UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Technology

  • Kwasi Kwarteng – 2021 Statement on Innovation Loans

    Kwasi Kwarteng – 2021 Statement on Innovation Loans

    The statement made by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 22 November 2021.

    Innovation is central to tackling the largest challenges the world faces, from climate change to global pandemics. The UK must be in the vanguard of the response to these challenges. That is why the Government have placed innovation at the heart of our Plan for Growth including through our Innovation Strategy.

    The UK has a long and illustrious history of world-leading innovation, from the industrial revolution to the vaccine development of the past year. Now we have left the EU, we can move even more quickly to respond to emerging challenges and global opportunities, and cement the UK’s position as a world leader in science, research and innovation. That is why the Government committed to public R&D spending reaching £22 billion in 2026-27. This represents the fastest ever sustained uplift in R&D funding, increasing R&D funding to £20 billion per annum by the end of the SR period, £5 billion more than 2021-22.

    Following a successful extended pilot with businesses including those in clean growth tech, Innovate UK will deliver a new programme of £150 million in flexible, affordable and patient innovation loans over the next three years. Innovation loans will help SMEs to take their late-stage R&D, including in support of net zero, to commercial success so that they can grow and scale through innovation.

  • John Glen – 2021 Statement on Central Bank Digital Currency

    John Glen – 2021 Statement on Central Bank Digital Currency

    The statement made by John Glen, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, on 9 November 2021.

    The UK, like many countries, is actively exploring the potential role of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a complement to cash and bank deposits. A retail CBDC would be a new form of digital money, denominated in sterling and issued by the Bank of England, for use by people and businesses for their everyday payments needs. Exploring the opportunities that a CBDC could offer is aligned with the Government’s wider agenda to remain at the forefront of innovation and technology in financial services.

    Earlier this year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a taskforce jointly chaired by HM Treasury and the Bank of England to lead the UK’s exploration of a UK CBDC, along with forums to engage a broad range of stakeholders from across our economy and society, including consumer groups, think-tanks, businesses, academics, financial institutions and technology experts. The taskforce will ensure the UK authorities adopt a strategic and co-ordinated approach as they explore a CBDC, in line with their statutory objectives.

    No decision has been taken by the Government and Bank of England as to whether to issue a UK CBDC, which would be a major national infrastructure project. A decision will be based on a rigorous assessment of the overall case for a UK CBDC and will be informed by extensive stakeholder engagement and consultation.

    Exploring and delivering a UK CBDC, if there were a decision to proceed, would require carefully sequenced phases of work, which will span several years. I am today setting out the next steps for the exploration of a UK CBDC.

    The UK authorities are currently engaged in a process of research and exploration to examine the opportunities and implications of CBDC. As part of those explorations, HM Treasury and the Bank of England will publish a consultation in 2022 setting out their assessment of the case for a UK CBDC, including the merits of further work to develop an operational and technology model for a UK CBDC.

    If there is a decision to proceed following the consultation, a development phase would include the publication, by the Bank of England, of a technical specification to explain the proposed conceptual architecture for a UK CBDC. This development phase could involve in-depth testing of the optimal design for, and feasibility of, a UK CBDC.

    Following this, a decision would be taken on whether to move into a subsequent build and testing phase. Given the scale and national importance of such a project, this phase would likely take several years and could involve the development of large-scale prototypes and live pilots.

    Were the results of each of these phases to conclude that the case for CBDC were made, and that it were operationally and technologically robust, then the earliest date for launch of a UK CBDC would be in the second half of the decade.

    The Government are also committed to continuing to work closely with international partners on the cross-border implications of a potential CBDC. The UK, through its G7 presidency, has been leading the global conversation on the opportunities and implications of CBDC. G7 central banks and finance ministries have developed a set of public policy principles for CBDC, and a full report capturing these principles was published in October. These international principles for CBDC represent a step change in the global conversation and are intended to support and inform exploration of CBDCs in the G7 and beyond.

  • Julia Lopez – 2021 Statement on Project Gigabit

    Julia Lopez – 2021 Statement on Project Gigabit

    The statement made by Julia Lopez, the Minister for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure, in the House of Commons on 29 October 2021.

    Today we have published the third Project Gigabit quarterly update and, thanks to the work of industry and our record £5 billion investment, we are making phenomenal progress delivering the biggest broadband roll-out in UK history.

    We are on track for 85% gigabit coverage by 2025 and we have now passed the connectivity milestone of more than 57% of UK homes and businesses that can now access the fastest broadband speeds available.

