Minutes from the first meeting of the Data Poverty APPG
On Tuesday 16 November, the APPG on Data Poverty hosted a roundtable as part of the Digital Inequalities Summit, focussed on understanding the issue of data poverty in the UK and searching for the beginnings of a consensus on a definition and how it might be solved.
The roundtable was chaired by Data Poverty APPG Chair, Darren Jones MP. It was fantastic to hear from a wide range of stakeholders and representatives including Helen Milner, CEO of The Good Things Foundation; Heidi Fraser-Krauss, CEO of Jisc; Helen Burrows, Head of Content Services and Strategy at BT; Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet; and Meri Braziel, Chief Commercial Officer at Glide. The full roundtable discussion can be viewed at the link here.
Please see below for minutes of the session below:
Darren Jones MP began proceedings by welcoming everyone to the event, thanking them for attending, providing housekeeping notes and introducing the attendees.
Helen Milner, CEO of The Good Things Foundation, situated the issue of data poverty within the wider context of digital inclusion. She described her desire for everyone to have access to the devices and data to get them on to the internet. She said how the data poverty lab that the Good Things Foundation found in partnership with Nominet was looking at gaps in the data poverty landscape and searching for systemic solutions. She told the group how The Good Things Foundation supported 22,000 people during the COVID-19 pandemic for online essentials, and that now we need to make sure those people have long term solutions. One of these, she said, was the National Data Bank – started on Friday 12 November – working with Virgin and 02 to give free sim cards to 250,000 people, distributed via community organisations. She stated the Foundation’s aim to double this number. Helen also pinpointed two audiences that she believed require targeting when considering data poverty: those who are living in poverty but are digitally literate, and those who are financially stable but digitally illiterate. She warned against conflating the two. Finally, she described The Good Things Foundation as an organisation that fills the gaps between government and private sector assistance. She said she thinks the Government are standing back too much as corporate companies find solutions to data poverty and urged the Government to think about providing subsidies and vouchers to people in data poverty. She expressed her concern that government understanding of data poverty is poor.
Heidi Fraser-Krauss, CEO of Jisc, described Jisc’s role as digital partner for higher education and skills services, providing systems such as eduroam to institutes such as universities. She set out how ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, online connectivity has been essential to learning, however Jisc found in a recent survey that 63% of students in higher education struggled with Wi-Fi connectivity, 24% struggled with mobile data costs and 15% had no suitable mobile device. In further education, 49% struggled with Wi-Fi, 16% with data costs and 14% had no suitable mobile device. She said a combination of cost and connectivity was at the root of these issues. She said Jisc was working with the Government to provide more widespread data connectivity, as well as working with local councils to provide their eduroam service in public buildings.
Helen Burrows, Head of Content Services and Strategy at BT, said BT’s programme providing free data to all NHS staff in their customer base during the pandemic had supported over 30,000 families, but that data poverty is an issue outside of the context of COVID-19 too. She expressed a belief that a skills deficit is the main reason for people not having broadband, though conceded half a million families in the UK can’t afford it either. She set out BT’s focus on providing fixed connectivity to those in a home, and the relaunch of their social tariff of £15/month for those on universal credit. She said this service was provided at cost or below, and to make it any cheaper BT would require government support. She reiterated that people’s incomes are the largest factor in data poverty, and that compared to other essential services, broadband is cheap.
Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet, thanked Darren Jones MP and the other Parliamentarians in attendance for their role in raising the profile of the data poverty issue in the UK, including by participating in this roundtable. He defined data poverty as being severely restricted in one’s ability access to the internet, and therefore the essential services such as those that make up the welfare state, which is now blended on and offline. He said data poverty is fluid – it hits people at times of hardship and vulnerability, with those in debt or who don’t have a stable home particularly badly affected. It can also affect those with a good income who don’t have the skills to get online. He related the findings of a recent survey which found 32% of young people who responded didn’t have access to broadband in the home, and 44% didn’t have mobile data. He set out three reasons for data poverty: traditional poverty; the internet’s changing role from being complementary to normal life, to being an essential service; and the fact that the internet is a wholly market-based service, and markets don’t always take fairness into account.
Meri Braziel, Chief Commercial Officer at Glide, thanked the MPs who were present for being there. She described Glide’s function as a digital infrastructure provider, particularly to universities and said that even when the infrastructure in universities is good, devices such as laptops need upgrading so regularly that often students can’t afford to keep up. She suggested students who received maintenance grants should also be eligible for a voucher or subsidy scheme for tech. She said the pandemic meant the internet was a lifeline for many students. She said councils and communities could do more to deliver support for data poverty, underpinned by backing from central government.
Siobhain McDonagh MP said the crisis of lockdown has brought the issue of data poverty to the fore, with homeless people especially badly affected, and even worse during lockdown. She praised the effort of mobile providers for giving homeless people in her constituency free data, and said it felt like private companies had stepped into a space vacated by government when it came to supporting those in need. She expressed her belief that data poverty stems from wider societal exclusion, and that awareness needs to be raised of both the issue and the offers currently out there to solve it.
