New research makes digital inclusion an economic imperative

News archive

Press release
13 October 2009

New research makes digital inclusion an economic imperative

New research from PWC and Champion for Digital Inclusion Martha Lane Fox puts the use of computers and the internet into an economic as well as social context. UK online centres today welcomed the report as a new starting point for cross-sector, cross-party and cross-government action on digital inclusion.

The research adds to the growing wealth of evidence showing how digital and social inclusion intertwine, and cost government, business and ordinary families dear. Off-line households, for instance, could be missing out on average savings of £560 a year from shopping and paying bills online, and all in all the economic benefit of getting everyone online in the UK are estimated to be £22billion.

Helen Milner is Managing Director of UK online centres, and a member of the taskforce supporting Martha Lane Fox in her Champion role. Helen says: "Digital inclusion has for too long sat on the sidelines of mainstream policy-making, dismissed as a fluffy liberal nice-to-have. This research counts the cost of digital exclusion in pounds as well as in human potential, and it's a great starting block for Race Online to get digital inclusion up to speed.

"Our own research shows that in the economic downturn, the digital divide has got narrower, but deeper. There are less people excluded, but those left behind are now harder to reach and engage than ever before. Under Martha's leadership and the Race Online banner, the digital inclusion community has a unique chance to really make a difference to that new divide, and make sure the people with most to gain from technology get the best support and best route of access for them. It's only by working together that we can make funding and resources reach more people in more grass-roots places, and start making a real difference to the four million most deeply excluded people identified in today's research."

Martha Lane Fox is supporting UK online centres' Get online day campaign this October, as part of the existing framework of digital inclusion activity. It's also supported by the government's Learning Revolution Festival, NHS Choices, Intel and Ofcom. Martha will be on hand in Barnsley on Friday 23 October to celebrate the day and urge people to pledge their support in helping others get online and enjoy the benefits of technology. She says: "Get online day is a great way for off-line people to take the plunge and get started with technology, and Barnsley is a fantastic example of how communities can benefit from being online. I'm really looking forward to meeting some of those people whose lives have already been transformed by the internet."

Ends

For more information on UK online centres, please contact Abi Stevens on 0778 666 0689 or astevens@ufi.com

Notes to editors

Digital inclusion

The government recommended the role of a Champion for Digital Inclusion who would be independent of government, industry and the third sector. Martha Lane Fox was delighted to accept this role in June 2009 for a period of two years
Digital Inclusion is a cross departmental government funded but independent organisation set up by Martha Lane Fox to support her work as the UK's Champion for Digital Inclusion
Digital Inclusion is independent of government and will build partnerships across the public, private and third sectors to support the 17 million people in the UK who don't benefit from online technologies. Digital Inclusion will particularly focus on the new tools that can help the most vulnerable 6 million people of this group.
Martha Lane Fox co-founded lastminute.com, Europe's largest travel and leisure website, in 1998, then went on to co-found and chair the private karaoke chain, Lucky Voice. In 2007 she launched Antigone, a grant-giving foundation that supports education, health and criminal justice charities to reflect her commitment to social justice. She is non-executive director at Marks & Spencer plc, Channel 4 Television and Mydeco.

Race online research

The overall potential economic benefit of getting everyone online is in excess of £22bn, and is made up as follows:

	Annual saving (£ billion)	Lifetime saving (£ billion)
Online shopping	4.50	8.85
Home access for children		10.80
Improved ICT skills for the employed		0.56
Improved access to employment for the unemployed		0.56
Government efficiencies	0.90	1.77
		22.54

Research was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) between 16^th September and 9^th October 2009.

