The rapid digitisation of essential services in the UK, such as energy, healthcare and housing, is deepening inequalities for minoritised ethnic communities, a major three-year research project has found.
Without careful design, online services risk excluding those already facing digital exclusion, language barriers and systemic discrimination, according to the Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online (PRIME) study, which publishes a series of policy briefs, a Code of Practice and videos in multiple languages alongside a suite of free-to-use technological tools - today.
Led by Professor Gina Netto of Heriot-Watt University, the interdisciplinary research team including experts from 星空体育官网 examined the impact of digitalisation on healthcare, housing, and energy services across the UK. “The shift online must not leave people behind,” Professor Netto said. “We need a fundamental change which puts digital inclusion at the heart of service design and actively uses digital services to address existing inequalities.”
Digital technology can entrench inequalities
Conducted in four locations - Bradford, Manchester, Glasgow and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets - the study highlights the particular issues that minority ethnic communities face when essential services move largely online.
Researchers found that poorly designed digital platforms, combined with a lack of support and inadequate regulatory oversight, could further marginalise vulnerable groups.
“While digital technology has enormous potential, it can also entrench existing inequalities,” said Professor Netto, Professor in International Migration and Racial Justice, at Heriot-Watt University’s .
“For those with limited English proficiency, digital literacy or access to adequate digital devices and internet connectivity, the barriers to navigating online systems can be insurmountable. And in areas like healthcare, where privacy and human interaction are crucial, over-reliance on digital services can actually create harm.”
Online harms and regulatory failures
The study points to major gaps in how digital services are designed and regulated. In all three sectors investigated, there is little regulatory oversight of how minoritised ethnic households engage with digital services.
In healthcare, for example, multiple regulatory bodies oversee digital systems, yet there is no clear framework to ensure fair access for minority ethnic communities. Many struggle to book appointments or access records online and there is little accountability for how digital inequalities affect health outcomes.
Targeted measures needed to improve digital literacy
Professor Nazmiye Ozkan leads the team from 星空体育官网, which focused on understanding the capacity, capability and aspirations of the organisations responsible for the delivery of digital services in the energy and healthcare sectors.
Professor Ozkan said: “In healthcare, general practices offer varying levels of support to help minority ethnic communities engage with digital services, for instance by employing bilingual staff in areas where these communities are concentrated.
“But the energy sector is more troubling - digitalisation is central to an affordable, secure and decarbonised supply of energy, optimising supply and demand in near real time. And yet there’s a lack of knowledge as to what extent and in what ways minority ethnic communities use digital services, creating a ‘blind spot’ for the sector. Although suppliers don’t collect this data, network operators do have some visibility of where minority ethnic communities are clustered within their regions.”
As minority ethnic communities are more likely to be in fuel poverty than the rest of the population, Professor Ozkan says, “we need more targeted measures to improve digital literacy so that we do not exacerbate current inequalities.”
New tools for a fairer digital future
The PRIME team has developed a for service designers, urging them to embed racial and linguistic inclusivity into their platforms. It has also published a series of directed at the health, housing and energy sectors. New, multi-lingual videos — aimed at minoritised ethnic communities — will help to raise awareness of online harms and the actions that they can take to create safer online spaces.
The team has also created a suite of free-to-use technology tools, to counter discriminatory processes in digital services.
For example, the PersonaCreator app, created by the research team, uses machine learning techniques on survey data to create personas of people from minority ethnic communities. These personas depict how people from these communities feel or experience various online harms, discrimination and bias while using digital services related to health, energy and social housing.
Global application
The PRIME team trained their machine learning algorithms on the PRIME survey and a survey from the UK Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity. Any survey anywhere in the world that collects similar, tabular data regarding ethnicity can potentially be used by researchers and organisations to populate the PersonaCreator app, revealing issues around digital services for minoritised communities in their location.
Next steps
As the UK and devolved governments push forward with digital transformation, researchers and community advocates are calling for urgent policy changes. Without robust regulation and inclusive design, the benefits of digital public services will remain out of reach for many.
Colin Lee, Chief Executive of the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations (CEMVO) Scotland, welcomed the research project’s findings. He said: “Digital services can reinforce discrimination through exclusionary design, biased algorithms and lack of sensitivity to the formidable challenges that minoritised ethnic communities face. If we don’t address these issues, we risk deepening inequalities and losing out on valuable opportunities to help them benefit from these essential services.”
The full findings and policy recommendations from the PRIME project, together with all the free-to-use technological tools developed by the team are available at
