Event report: The Role of Government in Closing the Data Poverty Gap
On Tuesday 14 June, the Data Poverty APPG held a roundtable on The Role of Government and Industry in Closing the Data Poverty Gap. The session aimed to build on April’s event on Practical Steps to Closing the Data Poverty Gap by detailing a series of policy recommendations for consideration by Government, and to inform the APPG’s upcoming State of the Nation report.
The session was chaired by the Data Poverty APPG’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, and Helen Burrows, Policy Director at BT.
Please see below for minutes of the session:
Darren Jones MP began by welcoming attendees and thanking them for joining. He explained how testimonies and recommendations from the event would be taken in consideration for the APPG’s upcoming State of the Nation report. He asked attendees to give their suggestions on what the Government should be doing to combat data poverty, what role local government should play, and whether new legislation is required or just policy prioritisation. He then introduced Helen Milner OBE, CEO of the Good Things Foundation.
Helen Milner OBE, CEO of the Good Things Foundation, noted it was a good time to be speaking about data poverty after the recent publication of the Government’s Digital Strategy. She spoke of Good Things Foundation’s work launching their own digital poverty strategy, their data lab, and data and devices bank. She detailed how a cross sector approach will be needed to tackle data poverty, as well as more action from the Government. Millions of people were exposed to data poverty during the pandemic and now is the time for strategic, sustainable answers following the initial emergency response. She recommended first that the Government recognises data poverty is real and that millions of people are suffering from it. She commended a proposal by LSE that the Government uses the money earmarked for VAT cuts to create a digital inclusion fund, then ended by reiterating the importance of ensuring the internet is available to everybody, no matter what they can afford to pay.
Paul McKean, Director of FE and Skills at Jisc, described Jisc’s role as a digital partner for higher education and skills services, and their efforts to combat data and digital poverty so far. These include their Future of Digital Skills Report; the extension of the Department for Education’s Help With Tech programme to further education providers; work with Welsh and Scottish governments around devices access; extending their eduroam services to public places as part of the govroam scheme; and approaching Ofcom to provide tariff free access to some educational websites. He said how in Jisc’s most recent iteration of their annual student insights survey, they found 60% of students in HE and 49% in FE experience poor Wi-Fi, and similar numbers struggle to pay for data.
Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet said the UK has been digitally healthy for two decades, with lots of broadband choice and competitively priced access to internet, however we are now in a new era of internet where the more we use the internet, the more online services become a ubiquitous point of entry to essential services. Market success means gains are growing smaller, while the market also can’t reach everywhere. We’ve reached the boundaries of what the market can do by itself, and to fill the gaps we need government. He claimed we need to accept that for those on Universal Credit, they can’t be seen as consumers as the market can’t reach them. Because the market isn’t elastic enough to reach as far as the state needs, we need to build interventions. This could take the form of Wi-Fi provision in public spaces; zero rate Gov.Uk; and increased engagement with civil society to ensure everyone knows their digital rights
Helen Burrows, Policy Director at BT, underlined her belief that a combination of the market and government can solve data poverty. She pinpointed 4 areas in which this is possible: infrastructure, in which work is underway to provide coverage to the final 1% of those who need it; skills and will; devices; and connectivity. For the latter of these, 15% of people in the UK don’t have broadband, and 4% no internet connectivity at all. Within the non-broadband group, she identified the majority as being predominantly older, and having no skills or will to use the internet. She said roughly 70% can afford broadband, 25% can benefit from a social tariff, but it’s the remaining 1.5m households where the problem lies. She expressed support for government subsidies covering this last group, as well as for the VAT proposal from Helen Milner. She concluded by pointing to the wider cost of living crisis that is driving all forms of poverty.
Aaron Bell MP announced his interest in the discussion topics due to his membership of the Science and Technology Committee, and tech background. He said Covid has brought some progress in terms of digital skills and access, such as devices sharing and upskilling older generations. He proposed town deals could be used to create digital hubs in town centres, with free Wi-Fi and skills centres, and that the local nature of these deals means they can be targeted. He reiterated that it is important we make sure no-one gets left behind in the digital age as data becomes more utility-like.
Siobhain McDonagh MP gave a testimony of how the pandemic confronted her with the reality of data poverty. She told how she was able to get devices donated for a local homeless hostel, but realised they still needed Wi-Fi. She called for more assistance than just social tariffs, as their effectiveness is limited by the fact that most families on limited incomes don’t want a contract, as they are not sure they can pay it in future, while many want to pay in cash but this is not possible. She ended with a testimony that a girl managed to get a place at an exclusive grammar school because her mother from the homeless hostel was provided with a phone – showing the transformative effect assistance can have.
Darren Jones then asked the room if anyone had a definition of what ‘affordable’ broadband might entail.
Professor Simeon Yates of the University of Liverpool said this was something that he was looking at, working with partners such as Good Things Foundation. He also said he was halfway through the fieldwork to find a minimum income standard for digital poverty, and by October intends to have identified a basket of goods and services to keep households digitally engaged. This would entail not just a minimum price or broadband speed, but a whole package that can cater for lots of different households in unique situations. He also spoke about the effects data poverty can have on social exclusion, with children unable to join in at school as they can’t watch TV or be online with their friends.
