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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people without the basic digital skills referred to in the report of the Science and Technology Committee, Digital Skills Crisis, HC 270, published on 13 June 2016, who will be able to access the measures announced in part two of her Department's 2017 Digital Strategy.

The UK Digital Strategy published on 1st March sets out that for the UK to be a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone, it is crucial that everyone has the digital skills they need to fully participate in society. Through the Digital Skills Entitlement we will ensure that adults who lack core digital skills can access specified basic digital skills training free of charge where it is made available as part of the publicly funded adult education offer. In the meantime the Government continues to support adults to improve their basic digital skills, both through funding through the Adult Education Budget for education providers to offer digital training as part of their education offer, and an additional programme with The Good Things Foundation that aims to educate adults with the very basic skills needed to be able to search confidently and safely online and access public services. Additionally to support the launch of the UK digital strategy, industry pledged to create more than 4 million new free digital skills training opportunities adding to a range of existing digital skills offers some of which were set out in the UK Digital Strategy.