    In this Project Gigabit autumn update, we report on a significant further expansion in commercial plans, including more telecom providers focused on building in under-served rural areas. Greater commercial investment is positive for the UK and shows strong market confidence in customer demand for gigabit infrastructure.

    This delivery plan update also reports on:

    progress with, and changes to, phase 1 roll-outs and phase 2 procurements;

    sequencing and dates of English phase 3 rural projects, covering around 500,000 premises in Essex, Lincolnshire, Devon and Somerset, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, Dorset, Cheshire, and North Yorkshire;

    an update on how we are utilising gigabit voucher subsidy as part of our roll-out plans;

    information on the evaluation of the benefits of our superfast broadband programme; and

    details of an additional £8 million to deliver full-fibre to 3,600 premises in Scotland, as part of the Scottish Government’s R100 project, and c.£22.6 million to connect rural and remote parts of Northern Ireland, and information on the Welsh Government’s open market review and scheduled next steps.

    Gigabit broadband will bring much faster and more reliable connectivity to rural and hard-to-reach communities. This will make them more attractive places for people to settle, raise families and start and grow businesses, improve education and healthcare services and increase accessibility.

    This is how we level up and strengthen our Union—ensuring rural communities in every part of the UK have the same chances and opportunities as our urban towns and cities. That is why this is at the top of the Government’s agenda, and as Secretary of State, I am fully committed to doing everything I can to make Project Gigabit a UK success story.

    I will place a copy of the “Project Gigabit Delivery Plan Autumn Update” in the Libraries of both Houses.

  • Chris Philp – 2021 Comments on Birmingham Tech Week

    Chris Philp – 2021 Comments on Birmingham Tech Week

    The comments made by Chris Philp, the Digital Minister, on 11 October 2021.

    As Birmingham Tech Week kicks off it’s great to see the digital sector in the West Midlands entering a golden era.

    There are high-quality and well-paid job opportunities for those who want to pursue a career in tech and the region is fast-becoming a powerhouse of digital talent.

    We are determined to level up the country and we are working around the clock to back digital businesses with pro-innovation policies to boost digital skills and create jobs so everyone can benefit from this dynamic sector.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2021 Comments on Emerging Tech Charter

    Sadiq Khan – 2021 Comments on Emerging Tech Charter

    The comments made by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, on 22 September 2021.

    London is and always will be open to business and innovation. In the face of Brexit and the global pandemic, our capital has proven itself to be one of the best global cities for tech.

    The tech sector in London has a huge role to play in rebuilding a fairer city for everyone as we recover from the pandemic. My new Emerging Tech Charter will play a significant part in that recovery, making sure both Londoners and tech businesses are using data efficiently to get the most out of technological innovation.

  • Chris Philp – 2021 Speech at the AI Summit

    Chris Philp – 2021 Speech at the AI Summit

    The speech made by Chris Philp, the Minister of State at the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 22 September 2021.

    Good morning and thank you for inviting me to the AI summit.

    This is the first event I have spoken at since being appointed as Minister with responsibility for Technology last week. As one of very few MPs or Ministers to have a science background, having studied Physics at Oxford, I have always taken an interest in the intersection between technology and business. In fact, when I was 21 I co-founded a distribution business that we later floated on AIM and, two takeovers later, is now part of Tesco. That business was substantially tech enabled. It used predictive stock ordering to reduce inventory to minimal levels while enabling next day delivery at high fulfilment rates. You would consider what we did then extremely rudimentary, but back in the year 2000 we felt quite pleased with what we did. So anyway, I’m very happy to be here with you today.

    I’m especially happy to be here because the UK’s tech industry as a whole is an extraordinary success story. We saw figures earlier this week that in the first half of 2021 1,400 private UK tech firms collectively raised £13.5 billion, by far the highest in Europe – and over double the amount raised in second-placed Germany.

    So the UK is in an admirable position, with a rich legacy of spearheading many of the greatest leaps in AI over the decades; we have advanced scholarships at universities and research centres across the country; and, in London, the most vibrant startup scene outside of San Francisco – with companies like Deepmind, Benevolent AI and Improbable pushing the envelope of what’s possible in AI in their respective fields.

    The UK saw 20 tech firms reach Unicorn status in the first half of this year, including Tractable and Zego. We have ten privately owned tech firms valued at over $10 billion. And in your field, Exscientia, which uses AI to discover new drugs, raised nearly a quarter of a billion dollars this year. From Alan Turing to Demis Hassabis, the UK has always led.

