Scottish Minimum Digital Living Standard: interim report

2 Introduction

This report presents interim findings from a project commissioned by the Scottish Government to develop a Minimum Digital Living Standard (MDLS) for Scotland. It details the results from phase 1 on the project work and builds on a UK-wide project funded by the Nuffield Foundation and Nominet to develop a UK MDLS (Yates et al., 2024) as well as a project funded by the Welsh Government to develop a Welsh MDLS (Yates et al., 2023). Phase 2 of the project will focus on the experiences of those living below the MDLS in Scotland and further stakeholder reflections. The full project report on both phases is planned for April 2025.

Members of the research team from the University of Liverpool, Loughborough University, Good Things Foundation, City University, University College Dublin, and the survey company Critical developed the idea of an MDLS. The project initially focused on the digital needs of households with children and is currently working on standards for other household types. MDLS sets out what is needed to live and engage in today’s digital world. It is built with public consensus, bringing together members of the public in a series of focus groups to identify digital needs and the goods, services, and skills required to meet those needs.

How people interact with each other and engage with services has been notably and rapidly digitalised in recent years. In this context, digital inequalities, such as gaps in digital access, skills, and attitudes, have significant tangible consequences for citizens, households, and communities. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed absolute digital exclusion, with already vulnerable individuals, finding themselves significantly disadvantaged, socially disconnected, economically struggling, and unable to access benefits, health services, and government assistance or make online payments. At the same time, the pandemic also revealed the complexity of relative digital exclusion. It made visible the challenges beyond lack of access (e.g., no internet connection or internet-enabled devices) to those faced by “limited” users. “Limited” users are the several millions of UK citizens with digital access but failing to fully benefit from digital technologies due to limited digital skills and/or support (Yates et al., 2020).

Looking specifically at Scotland, up to September 2024, we find that 11,061 connected premises (Ofcom, 2024) did not have a broadband connection with speeds above 2MBs available to the household. Also, 98,525 connected households (3.5%) did not have access to fixed broadband speeds above 30MBs. Fixed superfast broadband – at least 30 megabits per second – coverage is lower than in any other nation of the UK, with a greater proportion of rural areas likely to have lower-quality provision (Ofcom, 2024) (see Figures 1 and 2). Figure 1 presents the percentage of households in each aggregate census area (Data Zone) having less than 30MB connectivity. Figure 2 presents the percentage of households in each aggregate census area (Data Zone) having less than 30MB connectivity.

However, an analysis of Ofcom (2024) Tech Tracker data indicates that 15.1% of Scottish residents do not use fixed broadband connections (whether available to their residences or not). We find that these citizens not utilising broadband were more likely to live in urban (15.8% of urban citizens) than rural (12.1%) areas, indicating that factors other than connection availability play a key role. We also know that one in seven adults in Scotland and Wales are experiencing data poverty – defined as " households or communities who cannot afford sufficient, private and secure mobile or broadband data to meet their essential needs". With differences between the least and most deprived areas being more significant in Scotland than in Wales (Lucas et al., 2021). Indeed, a 2022 Scottish Government (2023b) survey found that 84% of households in Scotland's 20% most deprived areas (based on Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) had internet access at home compared with 96% of households in the 20% least deprived areas. This survey also found notable age variations. Nearly all adults aged 16-34 (99%) reported using the internet compared to 76% of those aged 60+. Also, of disabled adults aged 60+, 66% reported using the internet, compared with 81% of non-disabled adults aged 60+ (Scottish Government, 2023b). Similarly, more recent work undertaken by Audit Scotland (2024) found that 9% of Scottish households do not have access to the internet, with 15% of Scotland’s adult population lacking foundational digital skills. Overall these various results indicate that there are multiple demographic factors that impact digital inclusion in Scotland – over and above availability of internet services.

The Scottish Government has been aware of these issues for some time and is actively committed to tackling digital exclusion in Scotland. In 2021, they published their most recent digital strategy, aiming to achieve “world-leading levels of digital inclusion” (Scottish Government, 2021, p. 29). In addition, as a response to the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Scottish Government set up the Connecting Scotland programme, supporting and funding organisations in distributing devices, data, and digital skills support via a digital champions model (Brown et al., 2024) focused on people on low incomes. While this programme has now changed its mode of delivery, there is evidence that it was very well-received by organisations (D’Arcy et al., 2024) and beneficial in combating digital exclusion. According to a survey commissioned by the Scottish Government (2023a), 86% of participants reported that their digital skills had improved thanks to Connecting Scotland and were more able to stay in touch with family and friends. Despite these efforts, issues of digital exclusion are far from resolved in Scotland. Alarmingly, more than four in ten households with children do not meet the full MDLS in the UK (Yates et al., 2024). This implies that 3.69M households with children do not meet our MDLS definition. In Scotland this rises to 6 in 10 households or 354,300 households.

This report builds on a body of MDLS work and focuses on Scotland. It delivers evidence at a time when Scotland’s approach to digital inclusion is under review. This report presents findings from the first phase of MDLS Scotland research. This initial phase examined the digital needs of households with children in the Scottish context and discussed possible approaches to implementing a Scottish MDLS with stakeholders. This was achieved through focus group discussions with parents and young people and interviews with policymakers and representatives of charities and third sector organisations working in digital inclusion in Scotland.