The PwC research estimates the potential benefits to individuals, government and the wider economy of getting more people online.
The research focuses on four key areas of potential benefit: education and employment; health and wellbeing; transforming contact and transactions with government and online shopping.
Previous research on digital inclusion has tended to focus on social and consumer benefits. This is the first time that research has brought together the economic case for getting more people online.
The research defines a person as offline if they have never used the internet: in addition to the 10 million adults who have never used the internet, there are nearly two million adults who have not used the internet in the last three months.
Whether a person is socially excluded is based on several factors including income, employment status, health and education.
Evidence that access to a computer and the internet can boost children's educational performance and lifetime earnings has been used to underpin the Government's case for the Home Access Programme: it has been used as the basis for estimating the benefit of extending similar access across all digitally excluded children.
The consumer saving of £560 a year is an average across all digitally excluded households: for the 20% of households on the lowest incomes, the average saving is £300 a year.
The consumer saving is equivalent to around £3 in every £100.
The biggest consumer savings are estimated to come from purchases of energy, insurance, clothing and package holidays.
The estimates of consumer savings are based on work undertaken for the Post Office.
Evidence from research by the Centre for the Economics of Education suggests that ICT skills can help individuals to earn 3-10% more than their peers without such skills.
Each person who can improve their ICT skills by moving online can expect to increase their lifetime earnings by over £8,000.
If 5% of digitally excluded unemployed could find work by using job websites it would deliver an estimated £560million to the UK economy.
Providing online access has the potential to reduce some of the barriers to unemployed people finding work: the estimated benefits are based on 5% of the digitally and socially excluded unemployed being able to find work more quickly.
It is estimated that the benefit to the UK economy would be between £560 million and £1.3billion from moving adults online and into employment depending how effective any support is.
Government can potentially save between £3.30 and £12.00 for each offline contact which is moved online.
If all 10 million digitally excluded adults could undertake one more contact or transaction online each month (rather than relying on offline channels), this would save at least £900 million a year in customer contact costs
It was outside the remit of this research project to suggest solutions for how to help more people get online or to estimate the costs of any potential solutions.

Get online day and UK online centres

Get online day is a campaign from UK online centres, supported by Ofcom, Intel, NHS Choices and the government's Learning Revolution Festival
myguide - www.myguide.gov.uk - offers a free, easy to use email service and web search facility from a clean, simple homepage, plus taster courses to help people get to grips with computers and the internet. The idea is to make the internet available and accessible to those who have never used it before - whether because of lack of motivation, skills, confidence, or even disability. myguide allows people to personalise and save their settings, change screen colours or font sizes, and choose to have the text read to them without needing additional software. The service has developed with input from users and stakeholders including AbilityNet and RNIB. myguide courses are arranged across three levels - starting, using and understanding. The journey helps users track their learning progress and build their own journey based on the subjects that interest them.
UK online centres provide millions of people with access to technology and support in using it. They offer free or low cost access to the internet and email, deliver online courses and encourage people to progress onto further learning. For more information please visit www.ukonlinecentres.com. UK online centres are managed by Ufi, the organisation also behind learndirect

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will both be playing their part at next week's National Digital Inclusion Conference, providing video messages to get delegates thinking and talking.

Gordon Brown's message will be followed-up in person by Digital Britain Minister Stephen Timms MP, who will be opening the Conference on Wednesday 10 March with Champion for Digital Inclusion Martha Lane Fox. He'll be talking about the new National Plan for Digital Participation, which was launched earlier this week, while Martha Lane Fox will be talking about her plans to collect 'digital promises' from more than 10,000 private, public and charitable sector organisations. Meanwhile, Shadow Minister Jeremy Hunt will be there on the 11^th to present a Tory vision for a digitally inclusive Britain.

Now in its fifth year, the NDI10 Conference will take place across two days - Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 March, at the Vinopolis Conference Centre in London. It aims to get cross-sector and cross-party digital inclusion partners together to discuss digital inclusion issues, and plan actions for 2010 and beyond.

Conference founder Robin Knowles explains: "NDI10 is all about getting the people who make digital inclusion happen in one room, working together to make even more happen, in more places, reaching more people. It's great to get party leaders Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg involved in the discussions, and we'll be continuing the cross-party theme with our live Question Time, let by Conference chair Matthew Taylor."

The Question Time will also take place on the 10^th. Matthew Taylor will be asking Derek Wyatt MP (Labour), Baroness Warsi (Conservative) and Lembit Opik (Lib Dem) about their personal opinions and party-lines on digital inclusion, getting input from Ofcom's Stuart Purvis and Age UK's Tom Wright as part of the panel.

Also speaking at the Conference reviewing 12 months of digi-inc action is Helen Milner, Managing Director for UK online centres. She adds: "I'm really excited about next week, and looking forward to what's set to be a really interesting couple of days. It's wonderful to see support for digital inclusion coming from the top, and just before a general election is testament to the fact this is now central to the wider agendas of economic growth, social justice and the improvement of government services. Digital inclusion is suddenly super-relevant, and the Conference is our chance to hear how each party plans to respond to the challenge of digital exclusion, and to have our say on how priorities and plans should be shaped for the future."

