Tag: 2025

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 13 January 2025.

The UK will benefit from boosts to trade and further cooperation on tackling illegal migration as Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani visits Downing Street.

The UK will benefit from boosts to trade and further cooperation on tackling illegal migration as Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani visits Downing Street today (Tuesday 14 January) for talks with the Prime Minister.

As part of the closer economic relationship being forged today, the Prime Minister and his counterpart will announce an up to £12.3 billion export package, worth around ten times last year’s trade between the UK and Iraq.  This package is underpinned by a series of export agreements which will boost the growing trading relationship between the UK and Iraq, representing significant opportunities for UK businesses and contributing to the government’s mission to deliver economic growth.

The leaders will also discuss a new specific migrant returns agreement between the UK and Iraq. Once in place, the deal will ensure those who have no right to be in the UK can be returned swiftly.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

Today marks a new era in UK-Iraq cooperation, which will deliver mutual benefits from trade to defence, as we continue to work together towards stability in the wider region.

It’s clear that Iraq shares our priority of delivering economic growth and the £12.3 billion export package being unveiled today offers huge opportunities for British businesses, representing a step-change in the trade and investment relationship between our two countries.

Secure borders are a vital foundation of our Plan for Change, so I am also very pleased get started on talks for a bespoke returns agreement between our countries. The deal will help dismantle the people smugglers’ business model by sending the clear message that if you come here illegally, you cannot expect to stay.

The leaders will sign a milestone Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, leveraging UK private sector expertise on water, energy, telecoms, and defence infrastructure to secure future investment projects and major opportunities for British business.

Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds said:

This yet another vote of confidence in Britain. As an open, proud trading nation our trade strategy will build upon deals like this to strengthen our economy. This announcement reflects our evolving bilateral relationship and represents a step forward in our growing trade partnership.

This agreement – a significant £12 billion export package, helped by our UK Export Finance – will give UK and Iraqi business more certainty and help lead to growth and genuine shared benefits for both our economies.

In a further demonstration of how our cooperation with international partners delivers for the UK, the leaders will also mark the export of £66.5 million worth of equipment from the UK to strengthen Iraq’s borders and disrupt smuggling gangs, delivering on the government’s Plan for Change by securing our border and delivering economic growth.

This comes as the government fulfils its pledge deliver the highest rate of removals since 2018 with a surge in returns activity leading to 16,400 people with no right to be in the UK removed. The talks also build on the Home Secretary’s visit to Iraq in November, where she signed agreements including the largest-ever operational package between the UK and Iraq on border security and law enforcement, in order to enhance Iraq’s capability to tackle people smuggling. Today’s talks will strengthen the implementation of this pact.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:

When I signed the landmark deal with Iraq in November, it was a clear signal of our commitment to dismantle the criminal smuggling gangs together.

Our world-first security agreement with Iraq is already showing its impact. By strengthening border security with our Border Security Command, enhancing intelligence-sharing, and providing additional funding to support Iraq’s law enforcement capabilities, we’re targeting people smuggling gangs where it hurts.

Today is the next step in ensuring this important partnership with Iraq goes from strength to strength. As a result, we are making it harder for criminals to exploit vulnerable people, and ultimately we are bringing them to justice.

Last week, the UK also launched the world’s first standalone sanctions regime targeting people smugglers. Expected to come into force within the year, the regime will clamp down on illicit financing rings who make huge profits exploiting vulnerable people by facilitating illegal migration.

The meeting with Prime Minister Al-Sudani follows the Prime Minister’s visit to the Gulf in December to support stability in the Middle East and deliver a foundation of security at home.

The Prime Minister will further bolster the UK’s defence relationship with the region today with the signing of a joint statement which will deepen the UK’s cooperation with Iraq a decade on from the establishment of the Global Coalition’s mission in Iraq and Operation Inherent Resolve leading to the territorial defeat of Daesh.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 13 January 2025.

Artificial intelligence will deliver a decade of national renewal, as part of a new plan announced today (13 January 2025).

