MPs may receive digital training to make them more tech-savvy. Doteveryone, a charity which focuses on digital issues, has run a pilot scheme in which four MPs received lessons from "digitally-savvy mentors". It is now working with the Parliamentary Digital Service to scale the project up to the whole House of Commons. Between May and June, Doteveryone worked with Labour MP Yvette Cooper, SNP MP Calum Kerr, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, and Conservative MP Matt Warman. They looked at how digital training might benefit engagement, collaboration, security and the delivery of parliamentary work. The project was funded by the charity, which claims the pilot scheme led to an increase in engagement. It said one of the MPs saw his Facebook posts go from a reach of 3,000 to 10,000 views after including a video for the first time, while another had more than 2,700 responses when he tried online polling. Mr Lamb said: "I think it's essential. "It's a work in progress. I'm not suddenly tech-savvy now after having a mentor with us for a couple of months but I've absolutely seen the necessity of MPs upping their skills substantially together with their staff so we can be more effective representatives." Rachel Coldicutt, chief executive of Doteveryone, said: "The ultimate aim is to help MPs be more efficient, to help them communicate better, to spend more time having quality interaction with their constituents rather than having to cope with lots of emails, admin, and to help them to be safe and secure." However, The Taxpayers' Alliance described it as "quite a silly idea". Harry Davies, from the organisation, said: "MPs expenses were upwards of £150 million last year and we need to be looking for savings, and this really needs to be justified if they're going to spend so much money on it."
British MPs may be offered digital training to become more “tech-savvy” after a successful pilot scheme by Doteveryone, a digital issues charity. The charity has been running the programme for two years and says it is helping people with disabilities get online. The charity said that engagement was increased through the scheme, and hopes that further training would help MPs to communicate more effectively with their constituents. The Taxpayers Alliance, however, called the idea “silly” and a waste of taxpayer money.