National Digital Inclusion Conference

I am delighted to be here. And, as you will have gathered from that introduction by the Prime Minister, the topic of this conference is a key concern for Government. We want to make sure everyone in the UK, whatever their circumstances, has the opportunity to benefit from the remarkable technological advances which are transforming our economy, and our society. That digital transformation – far from creating new hurdles for people to overcome – needs to provide new opportunities to people denied them in the past.

Just one example, from the part of public service Jim Knight is responsible for today. Most people can remember what it used to be like at a Jobcentre, if only from watching the Full Monty. They were dingy places, with noticeboards displaying postcards about jobs in the local area.

Today Jobcentres are completely different. They aren’t dingy any more. And key to the transformation has been the JobCentre Plus online database, with details today of 300,000 job vacancies in every part of the UK – and some outside the UK too. And when you go in to a jobcentre, the first thing you come to is smart terminals to browse that database. It gives you far more information about out far larger number of jobs, and does it frankly in a far more dignified way than the old postcards on noticeboards ever did.

And I am convinced that online solution is one of the reasons why the number coming off Jobseekers Allowance went up as we went in to this recession, instead of down as in previous recessions. It has enabled that key public service to do a much better job, and to do it much more efficiently. And there are many more opportunities ahead like that, for public services to be transformed.

Digital Britain update

Stephen Carter of Barnes spoke at last year’s conference about what would be in the Digital Britain report. Today I want to provide an update on progress.

We launched the Digital Britain report, as Helen said, last June, setting out that we want a society where everyone has both access and the right skills to take part in the digital economy.

At the heart of Digital Britain is our commitment to drive up availability of broadband across the country. Last week I announced that the new body to spearhead that drive, Broadband Delivery UK, had started work, with Adrian Kamellard its Chief Executive. The group will be responsible for two major projects:

• First, investing £200 million of public money to bring a minimum of 2 Mbps within reach of every home and business by 2012; at the moment over 10% of homes are not within reach of a 2 Mbit/s connection; and
• Second, overseeing use of a £1 billion fund over the next seven years to extend next generation broadband across the country, the fund coming from the new 50p per month duty on fixed phone lines.

The market on its own, over time, will deliver next generation services to some two thirds of the country. We think it’s crucial that we do better than that, and the Next Generation Fund will allow us to do so. Broadband Delivery UK will focus on rural and low income urban areas most likely to be missed out by purely private investment.

Of course some people have concerns about the levy, and of course I understand why. But at 50p per month, its less than half the average reduction in monthly household telecom bills in each of the last three years. Those on social telephony tariffs will be exempt. And I think it’s a really question of how important we regard it as being that we get on with delivering the investment that’s needed. Because all of us will be better off when a modernised communications infrastructure is supporting new businesses in every town and village in the UK.

To support the deployment of mobile next generation broadband, we put a package of measures before Parliament yesterday – a direction to Ofcom to release new spectrum and liberalise licences. That holds out the promise of rapid progress and I hope everybody will support it.

Last week we published a major report to forecast the future reach of next generation broadband across the UK. The Not-Spot research report was commissioned jointly by the Departments for Communities and Local Government and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and produced by Analysis Mason. It will help inform councils looking to invest in superfast broadband. It will also be used by BDUK in prioritising the communities to benefit from the broadband universal service commitment and the Next Generation Fund.

In his annual report published last week, the Prime Minister’s Rural Advocate, Dr Stuart Burgess, highlighted – rightly in my view – the importance of good broadband links in rural communities, particularly emphasising the importance for children – not least in education. He also pointed out that next generation broadband will be crucial for rural communities, because – without it – businesses in rural areas will find it impossible to compete. With it, much of the historic disadvantage that rural businesses have faced will disappear.

Before Christmas I visited Plymouth and met the Chamber of Commerce. They told me that, in the past, their job had been to lobby Government for more dual carriageways or better rail services. Now, though, its clear that what businesses in Devon need more than anything for their competitiveness is to be able to transmit a Gigabyte of data for the same price as businesses inside the M25. If they can do that, they stand every chance of competing successfully. And we want rural businesses to thrive, to maximise their contribution to growth in every part of the country as we emerge from the world’s worst economic downturn for seventy years.

Digital Britain announced the appointment of the speaker after me, Martha Lane Fox, as our Champion for Digital Inclusion. Martha is committing enormous energy and inventiveness to this, and we are seeing encouraging progress as a result. She reported on her Twitter account on Monday that she had received 42 e-mails on digital inclusion in the course of an hour. And it was only supposed to take her two days per week! Martha’s Race Online initiative has challenged us to get 4 million of the most socially and digitally excluded people online by 2012. Martha’s work is powerfully building momentum for large scale change.

Digital Participation and Inclusion

To move us to a truly Digital Britain, we need to make sure everyone who wants to be online is able to get online, do more online and benefit from the advantages of being online. This is the shared vision of the National Plan for Digital Participation that I launched last week.

We want to get 7.5 million people online for the first time by March 2014. We do need to support people to get online, because being digitally excluded means missing out on opportunities and benefits that most of us now take for granted: paying less for goods and services, greater choice as a consumer, more ways to communicate and stay in touch with friends and family, and improved access to important information – for example on health and well-being.

The Plan will harness combined effort from sixty organisations belonging to the consortium which prepared it, coming from across Government, industry, education and the voluntary sector. Its a framework for developing the most creative and effective approaches to helping non Internet users get online, and to enable people to make the most of the opportunities.

Digital participation is a prerequisite for delivering many of the efficiencies and savings set out in the Smarter Government white paper. People will increasingly be able to use online information and services to understand entitlements and claim benefits, and use online health information to reduce the number of times they visit their GP.

We announced in November in the Smarter Government white paper a further £30m over three years for UK Online centres to get a million people online.

The Smarter Government white paper explained our determination to maximise the efficiency potential of pushing Government services online, as we work to halve the deficit over the next four years. We have to ensure that those who are digitally excluded are not left out even more by being unable to access the services.

Starting this year, our £300 m Home Access programme will provide children at Key Stages 2 and 3 who are eligible for free school meals a free computer and one year’s free Internet use. The aim is to help over 270,000 households by March next year. It’s going well so far, helping low income families, and helping their children’s education. The scheme includes accessibility features so disabled children don’t lose out.

In Digital Britain we asked the Consumer Expert Group (CEG) to look at the barriers to internet access for people with a disability. They made 16 recommendations to overcome these barriers to which we shall respond shortly. A new e-Accessibility Forum, announced in the Digital Britain report, will meet for the first time after Easter.

The Forum will investigate with Industry how we can deliver the 16 recommendations, and establish a UK position on implementation of EU Directives, and proposed EU regulatory measures, affecting access to networks, services and equipment.

It will also support businesses in exploiting expertise in e-accessibility in Europe and around the world and produce and implement an e-accessibility Action Plan that addresses the issues of people with particular needs so that they can partake fully in Digital Britain.

Conclusion

I hope everyone will make the most of this event. This is the key event of the year for digital inclusion. Make a pledge, visit the exhibition room, attend a plenary session. Make a contribution, no matter how small. It could be important in helping us all avoid a widening digital divide, disadvantaging those who are left behind or see no relevance in the Internet. We have achieved a lot in the last year but there is a great deal for us still to do – and I hope we can all work together to do it.

Thank you.

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