    The Government is completely committed to maintaining and building the UK’s leading tech position, including in AI. The UK is the clear European leader in AI and third globally behind only the USA and China – and I know we can catch them up. So let me say today: we want AI innovators to locate and scale up in the UK. We want you to succeed in the UK. We want the UK to lead the world in this field. It is a critical national priority.

    It is critical because AI is a profound technology. It is the future. Your field has the potential to – in fact it will – infuse every aspect of our personal and business lives in ways we cannot currently imagine. As Andrew Ng has argued, AI will fulfil a similar role in the coming century to the one that electricity and then regular computing played in the last century – a meta-enabler which underpins activity in a huge range of fields, including those without initially obvious applicability.

    So it’s important for Government to engage with technology, which of course includes AI technologies, because of how inextricably linked they are with each and every one of our lives – something the pandemic has made clear.

    And this AI Summit is timely, because as many of you will have seen, and as the Secretary of State trailed on Monday, the Government has launched its ambitious National AI Strategy today.

    For the first time, the Government has set out its strategic vision for how we remain a pre-eminent AI nation. Building on the investments we’ve made through the AI Sector Deal and since, and the kinds of successes we’ve seen this week in terms of our startups, we want to ensure the UK remains an AI superpower for years and decades to come.

    A number of important steps have already been taken. In the last seven years the Government has invested £2.3 billion supporting AI. This has included a quarter of a billion pounds to develop the use of AI in the NHS, the same amount again for the Centre for Connected and Autonomous vehicles and £100 million to fund 1,000 AI PhDs. The British Business Bank has already invested £372 million in UK AI companies. And this is just the start.

    Undoubtedly the investments we’ve made to date have kept us at the forefront of AI – only behind the USA and China – far ahead of the chasing pack of other countries. But we have more to do to keep and build our position.

    Many of you who have had a glimpse of the AI Strategy will see how neatly it links up with other Government Strategies.

    It wouldn’t have been possible without the independent AI Council, who pivoted their expertise first to helping Government understand the potential for AI to help with the initial crisis during the pandemic, and then to setting out their vision for how AI could help us rebuild our economy. I thank them for their work.

    It wouldn’t have been possible without detailed analysis, consultation and collaboration across the whole of Government.

    And it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of many of you. In fact, since the publication of the AI Council’s Roadmap, the Office for AI – who led on developing the Strategy – has spoken to literally hundreds of organisations and individuals to capture the collective vision of the ecosystem.

    So what’s in the Strategy?

    Let me tell you: this is an ambitious and inclusive strategy. It aims to build on our leadership in delivering responsible AI, to point to how we drive growth across every sector while ensuring that the benefits and the opportunities are spread across society.

    The Strategy is structured around three pillars:

    Investing in and planning for the long term needs of the AI ecosystem to continue our leadership as a science and AI superpower;
    Supporting the transition to an AI-enabled economy, capturing the benefits of innovation in the UK, and ensuring AI benefits all sectors and regions;

    Ensuring the UK gets the national and international governance of AI technologies right to encourage innovation, investment, and protect the public and our fundamental values.

    But just as this Strategy is being published, we want you to know we’re serious about delivering it.

    That’s why we commit to delivering from day 1:

    We’ll support our future skills and diversity needs through Turing Fellowships, Centres for Doctoral Training and Postgraduate Industrial Masters and Conversion Courses and visa routes – such as the Global Talent visa and the High Potential Individual Route and the Scale-Up route to make sure the brightest and the best can come here easily; Support the National Centre for Computing Education to ensure programmes for children in AI are accessible and reach the widest demographic; Publish a report into the UK’s future computation capacity needs to support AI research, development and commercialisation. Continue to support academic R&D into AI and its commercialisation and work to ensure better access to the big data needed to support AI projects.

    We’ll also support the Levelling Up agenda by launching a joint Office for AI & UKRI programme aimed at developing AI in sectors beyond London and the South East; Launch a Defence AI Strategy later this year and the new Defence AI Centre through the Ministry of Defence; Work with teams across government to identify where using AI can provide a catalytic contribution to strategic challenges, and consider how Innovation Missions can include AI capabilities to promote ambitious mission-based cooperation.

