The Scottish Government

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9 Internet

INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

As part of a wider social inclusion agenda, the Scottish Government's Digital Inclusion Strategy (2006) and The Broadband Reach Project - Forward Strategy aim to reduce the digital divide in Scotland through improving awareness, access, basic IT training and public service website services, as well as increasing household access to and personal use of the Internet.

The Scottish Household Survey provides statistics on many key indicators against which the strategy's success can be measured. This chapter begins by looking at personal use of the Internet by key demographic factors, including age, health status and income. It then looks at how access to household Internet and broadband services varies by income and by type of area, with a particular focus on level of deprivation and urban/rural classification.

The final section looks at the extent to which Government and local authority websites are used to access services. The increasing use of ICTs to deliver services is part of the Government's broader commitment to public service reform. In many instances efficiencies can be gained by enabling people to access information or services that might otherwise require input from staff and services can be tailored to suit the needs of the public.

PERSONAL INTERNET USE

In 2007 the SHS Internet questions were revised and a distinction was made between non-users and those who use the Internet for work, personal reasons, or both. This distinction made it possible to ask the non-users and those who only use the Internet for work tailored questions about their reasons for not making personal use of the Internet and their aspirations for future use.

This chapter focuses on those who do not use the Internet at all, the group for whom the barriers to future use are arguably greatest. Overall, 38% of adults do not use the Internet at all. Women are more likely than men to be non-users (41% and 36% respectively). There is a very clear pattern between Internet use and age, just 12% of men and 15% of women aged 16 to 24 do not use the Internet, the corresponding figures for those aged 75 and over are 84% and 93% (Table 9.1).

TABLE 9.1: PERSONAL USE OF THE INTERNET BY AGE WITHIN GENDER
Column percentages, 2007 data

Table 9.2 shows that there is a strong association between health status and Internet use, 65% of people who have a long-term illness, health problem or disability do not use the Internet compared with 29% of those who do not have any of these conditions. There is, however, a very strong correlation between health status and age so the pattern evident in Table 9.2 is likely to in part be a reflection of the relatively low levels of Internet use among older people who are also more likely to have a long-term illness, health problem or disability.

TABLE 9.2: PERSONAL USE OF THE INTERNET BY WHETHER HAS A LONG-STANDING LIMITING ILLNESS, HEALTH PROBLEM OR DISABILITY
Column percentages, 2007 data

Table 9.3 presents Internet use by net annual household income. The proportion of people who do not use the Internet decreases as net annual income increases. Between 62% and 69% of people in households with a net annual income of £15,000 or less do not use the Internet, compared with just 7% of those in households with incomes in excess of £40,000.

TABLE 9.3: PERSONAL USE OF THE INTERNET BY NET ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Column percentages, 2007 data

* Includes all adults for whom household income is known or has been imputed.
Household income in the SHS is that of the highest income householder and their partner only.

HOME INTERNET ACCESS

The previous section focused on personal Internet access, the location of which can vary. This section now looks at the prevalence of home Internet access. The SHS has asked whether households can access the Internet from their home every year since 2003. Figure 9.1 displays the figures for homes with Internet access by quarter from 2003-2007. Overall, 57% of Scottish households report having home Internet access in 2007. The proportion of households with home Internet access has seen a gradual increase year on year. Whereas in 2003 Q1, 40% of households had Internet access, this had increased to 56% in 2007 Q1.

FIGURE 9.1: HOUSEHOLDS WITH HOME INTERNET ACCESS BY QUARTER
2003-2007 data
Households

As with personal Internet usage, home Internet access increases with net annual household income (Table 9.4). Only 27% of households with incomes of £6,000 or less have home Internet access, compared with 94% of households with incomes over £40,000.

TABLE 9.4: HOUSEHOLDS WITH HOME INTERNET ACCESS BY NET ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Column percentages, 2007 data

* Includes all adults for whom household income is known or has been imputed.
Household income in the SHS is that of the highest income householder and their partner only.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all random adults.

Table 9.5 and Table 9.6 report the prevalence of home Internet access by type of area, based on the urban rural classification and the level of area deprivation. ⁵² The proportion of households with home Internet access is higher in rural areas than in small towns and urban areas (Table 9.5). For example, only 54% of households in large urban areas report having Internet access at home, compared with 67% of households in accessible rural areas.

TABLE 9.5: HOUSEHOLDS WITH HOME INTERNET ACCESS BY URBAN/RURAL CLASSIFICATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all random adults.

Households in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland are much less likely than those in the rest of Scotland to have home Internet access, at 36% and 61% respectively (Table 9.6).

TABLE 9.6: HOUSEHOLDS WITH HOME INTERNET ACCESS BY SCOTTISH INDEX OF MULTIPLE DEPRIVATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all random adults.

