UK Digital and Tech Industries [Siobhain McDonagh in the
Chair] 2.30 pm Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con) I beg to
move, That this House has considered the future of the UK
digital and tech industries. It is a pleasure to serve under
your...Request free trial
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UK Digital and Tech Industries
[Siobhain McDonagh in the Chair]
2.30 pm
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Mrs (St Albans)
(Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the future of the UK digital
and tech industries.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms
McDonagh. This is an important debate on a sector of the
economy that has been incredibly vital for this country and
will become even more important in future. The UK’s history
as a global leader in technological and digital innovation
is well known. From the invention of the telephone by
Alexander Graham Bell in the 1800s, and the creation of the
television by John Logie Baird in the 1920s, to the
relatively recent introduction of the world wide web in
1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, the UK has always been at the
forefront of technological advancement for the rest of the
world. Today we continue to see incredible innovation and
growth across the country, which puts the UK at the
forefront of global technological advancement.
The turnover of digital and tech business in the UK has
reached £170 billion. That is an increase of £30 billion
over the past five years alone. We should recognise that
the digital sector is creating jobs twice as fast as the
non-digital sector. It is important to note that this is
not just a London-centric industry, as many seem to think
it might be. We have seen incredible growth in this sector
all across the UK. There are digital clusters thriving in
Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff and many
other places in the UK. In mentioning all those regions, I
thought that people from them might feel urged to jump up
and say so. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Strangford
(Jim Shannon) will save his ammunition for later. We should
welcome the huge growth in the number of individuals
setting up businesses online, many from their own homes.
One of the many benefits of the digital industry is to take
advantage of the opportunities for business and trade that
exist online: the ability for people across the country,
and the world, to be connected at just the press of a
button. The aim of my speech is to push the Government for
assurances that, alongside the recent digital strategy, we
will continue to invest and encourage this sector of the
economy to grow and, crucially, strive to be world leaders
in this industry—tech UK.
Imagination Technologies in my constituency is at the
cutting edge of this exciting sector. I visited its offices
a couple of weeks ago and witnessed at first hand some of
its fascinating, advanced work on computer chips and
artificial intelligence. As I am sure the Minister knows,
Imagination was recently acquired by Canyon Bridge, a US
venture capital firm, for close to $1 billion. That is $1
billion of confidence invested in the UK. It is the largest
such investment in UK tech since the referendum, so
“Project Fear” should be well and truly dead. That was a
huge investment of confidence in my constituency.
I am sure that the Minister will welcome that investment
and the massive vote of confidence in the UK tech industry,
and I hope that she will visit Imagination to see for
herself this jewel in the tech crown. I extended that
invitation to the Prime Minister at lunchtime, and she
thought it a bit of a deviation from her way to Carlisle.
To save her from that deviation, I will say today that the
Minister will be more than welcome to my constituency to
see what the world can learn from St Albans.
There has been so much good news coming out of the tech
industry in recent years and months. The UK ranked in the
top three in KPMG’s 2018 global technology innovation
report. The report detailed the record level of venture
capital investment into UK tech firms, which totals $4
billion. That is more investment than the combined amounts
in Germany, France, Spain and Ireland. The UK is mopping up
more of that vital investment than those four countries
combined. KPMG’s report also highlighted the strength not
just in large tech firm investment and growth in the UK,
but in the investment going into emerging UK tech firms.
However, we cannot rest on our laurels. We must see the UK
emerge as the No. 1 location for global tech innovation in
the near future—not just in the top three, but No. 1.
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(Aldershot) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is remarkable and
commendable that 99.8% of all new digital firms are small
and medium-sized enterprises, and that this is a reflection
of the organic strength in this space in the UK?
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Mrs Main
I absolutely agree. We are having to look to a model where
the great big factories and industries of the past are not
necessarily going to be the voice of the future. Many of
these companies are set up in people’s bedrooms. Mark
Zuckerberg might have a few issues of his own at the moment
but, as he said, who would have thought three geeks in a
bedroom would set up a company that would become so big?
That is the future. Many of these companies start off small
and then grow. That growth is part of the success, but also
part of the issue that I want the Minister to address.
Funding Circle, a FinTech company founded in the UK, is
another great example of success in the UK tech sector.
Established in 2010, Funding Circle is now the world’s
largest lending platform for small businesses and has
offices across Europe and in the United States. In such a
short space of time it has come to be a global leader.
