Member News
By Lesley Foottit - 15th October 2009
Digital inclusion tsar Martha Lane Fox has called for MPs to support "creative" policies to encourage the spread of broadband internet access.
Her comments came at a conference in Westminster which discussed Parliament and the internet.
Lane Fox's campaign has focused on the four million people who are "socially and digitally excluded".
After three months as the government's digital inclusion champion, the co-founder of lastminute.com said affordability is still a main issue.
"Affordability, accessibility, privacy and security are still fundamental issues," she said.
"We need to break down some of these barriers and raise awareness of protection."
Around 10 million people in the UK have never used the internet, and Lane Fox believes that, with more information readily available, this figure can be reduced.
Peer-to-peer training and mentoring will play a key role in raising awareness and the option of pre-paid credit cards is being researched as a possible solution to affordability issues.
However, poor literacy is another hurdle that the programme faces.
Lane Fox said: "It is surprising how often 'I can't use a computer' means 'I can't read'. Literacy is a fundamentally important issue."
The entrepreneur claimed that £22bn could be saved on education, employment and health if everyone in the UK was online.
And she said it was a conservative assumption that children in the 1.6 million homes without have the internet are disadvantaged when it come to education and employment.
She told the conference: "We need to be as tenacious and creative as possible to fight for what I believe is right and spread the reach of broadband."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd