Digital Inclusion in Aberavon

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 24 January 2018.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 2:56, 24 January 2018

Thank you for that answer, leader of the house, and I appreciate the work that's already been done, but it could all be undone if we're not careful. Clearly, digital inclusion includes reference to accessibility, and accessibility is twofold. One is infrastructure, and you've already answered questions on that, so I won't address that one at this point. The other one is actually accessibility to the technology. Very often, in our disadvantaged communities, that was done through community centres and libraries. Many of those public services, as a consequence of the ideology of the Tory Westminster Government of austerity, are actually now under threat or have gone, or some might have been transferred to communities, and opening hours are reduced as such.

So, what are you going to do to ensure that people in those communities are able to access the technology so that they can be included, they can gain the skills? Because everything is moving towards digital technology, and if we can't offer them the ability to go somewhere and actually get access, we're failing those people.