Lending from Funding Circle loans has supported the
creation of approximately 80,000 jobs in the UK. It is a
wonderful example of the thriving FinTech industry that we
now have.
Across Europe, the UK is leading the way. The latest
European digital city index ranked London as No. 1 for
supporting digital entrepreneurs. The UK is also No. 1
across Europe for inward investment into the digital
sector. We should be incredibly proud of that. As we look
to the future, the Government must do everything they can
to support the continued growth of this industry. That
includes listening to its concerns and planning for
potential regulation.
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(Cambridge)
(Lab)
The hon. Lady is painting a very rosy picture of the
current situation. I suspect that she will soon move on to
some of the challenges. As a representative of a city that
is a well-known tech hub, I will just ask: does she agree
that many of the people who work in the tech sector come
from other countries, particularly European Union
countries, and that it is important that the Government
bring forward their proposals on migration and immigration
as soon as possible so that we get some certainty for the
future?
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Mrs Main
I do agree with the hon. Gentleman about getting certainty
on migration. Other companies I have spoken to recently say
that they want to be able to bring in the brightest and the
best. I absolutely understand that. Interestingly, many of
the brightest and the best who are coming in, including Dr
Li, who has taken over as the chief executive of
Imagination Technologies, are from outside the European
Union. Many are saying to me that they want a level playing
field on the ability to bring in the brightest and the
best, and not just because someone happens to have a blue
passport. It is important that we recognise that this is a
global industry with global resources that may wish to come
to the UK.
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that we need to get our
immigration strategy fit for purpose, but we also need to
ensure that we have people in our own country who are
entering the tech industry. Another company I visited in St
Albans said that it was bringing in many highly qualified
technicians. It had not employed a single person from the
UK in the past three years. Why? Because it could not get
them; they are in such demand. There are issues we need to
address with ensuring that we are growing home talent for
the future, as well as those around immigration. It is a
double-sided issue that we need to be looking at.
These are some of the key priorities being raised by firms
and trade associations in the industry. First, there is the
adequacy agreement with the European Union as part of our
future trading relationship. I do think that the future is
rosy and bright, but no future, wherever we were, would not
have its issues. The adequacy agreement is being asked for,
and I would like the Minister’s views on that. The free
flow of data between the UK and the rest of the EU is
extremely important to both sides during the negotiations.
It is so clearly in everyone’s interests for the flow of
data to be unhindered, so that needs to be prioritised. I
am sure it is being, but I would like to hear more about it
from the Minister.
The implementation of the general data protection
regulation in May and the Government’s commitment to the
framework is encouraging and must help the case for the
adequacy agreement to be reached. I would also be pleased
to hear what further work the Government are doing to
ensure that the adequacy agreement will be reached as we
leave the European Union. There will be serious concern
among the tech industry if it is not battened down as an
agreement that everyone has confidence in when we leave.
Secondly, companies stress the importance of access to
talent for their industry, which goes back to what the hon.
Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) said. Of the 1.64
million jobs in the digital sector, about half a million
are done by foreign-born employees. That means that half a
million people are importing, so to speak, their talent
into the UK tech industry. Even so, the industry demands
more talent, which comes in through the tier 2 visa route,
to support growing businesses that are looking for
particular skills.
Many companies, including those in my constituency, report
being extremely limited when trying to recruit talent from
non-EU countries. This is a golden opportunity, despite
Brexit being given a bad press—I hate the phrase “despite
Brexit”—for us to craft an immigration policy that will not
leave highly skilled jobs unfilled because of the
difficulty of recruiting talented individuals from around
the world.
As we leave the European Union, we will be able to set our
own immigration policy, with fuller control over who can
come into the country to work. The Government must ensure
that any future immigration policy is agile and flexible to
allow that international talent to come to the country and
support growing industries, such as the tech sector. I
would be glad to hear what preparations the Department has
made to ensure that the tech sector can access that
international talent after we leave the EU. Given that
there are many small businesses in the tech sector, I would
like to ensure that there is a conduit for their voices and
concerns in future.
Finally, our education system is crucial to the future
success of our tech and digital sectors. With the best will
in the world, the brightest and best talent comes and wants
to work in the UK tech sector, but I would also like our
young people to want to join it—not to say it is not for
them. It is important to welcome foreign talent, but we
must grow our own.
