Half of UK citizens prefers to use digital government services over paper-based services, but only 37 per cent believe the information they send is secure, according to new research.

Research conducted among internet users in the UK, Germany, and Spain by IT security solutions provider Utimaco, found that just 20 per cent of UK users preferred to use physical documents when accessing government services.

The most common reason for preferring digital services was faster processing times, with 57 per cent of respondents citing this. Greater convenience followed closely behind with 56 per cent, though only 10 per cent of respondents believe that using digital services are more secure.

The research titled ‘Circles of Trust: How the UK Public Perceives Digital Risk‘, found that respondents were generally enthusiastic about connected technology but worried about the potential security problems.

The survey was broken down by age, gender, and location. Scepticism of digital technology increased with age, but it was also quite common amongst younger people, the study found.

The group who was least enthusiastic about using government services digitally was the 18-24 cohort, 45 per cent of whom preferred digital interactions compared to 46 per cent of the 55+ group.

The youngest group was also least likely to feel that the digital information held about them was secure (32 per cent) and only 50 per cent believed that digitalisation would lead to faster processing times, versus 65 per cent for the 45-54 group.

There were also significant differences between the various regions of the UK. While 58 per cent of Scottish respondents, and 57 per cent from the South of England prefer digital interactions, only 38 per cent of Welsh respondents did so.

Welsh respondents were not any more or less worried about security than average but were twice as likely to suggest there were no advantages to using digital means to interact with public services (22 per cent of Welsh respondents versus a national average of 11 per cent).

They were also much more likely to cite a lack of personal interaction and difficulty using computer systems as disadvantages with digitized public services.

Ansgar Steden, chief revenue officer at Utimaco, said: “It is extremely important that as the public sector increasingly embraces digitalisation, it understands what the general public think about this major shift in the way we are asked to manage our lives.”

"We see that overall most people from most UK demographics are enthusiastic about the speed and convenience of digital services, but worries about security remain. By concentrating on next-generation security, governments can provide better service, save money and keep their users secure."

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