    And finally we’ll: Pilot an AI Standards Hub to coordinate UK engagement in AI standardisation globally – so UK startups and data scientists can feed into their development; Undertake an analysis of algorithmic transparency with a view to publishing a cross-government standard; and Update guidance on AI ethics and safety in the public sector.

    One of the most crucial areas we will work on is setting out our pro-innovation policy position on how we’ll get AI governance and regulation right, within the next few months. So far we’ve been pragmatic in delivering guidance for the public sector, working with the World Economic Forum, Alan Turing Institute, ICO and others, but this work will be a wider vision that gives greater clarity to businesses about how we think AI should benefit society. We will seek to give certainty, support innovation and deployment, reassure the public and set a standard that could be adopted globally. We will seek to keep regulatory intervention to a minimum, generally seeking to use existing structures and to approach the issue with the permissive mindset that we want to make AI innovation easy and straightforward, while avoiding any public harm where there is evidence it exists.

    We’ll also be looking at how we continue to support the most advanced research in AI – whether in a university, a startup or large company. We’ll launch a UKRI National AI Research & Innovation Programme to support the transformation of the UK’s capability in AI and better coordinate and join up their activities;

    Finally, we’ll examine, together with employers and providers, what skills are needed to enable employees to use AI in a business setting, and work with the Department for Education to explore how skills provision can meet those needs.

    The conversations that Government has had with the tech and AI ecosystem haven’t ended, and indeed this Strategy isn’t the end of the conversation on AI, as you have now heard. It’s the beginning of a new conversation. It started with the AI review and Sector Deal, and has continued with the AI Council and all of you as we developed the Strategy.

    Now, our strategic vision is set out, and we’ll continue to engage with you as we work hard to implement and deliver it.

    To finish: I’ll echo a sentiment I touched on earlier – AI is a truly transformative technology, with the power to not only help us to recover as a country economically, but the potential to dramatically improve lives and livelihoods across the UK, and make us a global leader in tackling the biggest challenges humanity faces. To make us a true AI and science superpower.

    And to echo my colleague, the Secretary of State in the foreword of the Strategy, AI is here now. It is improving our lives now. We want to make sure the UK can lead the world in ensuring AI works for people and delivers on its potential. And with this Strategy, I believe we can do that.

    Enjoy the AI summit!

  • Matt Warman – 2021 Comments on Digital Identities

    Matt Warman – 2021 Comments on Digital Identities

    The comments made by Matt Warman, the Digital Infrastructure Minister, on 2 August 2021.

    Whether someone wants to prove who they are when starting a job, moving house or shopping online, they ought to have the tools to do so quickly and securely.

    We are developing a new digital identity framework so people can confidently verify themselves using modern technology and organisations have the clarity they need to provide these services.

    This will make life easier and safer for people right across the country and lay the building blocks of our future digital economy.

  • Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on the Government’s Technology Announcement

    Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on the Government’s Technology Announcement

    The comments made by Jo Stevens, the Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, on 2 August 2021.

    The Conservatives are keeping the UK in the digital slow lane with their broken promises on the gigabit rollout, shifting their targets again and again.

    Conservative dither and delay is harming our digital infrastructure and our economy.

  • John Heddle – 1985 Speech on Public Telephone Boxes

    John Heddle – 1985 Speech on Public Telephone Boxes

    The speech made by John Heddle, the then Conservative MP for Mid-Staffordshire, on 15 November 1985.

    I am grateful for the opportunity to raise a subject which affects the constituencies of all hon. Members. The Order Paper gives the title of the debate as “public call box services”, but really I wish to discuss the condition and unworkability of public phone boxes.

    I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for attending to hear what I have to say. He serves his west midlands constituency of Coventry, South-West as hard and effectively as I try to serve mine.

    Incidents of vandalism and unworkability of telephone boxes, even in rural Mid-Staffordshire, which encompasses a cathedral city and two small residential towns, are horrifyingly high. Between one in two and two in three public phone boxes on housing estates, in town centres and in villages do not work. The main causes are sheer, wanton vandalism and mindless, senseless hooliganism.

    Throughout the nation, there are 76,500 red telephone boxes. They are part of our national scene, yet, despite the fact that British Telecom provides a magnificent service to its customers and makes a welcome and healthy profit for its subscribers and shareholders, the public telephone service makes a loss of £77·4 million. Part of that loss must be attributable to the fact that the service is not adequately monitored.