• AI to drive the Plan for Change, helping turbocharge growth and boost living standards
• public sector to spend less time doing admin and more time delivering the services working people rely on
• dedicated AI Growth Zones to speed up planning for AI infrastructure
• £14 billion and 13,250 jobs committed by private leading tech firms following AI Action Plan

Artificial intelligence will be unleashed across the UK to deliver a decade of national renewal, under a new plan announced today (13 January 2025).

In a marked move from the previous government’s approach, the Prime Minister is throwing the full weight of Whitehall behind this industry by agreeing to take forward all 50 recommendations set out by Matt Clifford in his game-changing AI Opportunities Action Plan.

AI is already being used across the UK. It is being used in hospitals up and down the country to deliver better, faster, and smarter care: spotting pain levels for people who can’t speak, diagnosing breast cancer quicker, and getting people discharged quicker. This is already helping deliver the government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future.

Unveiling details of the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan today, the Prime Minister will say AI can transform the lives of working people – it has the potential to speed up planning consultations to get Britain building, help drive down admin for teachers so they can get on with teaching our children, and feed AI through cameras to spot potholes and help improve roads.

Backing AI to the hilt can also lead to more money in the pockets of working people. The IMF estimates that – if AI is fully embraced – it can boost productivity by as much as 1.5 percentage points a year. If fully realised, these gains could be worth up to an average £47 billion to the UK each year over a decade.

Today’s plan mainlines AI into the veins of this enterprising nation – revolutionising our public services and putting more money in people’s back pockets. Because for too long we have allowed blockers to control the public discourse and get in the way of growth in this sector.

The plan puts an end to that by introducing new measures that will create dedicated AI Growth Zones that speed up planning permission and give them the energy connections they need to power up AI.

The UK occupies a unique place in the world. We can learn from the US’s and EU’s approach – delivering the dynamism, flexibility and long-term stability that we know businesses want.

The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said:

Artificial Intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people.

But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that won’t sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race.

Our plan will make Britain the world leader. It will give the industry the foundation it needs and will turbocharge the Plan for Change. That means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets, and transformed public services.

That’s the change this government is delivering.

It comes as three major tech companies – Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl – have committed to £14 billion investment in the UK to build the AI infrastructure the UK needs to harness the potential of this technology and deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK. That’s on top of the £25 billion in AI investment announced at the International Investment Summit.

Vantage Data Centres – which is working to build one of Europe’s largest data centre campuses in Wales – plans to invest over £12 billion in data centres across the UK – creating over 11,500 jobs in the process.

Kyndryl – the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider and a leading IT consultancy – announces plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years. This new tech hub will share the Government’s ambition to roll AI out across the country to help grow the economy and foster the next generation of talent.

Nscale – one of the UK’s leading AI companies – has announced a $2.5 billion investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years. They have also signed a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.

The plan includes initiatives that will help make the UK the number one place for AI firms to invest, which is vital if Britain is to be at the forefront of this industry and be a changemaker rather than a change-taker. The key changes include:

• forging new AI Growth Zones to speed up planning proposals and build more AI infrastructure. The first of these will be in Culham, Oxfordshire
• increasing the public compute capacity by twentyfold to give us the processing power we need to fully embrace this new technology – this starts immediately with work starting on a brand new supercomputer
• a new team will be set up to seize the opportunities of AI and build the UK’s sovereign capabilities
• creating a new National Data Library to safely and securely unlock the value of public data and support AI development
• a dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy Secretaries will also be established, working with energy companies to understand the energy demands and challenges which will fuel the technology’s development – this will directly support the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower by tapping into technologies like small modular reactors.

Taken together, the 50 measures will make the UK irresistible to AI firms looking to start, scale, or grow their business. It builds on recent progress in AI that saw £25 billion of new investment in data centres announced since the government took office last July.

This Action Plan is also at the heart of the government’s Industrial Strategy and the first plank of the upcoming Digital and Technology Sector Plan, to be published in the coming months.

Science, Innovation, and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle said:

AI has the potential to change all of our lives but for too long, we have been curious and often cautious bystanders to the change unfolding around us. With this plan, we become agents of that change.

