Exclusive: Liz Kendall bets £55bn to close UK innovation gap October 30, 2025 Britain’s new tech secretary, Liz Kendall, insists the government’s record £55bn R&D package marks a turning point for UK innovation, but with the country still lagging global rivals in key sectors, questions remain over whether even this scale of investment can close the gap. The funding, confirmed on Thursday by the Department for Science, Innovation [...]
Labour to use tech to ‘shock’ UK economy into growth October 27, 2025 The UK’s Labour government is positioning deregulation and AI adoption as two key levers used to address its inherited ‘growth emergency’. Peter Kyle, business secretary and former tech secretary, recently doubled down on this strategy, articulating the dire need for the UK to aggressively “innovate its way out” of a low-growth cycle. “I’ve never known [...]
Can Britain’s AI growth lab speed up innovation without risking safety? October 24, 2025 The UK government’s recent unveiling of an AI ‘growth lab’ – a sandbox designed to let companies trial AI under relaxed regulatory conditions – has been hailed as a bold step to accelerate innovation. At the Times Tech Summit on Tuesday, tech secretary Liz Kendall dubbed it as a chance to remove the “needless red [...]
Government urged to prioritise UK tech amid US investment surge September 30, 2025 UK cloud provider Civo has launched its ‘tech sovereignty agenda’, urging the government to place greater emphasis on domestic technology amid an unprecedented wave of investment from US tech giants. The agenda calls for a reassessment of the UK’s approach to innovation, advocating for a balance between benefiting from global technology while ensuring that critical [...]
Liz Kendall wraps cyberflashing into Online Safety Act September 29, 2025 Social media giants will be forced to crack down on cyberflashing under new duties to be announced by technology secretary Liz Kendall at the Labour Party conference. The move will see unsolicited nude images and videos classified as a “priority offence” under the Online Safety Act, placing strict new obligations on platforms to detect and [...]
Whitehall pledges skills drive as AI wounds UK’s job market September 23, 2025 The UK government is seeking to strike a balance between the promise and the perils of AI, with ministers insisting they are preparing for a range of outcomnes as the technology reshapes the labour market. Kanisha Narayan, a junior minister at the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT), said the administration was “monitoring data [...]
Trump visit brings ‘historic’ £30bn investment into UK tech and AI September 16, 2025 Microsoft has announced its largest ever UK investment, pledging £22bn to expand AI infrastructure and build the country’s largest supercomputer, as president Donald Trump touched down in London for his state visit. The commitment forms part of a wider US-UK Tech Prosperity Deal, encompassing £31bn of American investment across AI, quantum computing, and advanced nuclear [...]
Trump’s UK state visit sparks tech investment buzz, but how realistic are the gains? September 16, 2025 US president Donald Trump will arrive in the UK on Tuesday evening for a state visit, bringing with him a wave of attention on transatlantic tech investment. The two-day trip, marked by royal pageantry at Windsor Castle and private talks at Chequers with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, coincides with announcements already made of nearly $10bn [...]
Brits bypass Online Safety Act with VPNs, report finds September 11, 2025 The government’s flagship Online Safety Act is already being bypassed at scale, with a new survey showing nearly one in three Brits are still accessing adult content without age checks in place. Research by verification and anti-fraud platform Sumsub, which polled 2,000 UK consumers, found widespread scepticism about whether Ofcom and ministers can enforce the [...]
Government urged to rethink digital procurement as ambitions stall September 10, 2025 The government’s ongoing ambitions for digital transformation risk grinding to a halt unless it overhauls the way it funds and invests in technology, according to a new report from techUK. The body’s recent ‘Financing the Future’ study posited that Whitehall’s procurement system remains too rigid and too focused on short-term products rather than long-term digital outcomes. Instead, [...]