Data about social networking helps us to increase our understanding of how people benefit from the opportunities the internet can offer, as well as who is missing out. In our increasingly online world, a significant part of the population remains digitally excluded. In the 2017 Digital Strategy, the Government has committed to address this digital divide between those who have been able to embrace the digital world and those who have not.

Headline findings

• 87% of adults had used social networking websites or applications in the past 12 months, an increase from 84% in 2018/19
• Increases in use of social networking was seen for age groups over 45 years old
• There were differences in the likelihood of having used social networking with the demographic categories of age, ethnicity, region, disability, socio-economic background and tenure

Further data

The https://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS) collect information about internet access in Britain, describing how Internet use has evolved from 2003 to the present day.

The government has surveyed UK businesses and charities to find out how they approach cyber security and gain insight into the cyber security issues faced by organisations. The research informs government policy on cyber security and how government works with industry to make the UK one of the most secure places to do business online.

You can read the press notice here.

Published

24 March 2021

Period covered

Respondents were asked about their approach to cyber security and any breaches or attacks over the 12 months before the interview. Main survey interviews took place between October and December 20209. Qualitative follow up interviews took place in January and February 2021.

Geographic coverage

UK

Further Information

The survey is part of the government’s National Cyber Security Strategy. Cyber security guidance and information for businesses, including details of free training and support, can be found on the National Cyber Security Centre website.

The survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI.

The UK Statistics Authority

This release is published in accordance with the https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/">Code of Practice for Statistics (2018), as produced by the UK Statistics Authority. The UKSA has the overall objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good. It monitors and reports on all official statistics, and promotes good practice in this area.

Pre-release access

The document above contains a list of ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.

Contact information

The responsible analyst for this release is Emma Johns. For any queries please contact 07990 602870 or cyber.survey@dcms.gov.uk.

For any queries relating to official statistics please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

For media enquiries only (24 hours) please contact the press office on 020 7211 2210.

This meeting covered:

jurisdictional updates
impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
future hearings project
common platform
civil performance
family public law digital service national rollout

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their gender pay gap every year. This report fulfils the Department’s reporting requirements, analyses the figures in more detail and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in DCMS.

Building a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the people we serve is one of the Civil Service’s top workforce priorities. Our collective aim is to make the Civil Service the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020 and beyond. Our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy outlines how we plan to achieve this. The Civil Service should create opportunities for all in a truly meritocratic way and reward all civil servants fairly, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other personal characteristics.

Background

The Community Life Survey collects information about the wellbeing of adults (16+).

In October 2018, the Prime Minister launched the government’s first loneliness strategy for England. This statistical release presents the most recent headline findings on levels of loneliness, as well as support networks and social networks.

The Community Life Survey uses the Government Statistical Service (GSS) harmonised principle of loneliness and wellbeing. The estimates presented here are therefore comparable with other surveys that use this principle. However we advise taking caution when comparing measures from different surveys because differences in the methodology (e.g. mode/sampling approach) will all affect estimates. Other statistical data sets that use this definition, and therefore have comparative data, are available from the https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/loneliness-indicators/">GSS guidance page. In Annex C there are details of further surveys that have adopted the Government Statistical Service harmonised principles of loneliness and Wellbeing.

Headline Measures – 2020/21

• Average scores for life satisfaction, the extent to how worthwhile the respondent felt things in their life were and happiness have decreased since 2019/20.

• Life satisfaction score was 6.9 (out of 10) in 2020/21, a decrease from 7.0 in 2019/20.

• How happy people felt yesterday decreased from 7.0 (out of 10) in 2019/20 to 6.8 in 2020/21. This has trended downwards from 7.2 in 2015/16.

• Whether people felt the things they did were worthwhile decreased to 7.1 (out of 10) in 2020/21 from 7.3 in 2020/21.

• How anxious people felt yesterday at the time of survey completion averaged at 3.8 (out of 10), which was in line with the figure in 2019/20. This figure has trended upwards from 2015/16 where it was 3.3.

• 6% of respondents (approximately 3 million people in England) said they felt lonely often/always. This is in line with reported loneliness from 2019/20.

• Loneliness was higher for 16-24 year olds, the most deprived and those with a long term limiting illness or disability.

• An indirect loneliness composite score was produced which found significantly higher loneliness scores for those with a long term limiting illness or disability compared to those without.

Further Data

• https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/measuresofnationalwellbeingdashboard/2018-04-25">Measures of National Wellbeing Dashboard, which monitors and reports on multiple wellbeing measures.

• Chapter 1 of the Community Life Survey provides estimates on support networks and methods of communicating with friends and family.

• In December 2020, DCMS published the second ’Community Life Survey: Focus on Loneliness’. This used data from the 2019/20 survey, giving more detailed breakdowns by demographics and looking at the link between loneliness and other measures from the survey, such as volunteering and community engagement.

• In June 2020, the Office for National Statistics released a paper titled “https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandlonelinessgreatbritain/3aprilto3may2020">Coronavirus and Loneliness, Great Britain”, which gives an overview of how different groups of people experienced loneliness during the COVID-19 Pandemic. A number of other studies of the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on loneliness have been published. These include the https://www.covidsocialstudy.org/">COVID Social Study (conducted by University College London), and the ONS publication https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/mappinglonelinessduringthecoronaviruspandemic/2021-04-07">Mapping Loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic.

Details

Prison Education Statistics 2019 - 20 is based on data collected through the new Curious database which covers prisoner initial assessments, participation and achievement in courses. These are analysed by course level and prisoner characteristics, including learning difficulty / disability.

Prisoner Education statistical tables for 2018 - 19 contain data based on the old Offender Learning Skills Service (OLASS) system. This is the final year data were collected through OLASS before switching to Curious.

Pre-release list

The Prison Education Statistics report is produced and handled by the Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) analytical professionals and production staff.

Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons at Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS):

Assistant Private Secretary x 2; Chief Press Officer; Deputy Director and Chief Statistician; Deputy Director, Reducing Reoffending - HMPPS; Deputy Private Secretary; Digital learning and data officer; Head of Custodial Contracts; Head of Digital Learning; Head of Education; Head of Education contracts; Head of Future Prison Policy; Head of People Performance; HMPPS Reducing Reoffending Strategic and Delivery Programme Lead; Operational Researcher x 2; Policy Advisor; Policy Lead; Press officer x 2; Prison Education Senior Contract Manager; Prison Performance analyst; Private Secretary; Senior Policy Advisor; Senior Press Officer x 2; Senior statisticial officer x 2; Service Users Equalities Performance Lead;