# The numbers Every figure used on this site, with its source and date — including the ones that were checked and thrown out. ## The numbers used here ### Artificial intelligence in UK businesses: 2023 to 2026 Office for National Statistics · 20 July 2026 · https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/artificialintelligenceinukbusinesses/2023to2026 - 35% of UK businesses with 10+ employees use at least one AI technology (June 2026) - 28% of businesses with 0–9 employees; 49% of businesses with 250+ - 11% report more than half their workforce has received AI training *Official statistics. Business Insights and Conditions Survey. Always state the employee-size base in the same sentence as the figure.* ### Essential Digital Skills 2025 Ipsos for Lloyds Banking Group · Fieldwork 5 March – 2 April 2025 · https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/lloyds-essential-digital-skills-2025 - 8.0 million UK adults (15%) cannot do all eight Foundation Level tasks - 4.0 million (8%) lack Essential Digital Skills for Life - 7.1 million labour-force adults (17%) lack them for Work - 53% Foundation Level attainment among adults with no formal qualifications, against 93% of graduates *n=4,175. The 53%/93% split is drawn from the full report rather than the published summary page and is pending a page-number check.* ### The Economic Impact of Closing the Work Essential Digital Skills Gap Cebr for FutureDotNow, supported by DSIT · March 2025 · https://futuredotnow.uk/about-us/the-essential-digital-skills-gap/ - 52% of the UK labour force cannot complete all 20 Work Essential Digital Skills tasks - Closing the gap estimated at £23.1 billion a year in GVA *Having 'Essential Digital Skills for Work' requires one task in each of five areas. That is why 83% 'have' them while 52% cannot do all twenty. Both are true.* ### Adults' Media Use and Attitudes 2026 Ofcom · 2 April 2026 · https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-adults/adults-media-use-and-attitudes/ - 54% of UK adults use AI tools, rising to 79% of 16–24s - 20% of online UK adults depend exclusively on a smartphone - 89% feel confident online overall, but only 72% are confident judging accuracy *The PDF returns 403 to automated link checks. Verified by hand.* ### Public attitudes to AI King's College London Policy Institute and King's Institute for AI · Published 19 May 2026 · https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/one-in-five-britons-think-ai-will-create-civil-unrest-study-finds - 69% of workers are worried about AI's economic impact - 41% of the public say they are afraid of AI *Fieldwork by Opinium, 16–29 April 2026, n=4,508.* ### Essential digital skills standards: 2026 Department for Education · 15 July 2026 · https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/essential-digital-skills-standards-2026 - Five levels, Entry 1 to Level 2, updated and expanded in response to technological change, including artificial intelligence *Crown copyright. The qualifications behind it have not been rewritten and no implementation date has been set. Read the licence statement before adapting rather than citing.* ### AI foundation skills for work Skills England · 28 January 2026 · https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-foundation-skills-for-work - Three domains: technical, non-technical, and responsible and ethical AI foundation skills, with six competencies across them *Open Government Licence v3.0 — reusable and adaptable, including commercially, with attribution. The exact competency-to-domain mapping is pending a check against the published benchmark.* ### Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements: policy statement Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government · Checked 8 August 2026 · https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/social-tenant-access-to-information-requirements-consultation/outcome/social-tenant-access-to-information-requirements-policy-statement - Publication scheme requirement from 1 October 2026 - Individual information request rights from 1 April 2027 - Applies to private registered providers of social housing *Tenant is defined broadly, including licensees and shared owners holding under 100% equity.* ### Employer Skills Survey 2024 Department for Education · Published 24 July 2025 · https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/employer-skills-survey - UK employer training investment fell to £53.0bn in 2024, down 10.2% in real terms from £59.0bn in 2022 - Per-employee spend fell from £1,960 to £1,700 *22,712 employers. Publishes no headline digital or AI skills gap figure.* ### AI Skills Boost expansion Department for Science, Innovation and Technology · 28 January 2026 · https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-ai-training-for-all-as-government-and-industry-programme-expands-to-provide-10-million-workers-with-key-ai-skills-by-2030 - Target of 10 million workers upskilled in AI by 2030 - Including at least 2 million SME employees *The '21% of workers feel confident using AI at work' figure associated with this release could not be located in a published data table and is not used here.* ## Numbers used elsewhere that are not used here **Only 21% of UK workers feel confident using AI at work.** Appears in the DSIT AI Skills Boost release of 28 January 2026. It could not be located in a published data table, and the fieldwork behind the research programme completed in March 2025 — sixteen months before it was quoted. The ONS training figure is six days old and traceable, so that is used instead. **46% of small businesses lack the skills or knowledge to use AI effectively.** Same release, attributed to the FSB in secondary coverage. The underlying publication could not be found. **60% of employers cite AI skill gaps.** This figure does not exist in the survey it is attributed to. The actual figures are 25% and 27%, on a base of 373 employers who use or plan to use AI, not all employers. The likely origin is a separate line about six in ten employers not using AI and not planning to, which is a non-adoption figure rather than a skills figure. **3.8 million lack essential digital skills for life; 7.3 million for work.** Still widely repeated in 2026 government and sector documents. These come from the 2024 Consumer Digital Index and are superseded by the 2025 figures of 4.0m and 7.1m. **Any ONS figure for internet non-use.** The ONS Internet users series was discontinued; a notice dated 3 May 2023 directs users to Ofcom. The last data is from 2020. **Any North East-specific digital skills statistic.** The most recent regional work relies on the discontinued ONS series and cannot be refreshed. There is no current North East measure of digital skills. National figures are used here and labelled national. ## What is not known - There is no official UK measure of individual adults' AI skills against a defined framework. The ONS measures business adoption. Nobody measures people. The first real measurement arrives with the DSIT survey in 2027. - There is no current regional breakdown of digital skills below nation level. - The Employer Skills Survey 2024 — 22,712 employers, the most authoritative UK employer survey — publishes no headline digital or AI skills gap figure. - There is almost no independent evidence that digital skills training works at scale. The widely-quoted £9.48-return-per-£1 figure is one organisation's evaluation of its own programmes.