Delegates will get to have their say from the floor in Q&As during the main plenary sessions, and will be working in four workstream groups to come up with their own digital inclusion promises. The Digital government for all workstream is being led by Directgov, and will feature input from New Media Age, Microsoft and DC10 Plus. Digital Skills for all is led by UK online centres with contributions from BT, Ofcom, Becta, NIACE, School of Everything and many more, while Health and Well Being is chaired by NHS Choices, with partners AbilityNet, StartHere and Capita. The final workstream is led by the Peabody Trust, and is all about Social Housing Plus, taking inspiration from Nottingham City Council, Solihull Community Housing and Citizens Online amongst others. The promises from each workstream will be given to Martha Lane Fox to feed into Race Online's wider work.

Alongside the keynote speakers and workstream sessions, NDI10 will also have an interactive exhibition, with an open soap box as another opportunity for delegates to feeback thoughts or talk about their own projects.

For more information on the Conference, or to follow on the live webstream next week, please visit www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk and follow Twitter hashtag #NDI10. You can also join the debate early on the Conference Ning - http://net.digitalengagement.org/

Ends

For more information, or for a free press pass, please contact Abi Stevens at astevens@ufi.com, or on 0778 666 0689.

Notes to editors:

Press release published 4 March 2010
- For more information on the Conference, or to follow on the live webstream next week, please visit www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk, follow Twitter hashtag #NDI10 and join the digital engagement Ning http://net.digitalengagement.org/.
- The National Digital Inclusion Conference (NDI10) is now in its fifth year, and run by Civic Agenda, with key partners UK online centres, and supporters including Becta, BIS, BT, Business Link, Citizens Online, CLG, CTT, Digital 2020, Intel, Microsoft, NHS Choices, Nominet Trust, Ofcom, Peabody Trust, Race Online 2012, Regenerate IT, StartHere and Youthnet.
- Civic Agenda is a specialist conference development and organisation agency delivering public and social focussed conferences across the UK. Civic Agenda works with a range of partner organisations and draws on the expertise of sister organisations Civic Regeneration, Regenerate IT and Market Squared to support conferences that explore key areas of social, economic and community policy for an audience of the public, private and voluntary sector. For more information please visit www.civicagenda.co.uk or call 0207 378 0422.
- UK online centres provide millions of people with access to technology and support in using it. They offer free or low cost access to the internet and email, deliver online courses and encourage people to progress onto further learning. For more information please visit www.ukonlinecentres.com. UK online centres are managed by Ufi, the organisation also behind learndirect.
Tickets for the fifth National Digital Inclusion Conference - NDI10 - are nearly sold out, and those interested in taking part are being urged to get in quick, or follow the Conference from the comfort of their own computer via the live webstream and twitter hashtag #NDI10.

The Conference takes place at Vinopolis in London Bridge on 10 and 11 March, and this year's theme is all about Passing IT on. With the RSA's Matthew Taylor back as Chair, speakers including Martha Lane Fox, Stephen Timms MP and Matt Brittin from Google, plus a cross-party Question Time and interactive exhibition space, NDI10 is shaping-up and filling-up fast.

Conference founder Robin Knowles of Civic Agenda says: "We're delighted to have had such a great response to the Conference, and we're keen to capture the input of delegates beyond the 500 physical places. Keynote speeches will be live on www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk, and we're encouraging delegates to tweet their thoughts, and share wider opinions on the http://net.digitalengagement.org/ Ning site - before, after and during the Conference itself."

Helen Milner of Conference partner UK online centres adds: "Post Digital Britain and pre-election, this is the perfect time for an in-depth 'NDIagnostic' looking at where digital inclusion is today, where we need to be, and what we've got to do as a sector to get there over the coming months and years. The more voices adding to the debate - in person or online - the more connections and progress we can make at the conference."

As well as hearing from keynote speakers in the public and third sector, corporate organisations will also be playing their part, and telling delegates how they plan to help Pass IT on in 2010, and how they'd like to work with third sector and government partners.

To see if you can get one of the final NDI10 places available, or to find out more about the four workstreams - Digital Skills for all, Digital government for all, Health and Well-being, and Social housing plus, please visit www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk, or call 0207 378 0422.

