Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of (a) the level of use of online banking and (b) the effect of online banking on the number of charitable donations made by the public.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles data on the activities carried out by people that use the internet, including internet banking. This can be found at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage

The ONS estimates that in Great Britain, in 2017, 90% of households had internet access and 63% of adults over the age of 16 used the internet to bank in 2017.

More and more people want to donate digitally and the Charities Aid Foundation reports that over a quarter of people have given money to charity online.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is providing training with the Foundation for Social Improvement to help civil society organisations to maximise the opportunity from online giving.

The Digital Skills Partnership is also improving digital skills for individuals, charities and businesses to support the UK's ambition to be a world-leading digital economy. Partner organisations have already delivered more than two million free digital skills training opportunities, with a further two million pledged.