Scottish MPs to receive mentoring in bid to improve digital skills

Scottish MPs will be mentored on “how best to fulfil MP functions using internet technologies” as part of a new pilot scheme set to be launched.

Doteveryone, an organisation founded by the UK Government's former digital champion, Martha Lane Fox, to champion digital innovation, is looking for a digital expert to embed within two MP’s offices in Scotland.

The initiative, which will run for three months, will seek to identify “where internet technologies are not being exploited” and flag up areas that might require further support.

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“The aim is to identify areas where MPs could make a tangible leap in effectiveness using internet-enabled technologies and approaches,” says the job advert.

The successful candidate will have “experience in using web tools and approaches such as Agile” and an “ability to locate, understand and test relevance of open data sources”.

Lane Fox unveiled her Doteveryone idea during last year’s Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the intention being to make Britain “the most digital nation on the planet”.

The drive has been to educate everyone about the internet, put women at the heart of the technology sector, and concentrate on the moral and ethical issues the internet throws up.

Lane Fox, who co-founded lastminute.com in 1998, was the UK Government’s digital champion for three years, working for Gordon Brown then David Cameron. In 2013, she joined the House of Lords as a cross-bench peer.