Policy Exchange reported that 65% of today’s students will
end up working in jobs that do not even exist yet—that is
65% of future jobs that we cannot even imagine. By 2022,
500,000 highly skilled workers will be needed to fill
digital roles, which is three times the number of UK
computer science graduates in the past 10 years. That shows
the amount of upskilling we have to do and the need to make
tech a sector that our young people go into. That huge
mismatch must be addressed.
Educators must provide children and young adults in the UK
with the skills and training needed for the jobs of the
future. We need a curriculum fit for the future, access to
teaching staff to inspire our young people, and careers
guidance that narrows the gender gap. Women and girls can
and do flourish in the tech industry, but we need greater
encouragement. When I visited Imagination Technologies, I
asked a lady there how many women go into that sort of
industry and she said, “Not enough.” It is not enough.
I am encouraged by recent Government announcements about
the digital strategy and the Department for Education’s
announcement that a further £177 million will go into maths
education, which is a crucial STEM subject for the jobs of
the future. However, we need to do more to encourage our
brightest and best to enter the world of teaching. Teaching
is at the core; to get young people enthused and motivated,
we must get the teachers in. There are some difficulties in
recruiting teachers for certain subjects, and I would like
to see a strategy to address that.
When I met Dr Li, the new chief executive of Imagination
Technologies, he spoke about the significant support the
industry receives in China. Rather cleverly, I said that we
are in the top three, but China is No. 1. I will give hon.
Members some reasons why—to say that the state is helping
is to put it mildly. To promote talent in the industry and,
crucially, to retain it, the Chinese Government provide
subsidies for teaching tech subjects and offer financial
incentives around pay and housing for those working in the
sector. Although I am not advocating that approach, it
shows that our competitors are determined to win the global
tech race. They will not export their talent to other
countries if they can possibly help it.
We need to ensure that tech UK is heading for the winning
line, but with that exciting world of opportunity comes a
dark side. Online security and safety are extremely
important issues for the industry to deal with. The
protection of the personal data that is being used by
online companies is a current issue. For people to have
confidence in the programs and applications they use, they
need to know that their personal data is secure. I hope
that the Government will continue to put pressure on
companies to safeguard user data, and to consider how we
can future-proof personal security and police industry
behaviour.
UK businesses are increasingly subjected to cyber-security
threats, which is another topical issue. A recent report by
the National Cyber Security Centre found that more and more
businesses are being threatened with data breaches,
ransomware and cloud theft. Unfortunately, the criminals of
this world—the malcontents and ne’er-do-wells—are one step
ahead of the game. What are we doing to ensure that we are
getting ahead of the game in cyber-security?
The growth of the internet of things, in which many
household devices and other objects are interconnected,
presents a worrying openness to hackers, as many of those
devices lack even the most basic security defences. Some
hon. Members will have seen the horrific case of a
driverless car being hacked into. The idea that the
machines could suddenly take over is horrific, but of
course it is not the machines; it is the hackers behind the
machines. The exploitation of data in attempts to influence
other countries’ elections is another current topic.
As we migrate more of our lives into the digital world, we
need to ensure that rogue companies and rogue states are
prevented from corrupt or sinister behaviour. I hope that
the Minister will touch on what the Government are doing to
strengthen our cyber-security and to increase public
awareness about safety in a high-tech world.
The industry has incredible potential. Some recent
technological advancements are staggering and the UK is
proudly at the forefront of that success. On my visit to
Imagination Technologies, it was inspiring to hear from
those in the industry about how technology will improve our
lives in future. The ability for artificial intelligence
and the internet of things to combine to assist with
healthcare and care for the elderly is especially exciting.
Wearable tech will enable the user to be notified of
potential health irregularities and will be able to alert
medical services when a user’s condition requires it. AI
will also be able to help elderly people who need
assistance with basic tasks, although there will never be a
substitute for interaction with people.
To conclude, tech can improve our future lives in many
ways: not just through healthcare or social connectivity,
but by making everything in our lives easier. Tech UK is
the future for us all. This country has an incredibly
exciting digital industry and global Britain should strive
to be not just in the top three, but No. 1.
2.47 pm
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(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairwomanship, Ms
McDonagh. When I mention my constituency of York, hopefully
hon. Members think about the city walls, the minster, the
Vikings—
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(Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
(Lab)
Steam trains!
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(East Dunbartonshire)
(LD)
Chocolate!