Helen Burrows agreed that it is important to try and understand different income groups, households, and their different needs. For instance, Vodafone have recently brought out a social tariff for mobile data which is better for someone who’s on their own but wouldn’t work if 2 people need data at the same time.
Helen Milner said that despite these choices, for some people a £15 per month tariff is too much. Instead, we need to understand there’s a group of people in the country with no money, and for them, internet access should be a basic right.
Siobhain McDonagh MP added that those people most in need will not have the time or resources to shop around for the best tariff, and that to think they would is part of the myth of the informed consumer.
Helen Milner agreed, referencing a pilot where Good Things Foundation found if you shared 3 options to people with complex lives, it was too many. She said this proves a solution needs to be cheap and simple.
Chris Ashworth said once you get past structural questions of whether the market is working, you then reach people’s circumstances. Someone can be ok for a short period, then struggle immediately after that. We therefore need a catch-all below the waterline of people who are struggling circumstantially.
Darren Jones asked what that would be? He said the BEIS Committee have struggled to find an equivalent when discussing energy tariffs.
Simeon Yates asked how you can provide a minimum standard when you have lots of stakeholders providing assistance. For instance, if the Government intervenes over a local authority or charity, who does the person who’s in data poverty trust more? Instead, he called for more targeted interventions, with Government as a convening force for other stakeholders.
Chris Ashworth said we’re still talking about pulling down providers such as BT to provide their services to more people, but there are other solutions such as zero ratings. For instance, it’s possible to zero rate educational and other such sites so you don’t need to pay for broadband to access them.
Helen Burrows replied that some zero ratings were successful, but it was also very difficult to do during the pandemic. Tech teams at BT struggled to identify the traffic for different websites and will continue to do so as long as people want to keep anonymous online. For it to work therefore, government services will have to think differently about what they zero rate and how. On the social exclusion point, she added another thing to consider was the impact of digitising television. She said in 10 years time, all TV would be online, leaving 1.5-2m households unable to watch, however this transition will also free up public broadcast money that could be used to give households broadband at commercial rates. This would require government acting as the convening force between multiple different stakeholders.
Helen Milner added that the national phone network in Australia is government owned and being digitised, and that these costs could be reallocated to giving Australians internet.
Helen Burrows said one answer could be to keep the license fee and allocate part of it to connectivity.
Simeon Yates said there’s scope for a minimum internet service, like the public broadcast model, which people can then choose to enhance with other technology if they can afford to do so.
Anne Pardoe, Principal Policy Manager for Postal Services and Telecoms at Citizens Advice, told attendees half of those people coming to them for debt advice now have a negative budget, up from 35% in 2019. She said social tariffs are something Citizens Advice are interested in, and can be improved by a more standardised, mandatory approach. She said the Government could help by making the options simpler, similar to the warm home discount scheme. She also acknowledged £15 per month is too much for some people, and a maximum price needs to be agreed upon. She also warned issues around debt collection practices and above inflation price increases were squeezing people further.
Gurpreet Sahota, Consumer Policy Manager at Ofcom, detailed how one of their primary focuses is around social tariffs. She said there were 4.2 million people on Universal Credit at the last count, and social tariffs will benefit a large proportion of these. As such, Ofcom are trying to raise awareness of them, engage with those broadband providers who don’t yet offer one, and are trying to get an idea of who else might benefit from them. She said the main barrier to social tariff uptake currently is awareness, while some people find the terminology demeaning.
Paul McKean said there are currently nine different social tariffs to choose from, with no way of comparing prices and this is putting people off.
Helen Burrows said 10% of new BT customers are on social tariffs, which suggests people are finding them.
Kat Dixon, Research Fellow at Good Things Foundation but speaking on her own behalf, said it’s a question of who people in data poverty might trust to give them the best deal, and that an elderly person and a single mother might trust different groups. She called for a combination of interventions to ensure trust is there, for instance a simple way to access free internet via front line social workers.
Vanessa Higham, Government Affairs Manager at Vodafone, raised concerns that there is no set Government department looking at data poverty, and that the Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport remain siloed. For progress therefore, the Government needs to provide a proper convenor.
Bronagh McCloskey, Head of Public Affairs and CSR at TalkTalk, agreed, saying the issues covered in the session require a cross-sector approach to solve, and the market won’t be able to fix data poverty by itself. She said there are big infrastructure changes coming in the next 10 years, where government is needed to direct different stakeholders to where they can make the greatest impact in tackling data poverty. She said the Government is not doing this currently.
Simeon Yates agreed that no department is owning the issue.
Helen Milner said once funds are made available, preferably by the LSE method she set out earlier in the session, then departments will come to the table.
Justin Kempley, Policy and Public Affairs Lead at Nominet said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy also requires engaging with. He said this is because one reason people are in data poverty is bill-shock, which cuts across markets.
Darren Jones MP then thanked the room for their contributions and invited them to discuss the matters informally. He told attendees the next meeting will be to launch the APPG’s State of the Nation report.