We already have remarkable strengths we can tap into when it comes to AI – building our status as the cradle of computer science and intelligent machines and establishing ourselves as the third largest AI market in the world.

This government is determined that the UK is not left behind in the global race for AI, that’s why the actions we commit to will ensure that the benefits are spread throughout the UK so all citizens will reap the rewards of the bet we make today. This is how we’re putting our Plan for Change in motion.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP said:

AI is a powerful tool that will help grow our economy, make our public services more efficient and open up new opportunities to help improve living standards.

This action plan is the government’s modern industrial strategy in action. Attracting AI businesses to the UK, binging in new investment, creating new jobs and turbocharging our Plan for Change. This means better living standards in every part of the United Kingdom and working people have more money in their pocket.

Matt Clifford CBE said:

This is a plan which puts us all-in – backing the potential of AI to grow our economy, improve lives for citizens, and make us a global hub for AI investment and innovation.

AI offers opportunities we can’t let slip through our fingers, and these steps put us on the strongest possible footing to ensure AI delivers in all corners of the country, from building skills and talent to revolutionising our infrastructure and compute power.

Notes to editors:

The plan has 3 main pillars that will lay the foundations for AI to grow, boost adoption in existing private and public sectors, and keep the UK ahead of the pack internationally.

First – laying the foundations for AI to flourish in the UK.

The first ever AI Growth Zones will be set up. These are areas across the country that will speed up planning approvals for the rapid build-out of data centres, give them better access to the energy grid, and draw in investment from around the world.

The first of these will be in Culham, Oxfordshire – home to the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority and some of the brightest scientific minds in the world.

This will also serve a testing ground to drive forward research on how sustainable energy like fusion can power our AI ambitions.

More will be announced in the Summer, with a particular focus on de-industrialised areas of the country with access to power and strong support from local government.

That means local jobs, improved communities, and a growing economy – all of which puts more money in people’s pockets.

Build a brand new supercomputer with enough AI power to play itself at chess half a million times a second. This is part of the plan to increase compute capacity by twenty-fold by 2030 – supercharging our capacity to power AI products.

Our ten-year compute plan also includes a commitment to rapidly develop and implement a long-term compute strategy that will bring together the key ingredients for AI – compute, data, and skills – to keep us at the forefront of the technology and attract the best brains in the world.

That gives the industry the long-term stability it needs to choose the UK as the place to invest – helping drive up growth and deliver our plan for change.

Second – boosting adoption across public and private sectors

A new digital centre of government is being set up within DSIT. This will revolutionise how AI is used in the public sector to improve citizens lives and make government more efficient. It will scan for new ideas, pilot them in public sector settings, then scale them as far as they can go.

Driving adoption across all sectors in the UK. The Prime Minister has personally written to his entire Cabinet, tasking them with driving AI adoption and growth in their sectors, and making that a top priority for their Departments.

Third – keeping us ahead of the pack

A new team will be set up to keep us at the forefront of emerging technology. This team will use the heft of the state to make the UK the best place for business. This could include guaranteeing firms access to data and energy.

Taken together, this package will set us on course to full embrace the potential of AI – making it work for Britain.

Industry reaction to the AI Opportunities Action Plan

Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK, said:

The scale of this government’s ambition for AI development and adoption in the UK is exactly what’s needed to drive economic growth, transform public services and create new opportunities for all.

Maintaining the UK’s position as a global leader in AI demands innovation and investment across the public and private sectors and Microsoft is fully committed to helping make this vision a reality.

Mike Beck, Global Chief Information Security Officer at Darktrace, said:

The ambitious and wide-ranging recommendations in the AI Opportunities Action Plan have the potential to turn AI into an engine for the UK economy.

As a home-grown AI company, we know that the UK has world-class research talent, brilliant institutions and a strong tech ecosystem. Governments can and should move at a faster pace to help realise the benefits of rapid technological change, and we look forward to the government swiftly implementing this Plan. This will help to turn AI from abstract opportunity to real-world benefit in offices and shop floors across the country.