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They are all on my list. I am glad hon. Members think about
them, because we in York have a fantastic history, but York
is also the UNESCO city of media arts. It is part of the
Creative Cities Network and hosts the Mediale festival. It
leads our country in the digital creative sector and has
created the first guild of media arts—the first guild for
700 years. It is also home to the digital signalling
centre, which is at the heart of the next generation of
rail.
The film industry is on our doorstep with Screen Yorkshire.
The British film industry is the UK’s fastest growing
sector, and Yorkshire leads the way. Our university is at
the heart of that.
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Mr (East
Londonderry) (DUP)
On the issue of the hon. Lady’s constituency and elsewhere
in the UK, does she agree that one of the potential
beauties of the tech industry is that it is not confined to
the UK’s economic hotspots, such as the urban conurbations
of London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff? It offers
advantages to urban and rural areas, provided that the
connectivity is there and the demand to promote the
industry is met by the Government.
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The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The digital and
technological industries break boundaries in many ways, not
least by providing alternative forms of employment. They
certainly do not have any rules about where they are
located. It is a 24/7 industry, so it includes individuals
in their own homes and small businesses with global
impacts. It is an exciting sector to be involved in.
The University of York is also at the cutting edge of
digital technology and has its own digital creative labs,
which I had the real pleasure of visiting earlier this
year. I should say that I am on an apprenticeship with much
of this, and I am learning: they are at the heart of the
video-gaming industry, which has its home in York. Many
businesses—start-up businesses, new companies, small tech
companies—surround our city. We have 250 such businesses in
York alone, and all that activity is building into the
future of our economy, as we search for a new identity in a
new era.
What also really excites me is that old is blending with
new, as we move forward in our city. The new gives new
opportunities. At the heart of our city, we have the
biggest brownfield site in Europe, waiting for businesses
to land. Rich heritage surrounds where people live. I say
to any digital tech or digital creative company, “Come and
see if your future is in York, and you will be most welcome
to make it your home and make it your own”.
As I have said, I am on a bit of an apprenticeship in this
industry and I thank the Industry and Parliament Trust for
giving me the opportunity to explore this sector—to have
placements across the sector and to learn more about the
cutting edge that the industry is providing our economy and
our nation.
I have learned that our gaming industry is one of the
fastest growing in the world because of the skills base
that we are able to provide. The potential is huge if we
really embrace that wider economic opportunity. In York
itself, we are seeing how this industry—both alone and
standing alongside other industries—is so cross-cutting and
how the skills acquired around video-gaming can then be
applied right across the curriculum. Education is certainly
at the forefront of that. I saw programmes that provided
individualisation of tutoring. For instance, I undertook a
French course; I will not say how I got on. Such programmes
can track an individual’s learning, taking them back over
their weaknesses, improving their skills and ensuring that
they are the best that they can be at that particular
skill.
I also saw how the Yorkshire Museum has embraced virtual
reality, to take visitors into a Viking village and enable
them to experience life in that settlement. I saw 3D
modelling technologies, pioneered in the games industry,
that now help companies such as Rolls-Royce to design better
engines. I saw artificial intelligence—machine learning—and
how that work is advancing and the technology is
progressing. This is in my city, this is in our country and
we must be so proud of that.
The academic world around this work is so strong. Along
with other cities, York hosts the Intelligent Games and
Game Intelligence—IGGI, for short—programme, which hosts 60
PhD students. An absolutely global standard is being set
around academia and looking at the future technologies that
will drive our country’s engine forward. Gaming will be
really important to us, and not just for the sake of
playing games; there is also the application of the skills
that many people working in the industry will go on to
develop.
What is going on before us—spread across the country,
including in my city—is a quiet revolution that is
transforming all our lives, with massive opportunities for
the future of our country and my city. However, there are
some issues that I want to talk about today. First of all,
there is skills. We have good skills in our country, but we
need some changes. The narrowing of the curriculum is not
helping, particularly with regard to the digital creative
sector. The arts have been downgraded and yet they could
really be at the forefront. I ask the Minister to go back
and have a look at that and make sure that the creative
subjects are at the heart of our curriculum, too: it is
when the technical and the creative join that we see this
explosion of opportunity coming to our economy.
There are also the tech skills of kids to consider. We
narrow people into boxes around a traditional learning
curriculum, which is fit for a different era. We need to
ensure that our children are embracing the new technologies
of the future, because children are doing so elsewhere in
the world and we really need to ensure now that we embed
digital and technical skills right into the heart of our
curriculum.
