seen demand for these services soar. Part of this is also delivering digital projects such as increasing connectivity via the national databank, installing free Wi-Fi in housing blocks, a device loan and subsidy scheme and free skills training supported by local volunteers, but that what they can do is limited. She pointed to the Greater Manchester Digital Pilot as helping to bridge this gap by linking public, private and non-profit sectors in offering support, combining the resources and expertise of large national companies with the detailed local knowledge and relationships of housing providers to ensure the pilots deliver tangible outcomes for local people. She shared statistics gathered as part of Stockport Homes’ role in the pilot, including that tenants who do not use the internet are more likely to be over 55 years of age, have a disability or health condition, have a pension as their main income; older residents and those with poor health have much more limited use and poorer skills than other households, even if online; and two thirds rely on a mobile phone as their only device, fewer than 50% have a laptop, 30% of households had no devices at all. She said there is still a perception that digital connectivity is a luxury, when in fact it is an essential utility, and that the expectation for people to be online needs to be matched by affordability and accessibility. She then turned to how the Greater Manchester Digital Pilot can be upscaled nationally, agreeing with the APPG report that social tariffs need to be better promoted and more flexible. This was supported by data including that of the residents who were online, two thirds wanted more information on a social tariff, suggesting a lack of readily available information and a large potential market; a rolling month on month contract was the most popular option; and that 90% of respondents would need the tariff to be less than £15/month, putting them at the limit of affordability. She said the findings of the pilot make clear the need for a co-ordinated approach from national government to address digital poverty, working with regions and using their leverage to ensure the collaborative learning recommended in the report becomes a reality. She ended by saying that the pilot has shown everyone has a role to play in ensuring data poverty doesn’t become another barrier to people’s life chances.
Darren Jones MP concluded the session by thanking the speakers for their contributions. He said there was no silver bullet for data poverty and reiterated the call for all to help. He proposed a group photo of all attendees present to mark the occasion of the APPG’s report launch.