Leo Docherty MP met with Julie Mounfield and representatives from the Aldershot Garrison HQ to discuss the significant difficulties many service families have in accessing online services due to poor digital access.
Digital access, the ability to connect to the internet or other digital networks, provides a range of benefits and opportunities, from online shopping and banking, to studying and working from home. In order to gain this access, reliable broadband provisions are required.
During Leo's meeting with Julie, Regional Manager South for the Army Families Federation (AFF), sixty eight individual cases were highlighted showing how service families have been struggling to gain digital access, due to slow and unreliable internet connections. The pandemic has highlighted how these families have been some of the most disadvantaged as a result of the lockdown measures.
Commenting, Leo said:
"Service personnel and their families are being let down with poor broadband provisions.
"For service personnel to have had better WiFi and download speeds whilst out in the deserts of Iraq, than here in Aldershot, is simply unacceptable, particularly at a time when children and their parents have been having to learn and work from home.
"Through the recent survey work carried out by the AFF, this has highlighted how poor digital access is impacting on the day-to-day lives of service families."
Pictured Leo with Julie Mounfield, Regional Manager South, Army Families Federation