Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding his Department has allocated to (a) the digital inclusion strategy and (b) other digital inclusion measures in each year since 2011.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The 2014 Digital Inclusion Strategy, created under the last Government, is a multi sector strategy setting out a series of collective commitments for government and the private and voluntary sectors.
Increasing the level of digital engagement in the UK requires commitment from all sectors. To date, 93 organisations have signed up to collaborate with government departments and each other to increase digital engagement in the UK. A wide range of activities and programmes have been delivered by partners across the UK.
Government has invested heavily in basic digital skills; for example, BIS funds a programme to help people gain the skills needed to access employment, education and wider opportunities. In addition, last year Arts Council England oversaw government investment of £2.7m in free WiFi in libraries in England.
The Digital Engagement team moved to DCMS from the Cabinet Office in November 2015. Historically the team has been funded by different Departments. We anticipate DCMS’s contribution to staff costs during the last financial year to be approximately £200,000. The Digital Engagement team did not fund any specific digital inclusion measures between November 2015 and March 2016.