    There are 10,600 public phone boxes in London. Last year, there were on average 5,000 acts of vandalism to public phone boxes each month and the cost of repairing phone boxes in London was £1 million. A survey carried out for the Daily Mail earlier this year showed that only 37 of 100 London phone boxes worked. In Newcastle, nine of 25 boxes worked, in Glasgow and Liverpool 10 of 25 boxes were in operation and even in Birmingham only 14 of the 25 phone boxes inspected—56 per cent.—were in operation.

    My anxiety is for people who live on housing estates and cannot afford private telephones. I think particularly of elderly people to whom the public phone box down the road may be a lifeline.

    When television came into our lives a few years ago, we used to see a picture of the mast at Sutton Coldfield round which we saw the sign:
    “Nation shall speak … unto nation.”

    For my elderly constituents, the public phone box enables family to speak unto family.

    How will an elderly person who wants to contact a doctor late at night be persuaded to go out and make an urgent call, perhaps even a 999 call? The chances are that such a person would not find a phone box that worked. Even if he or she did, the light would probably be smashed, the glass would probably be broken and the door would probably be off its hinges. If, by chance, the prospective caller does not know the number that he wants to dial, the chance of finding a directory in the phone box will be about one in a thousand.

    I know that British Telecom has done its best to encourage the public to take a responsible attitude. I shall quote from a magazine which Sir George Jefferson’s own office sent me today. It sets out the initiative which British Telecom has introduced, which is known as “Watch a box”. One passage reads:

    “The Chairman, Sir George Jefferson, took the initiative when he decided to check out a payphone on his way to work each day—now everyone wants to join in. The entire management board in BTL North West has elected to watch a box, while in BTL South West staff at all levels are taking part in a scheme run in conjunction with their area newspaper Connection.

    Whether they are walking the dog or travelling to and from work, staff have been asked, through the newspaper, to drop in and check out a payphone.

    If the payphone is not working, has been damaged or the notices or lighting are defective, then they can ring in on a special number to report the problem.”

    I do not think that that goes to the heart of the problem. There must be a partnership between local offices of British Telecom, local councils and local police forces. The telephone boxes should be inspected regularly and monitored at irregular times of the day and night with a view to trying to catch the vandals red-handed in the red telephone boxes. When caught, they should be brought to account in the courts. The fines meted out to them by the justices should be realistic and should dissuade them from ever embarking on a career of vandalism which might lead to worse crime in future.

    I ask my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State to use his influence with his ministerial colleagues. I suggest that he urges his ministerial colleagues in the Home Office to issue a directive to magistrates to ensure that when the vandals are caught the fines meted out to them by the magistrate bear a direct relationship to the cost of making good the wanton damage. The fine should be two, four or five times the cost of making good the damage. That will go some way to reducing the horrendous deficit of £77·4 million which the public part of British Telecom has to bear.

    It is no good British Telecom saying, “We have the problem under control.” I shall quote from an article which appeared in British Business on 2 August. Part of it read:

    “British Telecom claim that their new telephone kiosks will improve the situation. They point out that during 1984 there were more than 5,000 cases of damage to payphones every month in London alone, affecting almost half of London’s 10,650 payphone boxes, costing £1 million a year to repair. The new payphones are apparently much less vulnerable to vandalism. The extra degree of lighting will be a deterrent to vandals who are discouraged by high visibility.”

    I do not believe that to be so. A vandal will vandalise light or dark, day or night. The article continues:

    “The open-plan design and robust materials—stainless steel or anodised aluminium—will be difficult to damage.”

    If he is so minded, a vandal will damage. Even if he does not damage the telephone system itself, he will inflict damage on the casing or the red boxes.

    There is the idea that we should do away with the red boxes, which are so much part of our national life. Instead, we shall see installed a sort of Cape Canaveral cone into which my elderly constituents, for example, can make their calls after struggling down the street at the dead of night or in the heart of winter. The cones will not provide the shelter that the red boxes afford.

    I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for being in his place to answer the debate. I hope that he will take on board some of my comments, which I hope also will be considered to be constructive. If he does, I believe that his constituents and mine will be eternally grateful.

  • Jeremy Quin – 2021 Comments on UK Space Command

    Jeremy Quin – 2021 Comments on UK Space Command

    The comments made by Jeremy Quin, the Minister for Defence Procurement, on 30 July 2021.

    As our adversaries advance their space capabilities, it is vital we invest in space to ensure we maintain a battle-winning advantage across this fast-evolving operational domain.

    The stand-up of Space Command is an exciting and important step in our commitment to operate in space effectively.