Companies and consumers also need to be confident that AI innovation is safe and secure. The upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill offers the opportunity to better safeguard data and AI infrastructure, and it will be important to ensure a more digitised and AI-enabled public sector is secure and trusted.

Dario Amodei, Co-Founder and CEO of Anthropic, said:

The UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan is a bold approach that could help unlock AI’s potential to solve real problems. By combining infrastructure investment with strategic planning, the UK could be among the first and fastest governments in the world to transform how services are delivered to its citizens.

We look forward to working with them to turn this vision into a reality.

Alex Kendall OBE, Co-Founder and CEO, Wayve, said:

Embodied AI in highly regulated sectors, like automated vehicles, will require international regulatory collaboration.

I’m excited to see the government use the levers at its disposal to help make the UK’s leading AI startups winners on the global stage. We now welcome the new targeted support for international expansion for AI scale-ups, and will pursue our global growth goals with the confidence that we have the UK Government’s full support.

Chris Lehane, Chief Global Affairs Officer at OpenAI, said:

From the locomotive to the Colossus computer, the UK has a rich history of leadership in tech innovation and the research and development of AI.

The government’s AI action plan – led by the Prime Minister and Secretary Peter Kyle – recognises where AI development is headed and sets the UK on the right path to benefit from its growth. The UK has an enormous national resource in the talent of its people, institutions and businesses which together, can leverage AI to advance the country’s national interest.

Aidan Gomez, Co-Founder and CEO of Cohere, said:

With AI unlocking productivity gains and boosting business growth, we welcome the government’s focus and attention to foster this generational economic transformation.

Cohere has long viewed the UK as a hotbed of industry talent and a market highly supportive of technology innovation, which is why we were among the earliest foundational model companies to build a major presence in the country, and why we have doubled down here over the last year.

Tim Bestwick, Deputy CEO, UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), said:

AI and High-Performance Computing are central to UKAEA’s mission to lead the delivery of sustainable fusion energy.

UKAEA welcomes the AI Opportunities Action Plan and its vision for building cutting-edge AI infrastructure to drive innovation and develop the ‘industries of the future’. As highlighted in the Action Plan, Culham Campus’ high-capacity and connection to the UK’s national electricity grid, coupled with its available land on the Campus, positions it as a prime location for deploying substantial computing facilities.

Julian David OBE, CEO of techUK, said:

Through this announcement the Prime Minister has set out how the Government sees AI as central to their plan for change.

These well thought out initiatives will boost the UK’s AI capabilities with positive effects across our society and economy.

Now that the government has set out its Plan, it is time to act, and at pace. To drive new investment, Industry will want to see more detail on how this plan will be actioned within the next six months, particularly as we face growing competition from other countries.

Further Information:

• the £47 billion estimate is based on IMF figures but derived from separate calculations and assumptions, and as such, is not an official IMF estimate
• estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that while the exact economic impact hinges on the wider development and adoption of AI, and realisation could be gradual, the UK could ultimately see productivity gains of up to 1.5% annually
• if fully realised, these gains could be worth up to an average £47 billion to the UK each year over a decade
• the Vantage Data Centres anticipated investment, some of which is subject to planning permission and agreed connection timelines, is expected to support over 10,000 local construction jobs over the next decade, and create over 1,500 operational roles at its data centres

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 12 January 2025.

The Prime Minister spoke to His Highness Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of Kuwait, this morning.

The Prime Minister began by highlighting the close and historic relationship between the UK and Kuwait, which has endured for 125 years.

Across defence, security, trade and investment, the leaders discussed the cooperation between the UK and Kuwait, which they looked forward to strengthening.

The Prime Minister congratulated the Amir for the successful Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in December and reiterated the UK’s commitment to a Free Trade Agreement as negotiations continue.

Discussing investment from Kuwait into the UK, the leaders discussed further opportunities to drive growth in both countries across every sector.

They agreed on the importance of the work of the UN sponsored mission in Iraq (UNAMI), which leads efforts to locate missing people from the First Gulf War. They welcomed the extension of UNAMI’s mandate until 31 December 2025 and to identify a suitable follow-on process for this vital work.

They looked forward to seeing one another at the earliest opportunity.