Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 15 June 2015 to Question 2556, whether, under his plans, digital illiteracy will stay above the target of 10 per cent of the population until 2026.

The Government published its Digital Inclusion Strategy in April 2014 when 11 million people were digitally excluded. It committed to a 25% reduction by 2016, and a further 25% every two years thereafter. On this basis, over 90% of the adult population will be digitally capable by 2020.

Government has committed to making digital inclusion part of the development of wider policy, programmes and digital services. The government does not collect data on all programmes that include a digital inclusion component, nor on local level initiatives. Government invests through a variety of programmes, ranging from the national super-fast broadband roll out, to the Digital Deal scheme for housing associations and funding for digital skills training through the Skills Funding Agency. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is funding a basic digital skills programme to reach 1 million digitally excluded people over 5 years, in addition to the 1.25 million adults helped under the previous programme.

In addition to specific digital inclusion related skills programmes, £7.4m has been committed to funding free wifi and internet access for libraries in England.