Digital participation in Scotland: the £100 million question

Today is the 25th birthday of the World Wide Web, the part of the internet that most of us are most familiar with (and which of course powers this very page). But whilst the web has changed countless lives for the better, many people still lack the basic online skills needed to get things done online. Last month the Tinder Foundation published its analysis of the cost of achieving 100% digital inclusion by 2020. This estimates the cost per person - excluding capital investment like broadband and devices - at between £47 and £319 per person, depending on individual circumstances. With around 13% of the people who lack basic online skills living in Scotland, we're looking at a cost of over £100 million (and a total cost of around £875 million for the UK as a whole). For the first time this makes clear the scale of the challenge ahead. And whilst costs in the hundreds of millions are far from trivial, estimates of the economic benefit of digital inclusion run into tens of billions of pounds, let alone the game-changing impact on social inclusion and democratic participation in our communities. The Scottish Government has rightly invested over £400 million to extend access to superfast broadband across the country. It's time to put the same level of resources into making sure everyone in our society has the motivation and skills to benefit from it.