Correspondence

Improving access to and use of digital services: open letter to financial sector

Published 17 July 2026

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ
www.gov.uk/dsit

Dear business leaders,

I am writing to you as sector leaders in providing essential digital services to customers across the UK. Digital services are now fundamental to everyday life. From managing money and paying bills online, to accessing transport, and news, people are increasingly relying on digital channels to fully participate in society and the economy. But for too many people, using these services can be difficult, frustrating, or inaccessible.

We acknowledge that the financial sector has already taken significant steps to ensure that their digital services and applications are as accessible and usable as possible for a wide range of customers, including those with complex needs and vulnerabilities. Across the sector, we understand that firms are investing in inclusive design, accessibility testing, clearer customer journeys, and improved support for people who may need additional assistance. As a result, many organisations in the financial services sector are increasingly recognised as leading practice in this area.

However, across the economy, there remains variation and incoherence in how services are designed and experienced in practice. Too often, digital journeys are complex, inconsistent, or do not provide effective routes for support when things go wrong. These challenges risk undermining trust, limiting participation, and driving digital exclusion. This is not simply a question of access or skills; people are disengaging from online services because of these problems, and when services are too frustrating to navigate, barriers are created.

The Government is clear that progress must go further and faster. We want to work closely with you to ensure that consumers are getting a more consistent digital experience across sectors. As sector leaders we are relying on your leadership in best practice, ability to innovate and bring new solutions to market, and, deep understanding of customer needs, including customers that are most vulnerable, and to ensure digital services work for everyone in our society. Our strong preference is to achieve this through voluntary collaboration, though we are open to your thoughts on whether further government action may be helpful to encourage greater consistency across the economy at the pace required to address the scale of the challenge.

This includes:

• Ensuring services are easy to navigate and understand
• Designing with the needs of disabled people and those at risk of digital exclusion in mind
• Building in safety, privacy and security in ways that do not create additional complexity for users

To support progress, DSIT is looking to support industry partners to:

• Define a clear problem statement and develop a shared understanding of what good looks like in practice across the economy
• Support a voluntary approach to improving usability and accessibility for essential private sector digital services
• Agree a cross-sector roadmap and timeline for adoption

To begin this work, I would like to invite you to a roundtable taking place 13 July 2026 to further discuss the above points I would be grateful if you could respond to this letter by confirming your contact details for a formal invitation to the roundtable to be issued. I look forward to receiving your response.

Yours sincerely,

Baroness Lloyd
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Department for Science, Innovation &Technology

Minister Blake
Parliamentary Secretary
HM Treasury