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In the 19th century, it was the marriage of design and
engineering brilliance in York that ensured it was the
centre of the railway industry. Does my hon. Friend take
inspiration from that?
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My right hon. Friend makes an absolutely excellent point,
because that is our heritage—how we drove our economy
forward through the Victorian years. We have that
opportunity again today. The digital signalling centre in
our city—the rail operating centre, or ROC, as it is
called—is now at the heart of how trains are driven. They
will not be driven in the cab of a train any more; the
digital tech sector is now driving forward, so it is like
having a train set in front of a screen. That is completely
radicalising the way that our country works. It is
cutting-edge, 21st-century technology, and we have to see
more of it in the future.
As I was saying, whether someone studies history,
literature, medicine or maths, the digital and technical
industries will play a vital role in their future. Just
last week, I had the opportunity to take a tour of another
York University department—the archaeological department.
Archaeology digs into the past, but I also saw how the
department is using technology to provide access to
artefacts, by displaying them in a unique way, so that
people can explore them and manipulate them on screen, to
connect with artefacts dug up all over the world. They are
put into context and it is possible to understand the
history surrounding them: the experience was mind-blowing.
That is because through technology the past has met the
future, and there are very exciting opportunities in that
regard.
The tech industry will also provide the breakthrough for
telehealth, which will improve all our health. Again, I was
exposed to some of those opportunities when I looked around
the University of York, but so much more can be done, even
when it comes to issues such as our mental health. We are
massively struggling for resources in our health sector,
including in mental health, so to have technology that can
support us—technology can work against us, but also support
us—and improve our wellbeing, we must embrace that
technology as we move forward. It is so important that we
consider the scope of where this technology is leading us
and understand why the investment in our schools and
education is so important.
I turn to research and innovation. We are talking about a
very disparate sector, with lots of different companies
scattered around. They do not have the capacity to build up
much resource to get funding for research. We need to find
a breakthrough on research, so that companies can network,
to come together and draw down research funding, because we
have a real future in this area, not least in the field of
artificial intelligence, where we can really drive that
technology forward. Of course, such technology is not about
replacing humans; it is partly about doing things quicker,
but also about pioneering breakthroughs in how we work.
However, we need support for that.
I want the technology to have a social impact as well. York
itself is brilliant in every stretch of the imagination,
but it is also a very divided city. Some of the most
deprived areas in the country are in my city and we are
seeing exclusion being built in around it. I ask the
Minister to consider whether the digital and tech sectors
can be used to reduce the inequality in our country, not
only through opportunities and skills but through the
outcomes that the sector can bring. For me, that will be
the win-win of the sector.
Finally, I want to say that the arts enrich all of us. In
closing, I want to talk about Mediale 2018. Will the
Minister meet me to discuss it? It will run from 27
September to 6 October, and it will be the nation’s
creative digital festival. It is a platform for innovative
art and technology, showing what can be done in this modern
age, providing art to everyone as an enhancing experience.
Mediale will be a springboard for this sector of our
economy and how the arts are projected across our country,
blending the old and the new. I am sure the Minister will
want to ensure that the sector has a major footprint not
only in York, but in the whole nation.
3.00 pm
-
(Aldershot) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairwomanship, Ms
McDonagh. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for St
Albans (Mrs Main) for calling this important debate. I will
talk briefly, but first I want to put in context the
importance of the digital sector to our country’s economic
output. We must bear in mind that the digital industries
make up 4% of all employment and 7% of economic output,
which is remarkable and represents remarkable growth in
recent times.
One successful growth story is UKCloud, a very large
company in my constituency. Just a few years ago, it was a
start-up of six people. Under the amazing leadership of
Simon Hansford, it has grown to now employ nearly 200
people. This month, it will take on another 50 employees.
It has been remarkably successful, and it represents some
of the recent explosive growth we have seen across the
sector. As the name would suggest, UKCloud is a cloud
storage business. It has successfully delivered cloud
solutions for: central Government, including the Cabinet
Office, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and other
bodies of Government such as the Driver and Vehicle
Licensing Agency and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs;
many local authorities; health organisations; and other
private businesses.
UKCloud’s unique offer is that it can scale up and compete
with large multinationals. The offer is extremely
cost-effective, so it can punch above its weight. That has
come about as a direct result of the Government’s drive to
open up cloud procurement through G-Cloud. I am sure the
Minister will agree in her closing remarks that that has
been a commendable success in encouraging British small and
medium-sized enterprises to get into that space, punch
above their weight and compete with the large
multinationals.