ACCESS TO BROADBAND

Table 9.7 shows access to broadband services by net annual income, both for households with an Internet connection and for all households. Drawing a distinction between those with and without Internet access helps to illustrate the extent of broadband use across the whole population as well as its use among existing Internet users. Broadband access is important as the increasingly complex ways in which the Internet is used within the home often demand the higher connection and download speeds associated with broadband relative to dial-up access.

Overall, half (50%) of all households in Scotland report having a broadband Internet connection. This varies from 22% of all households with incomes of less than £6,000 to 86% of those with incomes of over £40,000. Looking at households that already have Internet access, the majority (86%) have a broadband connection. However, this does vary by household income which suggests that access to broadband is in part driven by resources, even in those households that have the means to access the Internet. For example, around 81% of households with Internet access and incomes below £15,000 have broadband, rising to around 90% in households whose incomes exceed £25,000.

TABLE 9.7: WHETHER HAVE BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION BY NET ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Column percentages, 2007 data

Note: totals do not sum to 100 as don't knows have not been reported.
* Includes all adults for whom household income is known or has been imputed.
Household income in the SHS is that of the highest income householder and their partner only.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all random adults.

On the whole, broadband access is slightly more common in households in rural areas (Table 9.8). In all other areas less than half of all households have a broadband Internet connection, the lowest proportion being in remote small towns (45%). However, this largely reflects the fact that overall Internet usage is greater in rural areas (as shown in Table 9.5) In households that already have Internet access the pattern is in fact reversed, with households in large urban areas and other urban areas (89%) more likely to have a broadband connection than those in all other areas (ranging between 78% and 83%). This suggests that broadband access might also, in part, be driven by technological or infrastructure constraints such as the availability of broadband in the less urban areas of Scotland.

TABLE 9.8: WHETHER HAVE BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION BY URBAN/RURAL CLASSIFICATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all random adults.

Overall, only around a third (32%) of all households in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland have a broadband Internet connection, compared with over half (52%) in the rest of Scotland. However, when looking at households with an Internet connection, broadband uptake rates are very similar in the 15% most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland (Table 9.9). On the evidence presented in the previous tables, broadband uptake appears to be more related to a household's income and the rurality of the local area, than it is to the level of deprivation in the area.

TABLE 9.9: WHETHER HAVE BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION BY SCOTTISH INDEX OF MULTIPLE DEPRIVATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

Note: totals do not sum to 100 as don't knows have not been reported.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all random adults.

USE OF LOCAL AUTHORITY AND GOVERNMENT WEBSITES

The SHS asks first about accessing services and information from respondents' local council website. It subsequently asks about services and information provided by a Government website (the question did not refer to any particular websites).

Half of all adults who use the Internet had never used local authority or government websites to access services or information (Table 9.10 and Table 9.11). Of those who had used their local authority's website, the most commonly reported purposes were to find information (40%), and to download a form (14%). There were few notable or consistent differences across the different area types, though Internet users in large urban areas were the most likely to have made a payment via their local council's website.

TABLE 9.10: USE OF LOCAL AUTHORITY WEBSITE TO ACCESS SERVICES BY URBAN/RURAL CLASSIFICATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Table 9.11 looks at uses of Government websites. Applying for road tax (23%) and finding information on health services (14%) were the most common reasons for using a Government website. In common with local authority website use, there were few major variations in use in relation to urban rural classification, although Internet users living in accessible or remote rural areas were more likely to say they had used a Government website to apply for road tax than those in all other area types. This is likely to be related to the comparably longer distances to post offices in those areas, where road tax forms are also found.

TABLE 9.11: USE OF GOVERNMENT WEBSITE TO ACCESS SERVICES BY URBAN/RURAL CLASSIFICATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question was only asked of half the sample.

The final tables in this section present the proportions who have ever used a local authority or Government website based on all those who use the Internet and based on all adults (Table 9.12 and Table 9.13). The latter figures help present the fuller extent of the use of these websites as they take into account the fact that 38% of the population do not use the Internet. This helps to assess the overall extent to which services or information are provided via ICT as opposed to more traditional methods. It does not, however, take account of whether people have actually needed to access information or use these services in the first place, for example, only car owners require road tax and few people each year need to renew their passport.

TABLE 9.12: USE OF LOCAL AUTHORITY WEBSITE TO ACCESS SERVICES (INTERNET USERS AND TOTAL POPULATION)
Column percentages, 2007 data

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

TABLE 9.13: USE OF GOVERNMENT WEBSITE TO ACCESS SERVICES (INTERNET USERS AND TOTAL POPULATION)
Column percentages, 2007 data

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question was asked of half the sample only, streams changed in June 2007.

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