The Data Poverty APPG’s Second State of the Nation Report
The Data Poverty APPG’s Second State of the Nation Report has been released. The full report can be found here.
In the past few years, the term ‘data poverty’ has gone from a little-known concept to an issue that is increasingly recognised as both a critical and expanding obstacle to enabling equality of opportunity across the UK.
Last year’s Data Poverty APPG State of the Nation Report focused on defining and quantifying the issue, which was agreed as:
Anyone who is unable to get online, or unable to be online long enough to meet their needs, is in data poverty.
The report also made nine recommendations to serve as a starting point to tackling data poverty in the UK:
Developing an agreed definition of data poverty
Creating an assumed right to data
Agreeing a digital ‘right-of-way’ to public services
Promoting social tariff and data voucher auto-enrolment
Outlining clear social tariff order journeys
Making early termination free and simple
Expanding the number of zero-rated websites
Establishing collaborative ways of working
Creating a social inclusion fund
It has been encouraging to see progress made in many of these areas. Data poverty as a term has continued to proliferate across media, industry and parliamentary discourse, expanding awareness of the topic and the urgent need for it to be addressed. Public service providers are increasingly recognising that equitable online access must go alongside increased digitisation. Internet service providers are continuing to expand their social tariff offers, supported by the Department for Work and Pensions allowing internet service providers to verify – with customers’ permission – whether they are in receipt of the necessary benefits and therefore eligible for additional financial support.The APPG has also witnessed first-hand the transformative effects of increased collaboration between industry and third-sector organisations, with the expansion of flagship initiatives such as Good Things Foundation’s National Databank supported by ISPs including Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone.
At the same time, progress in other areas has been slower than an effective response to the issue of data poverty demands. A consistent message from industry and third sector stakeholders when engaging with the APPG has been a frustration at a lack of sustained engagement from government. It is widely acknowledged that the legislative and funding systems in place around data poverty are insufficient and remain fundamentally unchanged from at least before the publication of last year’s State of the Nation Report.
In Parliament, the call for increased centralised activity in response to data and digital poverty was taken up by the House of Lords Digital and Communications Committee, which in June 2023 published its report on Digital Exclusion and the Cost of Living.
The Committee’s report echoes many of those from the Data Poverty APPG’s State of the Nation report 2022, with alignment on calls to action including:
A cross-government approach towards tackling digital & and data poverty
An updated National Digital Inclusion Strategy
Easier order journeys for those eligible for social tariffs, inc. free early termination
Improving & expanding data voucher schemes
Improving digital access to public services
The Data Poverty APPG endorses the Committee’s findings, and in this report will seek to reinforce its call to action by highlighting how and where data poverty obstructs successful policy outcomes.
The findings mentioned in the sections below are based on the Group’s sessions over the past 12 months, which have focussed on the impacts of data poverty in sectors including healthcare, education, financial services and the labour market.
It is the view of the APPG that these sectors are some of the most significantly and urgently affected by data poverty. The Group also held a roundtable in winter 2022 on the effects of the cost-of-living crisis, in a bid to better understand the immediate steps that might be taken to mitigate the impacts of inflation on data access.
To this end, the following sections of this report are informed by evidence and testimonies gathered by the APPG on these sectors and the wider contexts surrounding data poverty. These have been provided from experts across our partner organisations and more widely from the fields of politics, industry, academia and the third sector. The Data Poverty APPG would like to extend our thanks to all of those who have contributed to this research, as well as the Group’s work over the last two years.
The full report can be found here.