Carol Monaghan MP reiterated the point that data poverty comes alongside other types of poverty. She challenged the assumption that just having a laptop or online device is enough to avoid data poverty, highlighting that students need spaces in which they can work quietly and productively. She said she is aware some universities are looking to provide this, but that there is a long way to go in many areas.
Julie Elliott MP said it was great that there is so much more engagement on the topic of data poverty now than there was 18 months ago. She pointed out data poverty means something very different from one person to the next, and that this complexity is a large part of the problem. She accused the Government of working in silos, and of failing to work in a joined-up way both regionally and nationally. She lamented the shutting of community spaces such as libraries, which would be good places to alleviate data poverty. She thanked everyone on the call for their work in trying to tackle data poverty and asked them to step up and coordinate their voices in a call to action to Government.
Darren Jones MP thanked the speakers again. He said one of the reasons the APPG was founded was to produce an annual state of the nation report on data poverty, track progress on the issue and identify where best to target government. He said the APPG is in discussion with the Department of Work and Pensions to build an API on social tariffs for those on Universal Credit. He then opened the roundtable to wider discussion from the audience.
Paul Russell of the Digital Poverty Alliance asked the group to consider how people’s mobility, both social and actual, affect data poverty. He told an anecdote of a football club who had digitised their tickets and found 30% of fans were still picking them up from a ticket office. He asked if anyone else had more insights into people without a stable home and digital connectivity.
Dr Patricia Lucas, on behalf of Rosa Robinson at Nesta, stated her agreement with Helen Burrows when it came to talking about different groups affected by data poverty. She said the issue means we need to look at shifting the mean, while also looking at those who need targeted support, and that these two aims might require different approaches. She gave the example that fixed broadband will be helpful for some but not others, i.e. those who are mobile. She broke data poverty down into 4 issues: cost and affordability; contracting barriers; capability; and regional connectivity needs. She said an understanding of these factors leads to an understanding that there can’t be just one solution.
Simeon Yates of Newcastle University said that because people live in communities, we need a community understanding of the issue of data poverty. This involves thinking about the wider context of things like households and homelessness. For instance, if one person in a house has data, that doesn’t mean it’s a good space for accessing the internet for things like homework.
Bronagh McCluskey of TalkTalk spoke about how TalkTalk has been working with the Department for Work and Pensions to provide 6-month free connectivity to jobseekers. She said that while this was the fastest product launch they’d ever had, signing contracts proved difficult for some people due to factors such as the industry standard contract length being 18 months, and credit checks putting off potential applicants. She therefore said these hurdles need overcoming when providing social tariffs in future. She espoused the need for solutions to be mapped against needs, and to identify where different solutions can be linked with each other. She said TalkTalk is currently piloting its scheme in Salford, and is keen to expand nationally, but needs government leadership and assistance. She said private providers are currently leading the way in something that should be the Government’s responsibility.
Dave Donaghy of BCS asked for ideas around the idea of data sharing and data charity. He said data donation was probably impractical but asked if there was another way for people to share data charitably.
Vanessa Higham of Vodafone said it is hard to practically implement data charity. She spoke about Vodafone’s data uplift scheme and their provision of zero ratings for some websites in conjunction with the Department for Education. She told the roundtable about Vodafone’s Great British Tech Appeal, and Schools Connected and Charities Connected programmes – both initiatives they’ve been involved in to help connect students to the internet. She shared the findings of a Vodafone poll which said 29% of respondents surveyed shared a device, just under half relied on a mobile device to access the internet, and 41% used mobile data as their main form of accessing the internet. She said more data is needed on the digital skills gap, and that this is one area in which the Government can help. She also called for a wider long-term strategy from the Government and said in her experience a lack of cooperation between departments has hindered efforts to provide data poverty relief when partnering with them.
Freddie Quek of Times Higher Education welcomed the widespread industry and third sector response to the data poverty issue, and in particular The Good Things Foundation’s mission to end data poverty by 2024. He said we need to understand the problem to solve the problem, pointing out how if you were to ask how many young people were affected by data poverty today, no one would know the answer.
Moira Thomas of Curry’s said technology has never been more integral to people’s lives. She highlighted the importance of affordability and access to data and said the nature of Curry’s business meant they are more focussed on the devices people use to get online. She said Curry’s have committed £1m to the Learning Foundation to get devices to teachers and are part of the Digital Poverty Alliance. She said there was a lack of evidence in the cause and effect of digital poverty.
Tom McGrath of The Good Things Foundation said he had watched a Westminster Hall debate on fixing the digital divide, where a consensus emerged among some in attendance that infrastructure was the issue. He asked the group to consider how to get those people to believe that infrastructure and data poverty issues are intertwined.