A Commentary on Scotland's Digital Performance

Digital Participation

"Our people and businesses are confident and capable users of digital technologies"

Scotland's Digital Participation progress has been measured using the following sources:

• Scottish Household Survey (SHS)
• Ofcom Communications Market Reports
• ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey
• eSkills Technology Insights Report 2012

The Scottish Household Survey is the Scottish Government's preferred source for measuring Scotland's digital participation due to its large sample size. However, to enable comparisons with the UK and European countries, other data sources have been utilised. The Scottish Government is currently considering the inclusion of additional questions in the Scottish Household Survey to allow wider comparisons to be made.

It should be noted that the Scottish sample sizes for the Ofcom, ONS and eSkills survey are considerably smaller than the sample size for the Scottish Household Survey¹.

Digital participation by households and individuals

The proportion of households with internet access in Scotland has increased by 36 percentage points since 2003 when data collection began, from 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2003 to 76 per cent in 2012 Q4 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Proportion of households with internet access in Scotland
Source: Scottish Household Survey 2012²

Figure 2 shows the proportion of adults using the internet for personal use (as measured in the Scotland Performs National Indicator: 'Widen the use of Internet'). The proportion of adults using the internet for personal use has increased by 14.3 percentage points between 2007 and 2012, from 62.7 per cent in 2007 to 77 per cent in 2012.

Figure 2: Percentage of adults using the internet for personal use, 2007-2012
Source: Scottish Household Survey

Figure 3 compares internet use by key interest groups with that of all adults in Scotland.

• Two thirds (67 per cent) of adults in 15 per cent of the most deprived areas in 2012 used internet for personal purposes.
• A smaller proportion of people in older age groups used the internet (46.6 among those aged 60 or older³).
• Among people with a disability and/or a long-standing illness⁴ 54 per cent stated to use the internet in 2012.
• 49 per cent of respondents living in social rented housing⁵ used the internet.
• 55.9 per cent of respondents earning lower incomes used the internet. This compares with 98 per cent of those in the highest income group⁶ (earning £40,001 or more) using the internet.

Figure 3: Use of the internet in Scotland by disability and/or long-standing illness, older age group, 15% most deprived, social rented housing and low income (per cent)⁷
Source: Scottish Household Survey 2012⁸

While the data from the Scottish Household Survey provides the most accurate information about Internet use in Scotland due to its large sample size, it does not provide comparisons with the UK as a whole. Ofcom's Communications Market Report provides annual survey data that is comparable across the UK⁹.

• As shown in Figure 4, Ofcom data indicates that total broadband uptake for Scottish households was 70 per cent of households in 2013 Q1 compared to 75 per cent of households in the UK as a whole and that three quarters (76 per cent) of households in Scotland had internet access in 2013 Q1 compared with 80 per cent of UK households.
• Figure 5 shows that according to Ofcom, whilst both total broadband uptake and internet access in Scotland have grown annually since 2008 Q1, growth has been particularly strong since 2011.

Figure 4: Internet access and total broadband uptake. UK nations, 2013 Q1
Source: Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013¹⁰

Figure 5: Internet access and total broadband uptake, Scotland, 2008 Q1 to 2013 Q1
Source: Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013¹¹

Data on proportion of households with access to the internet at home in Scotland and Great Britain (GB) from the ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey allows for comparisons with the EU¹² (Figure 6). However, it should be noted that whilst data for Scotland and GB is available for 2013, EU data is currently only available for 2012. These differences in time period should be borne in mind when considering results presented in Figure 6.

Figure 6 shows that:

• A greater proportion of households had internet access in Scotland and GB compared with the EU average; 77.6 per cent in Scotland, 83 per cent in the UK and 76.1 per cent in the EU.
• GB figures lag behind European countries such as the Netherlands (93.6 per cent), Luxembourg (93 per cent), Denmark (92 per cent), Sweden (91.7 per cent), Finland (86.8 per cent) and Germany (85.5 per cent).

Figure 6: Proportion of households with access to the Internet at home in Scotland (2013), Great Britain (2013) and the EU (2012)
Sources: ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey 2013, European Commission Digital Agenda Scoreboard¹³
Note: Scotland and GB data is from 2013 and the EU data is from 2012.
ONS and the EC Digital Agenda Scoreboard use different definitions for households, which is likely to influence the results¹⁴.

Digital skills

The three most commonly stated reasons for why people do not use the internet for personal use in Scotland in 2012¹⁵ were: 'I don't like using the internet or computers' (32 per cent), 'I don't need to use the internet or computers' (27 per cent) and 'I don't know how to use a computer' (25 per cent). Whilst 12 per cent of respondents stated that they cannot afford a computer, and 2 per cent stated that an internet connection would be too expensive.

Data from the ONS Opinions and Lifestyle survey allows for Scotland¹⁶ and UK comparisons of the proportion of users who have undertaken a range of online activities.

• The majority of respondents had used a search engine to find information (92.1 per cent in Scotland and 92.7 per cent in the UK) and had sent e-mails with attached files (77.2 per cent in Scotland and 83.4 per cent in the UK).
• 40.1 per cent and 40.3 per cent had made telephone calls online in Scotland and the UK respectively, and 10.5 per cent of Scottish respondents and 13.9 of UK respondents had created a webpage.
• 4.9 per cent and 4.3 per cent in Scotland and the UK respectively had undertaken none of the listed activities.

Figure 7: Proportion of internet users who have done the following activities online
Source: ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, 2013

Figure 8 below identifies the incidence of computer users with gaps in their IT user skills in the UK, by users with gaps and firms with gaps.

• The most commonly stated area where gaps exist was spread sheet skills, where 65 per cent of users and 95 per cent of firms with IT user skills gaps state to experience a gap in this area.
• Other common areas of skill gaps where database-related skills (41 per cent of users and 75 per cent of firms), presentation graphics skills (41 per cent of users and 65 per cent of firms), security software/protocols (42 per cent of users and 63 per cent of firms) and company specific systems/packages (54 per cent of users and 53 per cent of firms).

Figure 8: Incidence of computer users with gaps in their IT user skills in the UK (by nature of skills gaps)
Source: eSkills Technology Insights 2012¹⁷