A decade since the last national strategy, the Government has announced initial actions to tackle digital exclusion and set out its proposals for addressing the problem long-term
The Government’s plan comes more than 10 years since the last national digital inclusion strategy
On 26 February 2025, Peter Kyle MP (Secretary of State, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)) presented the UK Government’s ‘Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps’. According to Kyle, leaving people behind in the country’s technological revolution could threaten the Government’s mission to maximise technology for economic growth and better public services, which is central to its “Plan for Change”. However, the action plan states that an estimated 1.6m people remain offline, and around 23% of the population may struggle to interact with online services. Under the plan, charities and local and combined authorities will have access to new funding for digital inclusion programmes, boosting communities’ digital access, as well as their skills and confidence online. It comes over a decade since the UK’s last national digital inclusion strategy, against which progress was limited. A number of groups – e.g. Digital Poverty Alliance and techUK – have welcomed the policy paper, with Helen Milner (Group Chief Executive, Good Things Foundation) pleased that “for the first time ever, digital inclusion is firmly on the national agenda”.
The principles that will guide the Government’s approach seek to recognise that digital exclusion can take many forms
The action plan states that the “complex and intersectional nature” of digital exclusion requires the Government to be evidence-based and collaborative and to learn the lessons from what already works. The Government has therefore identified the following key principles that will guide its approach to addressing digital exclusion:
Identifying what works, understanding the scale of the challenge and opportunities, and designing evidence-based policy interventions (which are monitored and evaluated);
Taking a cross-government approach, which means collaborative work across DSIT and with other departments, including the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP);
Delivering in partnership with local authorities, national and devolved governments, and private and third sectors, underlining digital inclusion as a cross-cutting issue;
Supporting locally designed and delivered interventions that meet the specific needs of individual communities and deliver tailored services for people who live there; and
Understanding international best practice and cooperating with international partners to learn valuable lessons from countries that have been testing different approaches to tackling digital exclusion.
The five initial actions of the plan prioritise local support, skills, devices, accessible public services and building an evidence base
With these principles in mind, the Government has set out the first five actions that it will take in 2025 to kickstart its ambition to improve digital inclusion:
Launch in the spring a Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund to support local initiatives that increase digital participation, working in partnership with local leaders and devolved governments;
Enhance support for the framework that helps people and businesses get the essential skills they need to get online safely and with confidence;
Pilot a proof-of-concept multi-department donation scheme for devices with the Digital Poverty Alliance to provide re-purposed government laptops to those that need them;
Make government digital services easier to use with a renewed focus on digital inclusion, for example by improving user experience and increasing the number of services that use GOV.UK One Login; and
Measure what works on digital inclusion to develop evidence, identify where the need is greatest, and establish the economic and social value of upskilling adults with digital skills.
The Government also recognises that it cannot deliver the change it considers necessary without partnership from industry and has therefore secured pledges from industry partners, including Google, which will develop a new partnership with DSIT to deliver intensive digital skills training to support adults in securing employment. Several telecoms operators in the UK will also play an important role, such as BT, Openreach, Sky, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone, which have pledged to provide connectivity, devices and/or skills support to narrow the digital divide.
Four focus areas provide a framework for the Government’s future work, reflecting its long-term commitment to tackling the problem
Beyond its initial five actions, the Government has identified four focus areas as the framework for future work, outlining medium and long-term proposals on which it is seeking stakeholder feedback:
Opening up opportunities through skills which means developing the necessary digital skills, and having access to the right training and support to meet people’s changing needs;
Tackling data and device poverty by ensuring access to sufficient, affordable and reliable internet connectivity and devices that are suitable for people’s lives;
Breaking down barriers to digital services with accessible digital services that are easy to use and save people time and/or money, with appropriate and well supported alternative pathways for those that need them; and
Building confidence and supporting local delivery with an understanding of how being online can benefit you; how to trust that necessary protections for privacy and security are in place; and how to find support when you need help, including at a local (offline) level.
The Government’s call for evidence on these four priorities will remain open until 9 April 2025. In the meantime, it will begin to effect some of the “leadership actions” it has committed to, including establishing a Digital Inclusion and Skills Unit within government, as well as an interministerial group and an action committee of national and local experts.
