Access to Digital Services: North-east

No one anywhere in the UK should have difficulty using Government services, and the Government are committed to ensuring that our online and digital services are as accessible as possible. There are globally recognised standards for digital accessibility, but they are only part of the design of an inclusive service, which is why we will be revising the Government service standards to incorporate requirements covering wider issues of inclusion and looking at extending their scope into the wider public sector.

Recently, I attended a roundtable of small businesses in the north-east, held at Sage, and a key theme was the need for good connections and digital services to help their businesses to grow. Digital connectivity is of course critical, but this often holds people back. What are the Government doing to ensure that digital infrastructure is strong enough to support local businesses in constituencies such as mine?

It is right that not only do we need to have good online access to services, but businesses need to be able to connect to those services, and that is why the Government are committed to delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity coverage by 2030. I am glad to say that over 94% of premises in her constituency can access gigabit broadband, including the businesses that she refers to, but I am of course happy to meet her to talk about what more we can do in this important area.

The Sussex Bookshop is a new bookshop that opened in Chichester city centre in December; it is now February and it is unable to connect to any sort of internet provision, because Openreach is reporting that there are no extra connections for the whole city centre. Does the Minister agree that reliable internet access is essential, especially for small businesses that have to operate both on the high street and on an online platform? What steps is she taking to ensure that those businesses have access now, not in 2030?

I think that is linked to the north-east. That is the subject.

I absolutely agree with the hon. Member. Businesses across the country should be able to connect, especially in this day and age. If the business in her constituency continues to experience problems, my hon. Friend the Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms will be happy to meet her to discuss this issue further.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

Digital services for small businesses are important across the country—north-east, south-east or wherever you are, Mr Speaker. The latest data shows, however, that only around 15% of UK small and medium-sized enterprises use AI, which is well behind other countries, such as Denmark and Finland. Will the Minister commit to publishing a detailed adoption road map that covers, for example, essential upskilling, data centre capacity and tech vouchers, so that small businesses can deploy AI without being locked out by cost and complexity?

The hon. Member will have seen the AI opportunities action plan, which sets out our aspiration for this country, including the opportunities for small businesses. The fusion of AI across the economy is top of the agenda. In the coming months, she will see more activity on how we will do that.