The UK's digital strategy post-Brexit

Last week, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Karen Bradley MP, announced the Government's plans to support a digital Britain post-Brexit (click here to see the UK Digital Strategy). The strategy is aimed at improving living standards and economic growth by "increasing productivity and driving growth across the whole country." While the various initiatives are encouraging, there are already criticisms emerging that they do not go far enough. With some reports suggesting that the UK is losing traction in FinTech following the Brexit referendum, and amid ongoing uncertainty as to Britain's future relationship with the EU, the strategy paper may not be sufficient to allay concerns. Moreover, while the principles behind the initiatives are well thought through, such as the need to support British developments in AI and robotics, it might be said that the financial commitments involved do not always reflect the sense of priority which the Government is seeking to engender.

The strategy is formed of seven strands:

1. Building a world-class digital infrastructure for the UK: digital infrastructure is a critical component of the Government's plans. The focus here is on the completion of 4G and superfast broadband roll-out by 2020, alongside a Universal Service Obligation for high speed broadband across the country. The Government has committed to invest over £1 billion to accelerate development and uptake of next generation infrastructure, including fibre and 5G. It also intends to support consumers seeking cheap connectivity by ensuring that broadband adverts are accurate, and with free Wi-Fi on trains and public places.
2. Giving everyone access to the digital skills they need: the strategy paper outlines various digital skills initiatives, with support from the private sector contributors such as Lloyds Banking Group, Google, Accenture and IBM, as part of a Digital Skills Partnership. "The Partnership will play a crucial role in helping people access digitally-focused jobs at a local level, bringing together technology companies, local businesses, local government and other organisations to identify digital job vacancies and take action to help people move into these jobs." The Government also intends to include coding in the National Curriculum, with computer science students benefiting from key skills and digital skills/careers being promoted through the National Citizen Service.
3. Making the UK the best place to start and grow a digital business: The Government plans to work with independent regulators to encourage innovation-friendly regulation that creates a positive context for the adoption of new technologies as well as "giving them democratic legitimacy and a world-leading framework in which to operate, from drones to data." In its Autumn Statement 2016, the Government announced an additional £4.7 billion of investment by 2020-21 in R&D funding to ensure British business remains at the cutting edge of scientific and technological discovery. A new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will help UK growth in science and innovation such as robotics, clean energy and biotechnology. Prof. Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Jerome Pesenti, Chief Executive of BenevolentTech, will undertake a review of how the AI industry can thrive in the UK. The Government will work to establish a network of UK Tech Hubs in five developing countries. Alongside its existing hub in Israel, these hubs are intended to boost Britain's impact in emerging digital economies.
4. Helping every British business become a digital business: The Government recognises that all businesses will increase in productivity and competitiveness through digitalisation. At its Autumn Statement 2016, the Government announced £13 million funding to create a private sector-led Productivity Council to drive engagement to improve productivity across the economy.
5. Making the UK the safest place in the world to live and work online: acknowledging the threat of cyber attacks in a connected ecosystem, the Government plans to support a National Cyber Security Centre to act as a single point of contact for companies, particularly those comprising Britain's "critical national infrastructure." An Active Cyber Defence approach will see skills, knowledge and technical expertise of GCHQ, working with ISPs, provide a "new level of protection" for British cyberspace. The Government plans to launch a national after-school programme, apprenticeships and adult training to improve cyber skills. It continues to support roll-out of family-friendly filters and age verification to protect children online.
6. Maintaining the UK Government as a world leader in serving its citizens online: the Government Transformation Strategy published on 9 February 2017 sets out the Government's intention to provide a better, more coherent experience when using Government services online, including by adoption of new services onto the Government’s GOV.UK Pay and GOV.UK Notify platforms. The Government intends to work to "harness the potential of digital" to improve public services. In its Autumn Statement 2016, it announced that the National Productivity Investment Fund would allocate £450 million from 2018-10 to 2020-21 to trial digital signalling on the rail network. In policing, officers will be equipped with biometric tools to match fingerprints and DNA at crime scenes.
7. Unlocking the power of data in the UK economy and improving public confidence in its use: recognising that data is a key component of the digital economy, the Government re-states its intention to implement the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by May 2018. It did not comment on other EU legislation concerning the digital economy such as the Digital Single Market initiatives currently proposed by the European Commission.

Comment on the strategy

The Government's strategy highlights its commitment to Britain's growing digital economy. Increased connectivity, digital training, the promise of innovation-friendly regulation and a Productivity Council to drive engagement are all moves in the right direction, though questions remain over whether the strategy goes far enough – particularly in terms of the Government's financial commitment – to enable Britain to retain its status as a global technology hub. For instance, the potential impact that AI is anticipated to have on the economy (conservative estimates suggest it could contribute hundreds of billions of pounds within the next 20 years), coupled with the amount of investment being ploughed into research by the big tech players in the private sector (for example, Google buying DeepMind in 2014 for $400m, and Microsoft launching Microsoft Ventures for AI start-ups in 2016), bring into sharp relief the scale and importance of AI investment. In this context, the Government's pledge of £17.3m for robotics and AI research seems a fairly modest amount.

Added to this, businesses and Government need to grapple with the various legal challenges that are brought by digitalisation. Data is the currency of the digital economy but personal data must be processed in accordance with the law. The Government has restated its commitment to implement the GDPR despite Brexit, but questions remain over other our future involvement in EU digital strategies and there is the wider question of whether the weight of regulation which the GDPR will bring will be counter productive. Compliance issues also arise on digitalisation, with new business models having to operate within the constraints of traditional legal frameworks – e.g. Uber's recent legal challenges around whether drivers are employees rather than being self-employed.

There are issues around connectivity and intellectual property in a digitalised ecosystem, and an increased risk of cyber attack and cyber snooping to connected systems – the apparent slow take-up of the "internet of things" at householder level suggests a deep concern in this area. The Government's Active Cyber Defence initiative will need to be highly proactive and expansive in order to tackle what is probably the greatest challenge of a digitalised marketplace. AI and robotics present their own issues, such as liability for decisions made by robots, as well as ethical considerations, all of which the law will need to grapple with at some point. Many questions remain to be answered in this fast moving landscape.