{"id":705713,"date":"2026-07-22T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705713\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:50:09","slug":"tech-sovereignty-mps-urge-uk-government-to-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705713\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech sovereignty: MPs urge UK government to act"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The term \u2018technology sovereignty\u2019 refers to technology infrastructure entirely operated, located and governed within one jurisdiction. The concept is growing in prominence globally amidst a volatile geopolitical environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The UK government has said the UK will be \u201cone of the top three places in the world to create, invest in and scale-up a fast-growing technology business\u201d by 2035. In its industrial strategy last year<\/a>, it pledged to design, build and maintain sovereign capabilities in areas such as AI, quantum and life sciences and \u201cnurture the UK\u2019s digital and technologies economy responsible for building our sovereign capability in the most strategically important areas\u201d. It has since established an AI sovereignty fund and invested in the development of a new \u2018super\u2019 computer in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

However, the government has so far resisted pressure on it to list the UK\u2019s sovereign capabilities and define its tech sovereignty ambitions, on national security grounds. In a recent report<\/a> (56-page \/ 531KB PDF), the Science, Innovation and Technology (SIT) Committee said this has led to a lack of clarity within UK industry over what where its priorities lie and how progress towards achieving its ambitions will be measured.<\/p>\n

The SIT Committee said the UK government should \u201cset out \u2026 how it intends to define and pursue technology sovereignty, including the balance between domestic capability, bilateral dependencies with trusted partners, and participation in wider networks of allied nations\u201d. It said the US government\u2019s decision to impose export controls on Anthropic to prevent it making its latest AI models available to non-US citizens highlighted \u201cshortcomings\u201d with the UK\u2019s current approach, which in part depends on leveraging alliances and partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs geopolitics shifts, the UK is in a global race for sovereign capability across a range of technologies, whether it acknowledges it or not,\u201d the committee said. \u201cAchieving sovereign capability requires the government to be clear about the trade-offs and risks involved and realistic about what is achievable. Setting an ambition for what the government considers sovereign capability, in what it considers to be key sectors, is a necessary precursor for a joined-up strategy to develop key technologies. Limiting transparency around the UK\u2019s ambitions for sovereign capabilities is unlikely to be hiding anything from competitors such as Russia and China, but it is leaving UK tech companies in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among its other recommendations, the SIT Committee also called on the government to do more to address the funding gap innovative companies in science and technology industries face when seeking to scale-up. <\/p>\n

According to the committee, there are \u201clongstanding and deep-seated weaknesses in availability of laterstage capital, including a shortage of large, specialist funds and a limited pool of investors with the technical expertise and risk appetite to lead deeptech investments\u201d. As a result, UK companies have to seek finance elsewhere, with the result often being that their \u201cpromising scientific and technological breakthroughs\u201d are \u201ccommercialised abroad\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government should encourage the growth of specialist funds with deep sectoral expertise, including by supporting team development, attracting international talent, and enabling experienced technical leaders to transition into investment roles,\u201d the committee said, adding that the government can also \u201cuse its own procurement more strategically to support innovative companies, providing them with early revenue, validation, and a pathway to scale within the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The term \u2018technology sovereignty\u2019 refers to technology infrastructure entirely operated, located and governed within one jurisdiction. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}