Ends

For more information on this press release please contact Abi Stevens at astevens@ufi.com or on 0778 666 0689

Press release, published 23 February 2010

Notes to editors:
- Twitter hashtag: #NDI10
- Ning http://net.digitalengagement.org/
- The 2010 National Digital Inclusion Conference is being shaped by Civic with a steering group including UK online centres, DC10Plus, Citizens Online, StartHere, Intel, YouthNet, NHS Choices, The Peabody Trust, Nominet and representatives from the Departments for Business, Innovation and Skills and Communities and Local Government.
- Civic Agenda is a specialist conference development and organisation agency delivering public and social focussed conferences across the UK. Civic Agenda works with a range of partner organisations and draws on the expertise of sister organisations Civic Regeneration, Regenerate IT and Market Squared to support conferences that explore key areas of social, economic and community policy for an audience of the public, private and voluntary sector. For more information please visit www.civicagenda.co.uk or call 0207 378 0422.
- UK online centres provide millions of people with access to technology and support in using it. They offer free or low cost access to the internet and email, deliver online courses and encourage people to progress onto further learning. For more information please visit www.ukonlinecentres.com. UK online centres are managed by Ufi, the organisation also behind learndirect.
Martha Lane Fox to open NDI10 Conference

The fifth National Digital Inclusion Conference - NDI10 - will be opened by the Champion for Digital Inclusion Martha Lane Fox, alongside Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms MP.

The Conference takes place at Vinopolis in London Bridge on 10 and 11 March, and this year's theme is all about Passing IT on. As well as hearing from keynote speakers, cross-sector delegates will be discussing where digital inclusion is now, and where it needs to be by the end of 2012. Working in four workstreams, they'll be planning activity and making practical pledges to literally pass IT on and make digital inclusion happen over the coming months and years.

Speaking about the conference, Martha Lane Fox said: "The National Digital Inclusion Conference is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to work together, share insights and voice opinions around the moral, economic and serious issue of Digital Inclusion. It is only with a focus on peer-to-peer training, creative partnerships with private companies and replication of the best public sector projects we can achieve a more digitally included society by 2012".

Other plenary sessions at the Conference will include a cross-party debate led by NDI10's returning Chair Matthew Taylor, and a keynote speech from Stephen Timms MP, looking at the future of Digital Britain.

Conference founder Robin Knowles of Civic Agenda added: "The idea of NDI10 is to get a clearer picture of today's digital divide - and the multiple threads of response lacing it together. From there we'll be challenging both speakers and delegates to pledge their support and specific actions to drive digital inclusion forwards. In 2009 the Conference was all about changing policy - NDI10 is about real participation, partnership and practical delivery."

The four workstreams for NDI10 are Digital government for all, Health and well-being, Housing plus, and Digital skills for all. The last workstream is being led by UK online centres, with planned input from Becta, Ofcom and School of Everything to name but a few. Managing Director Helen Milner said: "We're looking to get people talking and thinking as a sector rather than as individual organisations. What is it we need to do to make digital skills available to all? What are we good at, and what do we need to be doing more of? Across all four workstreams, this is a chance for the community to really focus on digital inclusion as an end goal, and the steps we need to take to get there."

NDI10 will be covered by a team of social reporters and journalists, and attended by more than 60 exhibitors in a space divided up by each workstream theme. The exhibition is all about technology for social change, and delegates without a stand are invited to do their own show-and-tell about products, services and ideas on the expo's open stage.

To book your place - with discounted rates still available for third sector delegates - please visit www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk or call 0207 378 0422. The Conference website also includes more detail about each of the workstreams, and a Ning site will soon be available for delegates to begin networking early.

Ends

For more information on this press release please contact Abi Stevens at astevens@ufi.com or on 0778 666 0689

Notes to editors
- Published 4 February 2010
- Twitter hashtag: #NDI10
- Civic Agenda is a specialist conference development and organisation agency delivering public and social focussed conferences across the UK. Civic Agenda works with a range of partner organisations and draws on the expertise of sister organisations Civic Regeneration, Regenerate IT and Market Squared to support conferences that explore key areas of social, economic and community policy for an audience of the public, private and voluntary sector. For more information please visit www.civicagenda.co.uk or call 0207 378 0422.
- UK online centres provide millions of people with access to technology and support in using it. They offer free or low cost access to the internet and email, deliver online courses and encourage people to progress onto further learning. For more information please visit www.ukonlinecentres.com. UK online centres are managed by Ufi, the organisation also behind learndirect.

UK Online Centres

New research makes digital inclusion an economic imperative

New research makes digital inclusion an economic imperative

Martha Lane Fox to open NDI10 Conference