Another significant thing about UKCloud is that it has a
very important offer when it comes to national security.
This year it is establishing a high-assurance cloud
platform, which will basically be a secret facility known
as UKCloudX. It will enable the Government to fulfil an
important intelligence function, which is the ability to
share intelligence across a number of different Government
bodies and achieve the doctrinal intent of fusion. It is
all very well when different intelligence agencies or
bodies have information and intelligence, but unless they
can share and fuse it in a highly secret manner, the
intelligence cannot achieve its best effect in support of
our national security.
UKCloudX is an important development, which has a direct
impact on our national security at the highest level. I am
delighted that that work will be taking place in
Farnborough this year. No one in this room needs reminding
of the importance of this country’s having a cutting-edge
approach to the handling of intelligence and data, given
the recent domestic challenges we have faced with our
national security in Manchester with the atrocity just a
year ago and the recent developments in Salisbury. UKCloud
is playing an important role in our national security.
The other important aspect is data sovereignty. Due to
recent developments, especially with regard to Facebook,
which has already been mentioned today, the importance of
the secure handling of data is clear to us all. Whether it
is Government data or the personal data of citizens, the
way that is handled and the total control we need to have
over that to guarantee security are of the utmost
importance. Data sovereignty should be a strand that runs
through the Government’s approach to the industry as a
whole, but particularly when it comes to the procurement of
cloud storage facilities. I would be grateful for the
Minister’s reassurance that when the Government consider
procuring future cloud storage for their work, they will
guard against any tendency to prefer US hyperscale
offers—the big US providers—and instead prefer British
SMEs, which not only offer 100% data sovereignty, but also
offer the immediate economic benefit of the jobs and growth
we have discussed today. I commend the Government for their
attitude in terms of the G-Cloud, which has been a great
success, but I would welcome the Minister’s reassurance on
preferring UK SMEs in procurement.
Various invitations have been mentioned today. The Minister
would not forgive me if I sat down without warmly extending
an invitation to her to visit Farnborough and UKCloud. It
is extremely convenient, being just off junction 4 of the
M3. I am sure we can provide a very good lunch. I know she
does not need that kind of incentive, however, because her
commitment to her brief is such that she will want to see
things at first hand. On that note, I conclude my remarks.
3.07 pm
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(Strangford) (DUP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms
McDonagh, and to speak in this debate. I congratulate the
hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main) on securing this
debate and on passionately setting out the issues that we
all subscribe to and wish to speak about.
The UK’s digital tech industry turned over an estimated
£170 billion in 2015 and is growing at twice the rate of
the rest of the economy. It is key to boosting the UK’s
wider economy, making a contribution of £97 billion in
2015. The hon. Lady clearly set out the situation in
relation to the digital tech industry. She was confident on
the way forward and Brexit. I will be equally confident,
and I also want to say a wee bit about what we have done
back home, which has been excellent for job creation and
for boosting our local economy.
The digital tech industry generated a further 85,000 jobs
between 2014 and 2015, going from 1.56 million jobs to 1.64
million. It is creating jobs at double the rate of the rest
of the economy. That indicates how important the sector is.
All the contributions so far have mentioned that, and I am
sure those who follow will do the same. Since 2012, there
has been a 13% increase in the advertised salaries of
digital tech posts, compared with only a 4% rise in those
of non-digital jobs. Tech investment in the UK reached £6.8
billion in 2016, which is more than two times higher than
any other European country and significantly more than its
closest rival, France, which secured some £2.4 billion of
investment. That is about a third as much, which indicates
the strength of our digital tech industry.
“Tech Nation 2017” shows that the average advertised salary
for digital tech jobs has now reached just over £50,000 a
year, compared with £35,000 for the average non-digital
salary, making it 44% higher than the national average.
Again, not only are we creating jobs; we are creating
well-paid jobs. Along with the well-paid jobs we have to
provide the quality employee as well.
As a Northern Ireland MP, I look to the Minister, who I
know has a particular interest in this subject, not just
because she is a Minister but because she has a personal
interest. I am sure the replies to our queries and
questions will be positive, as I am sure the shadow
Minister will think of some similar things to say as well.
Tech City UK’s “Tech Nation 2016” report found that the
digital and tech sector in Northern Ireland was burgeoning,
and outside of London and the south-east made the largest
contribution to the regional economy.
-
Mrs Main
The real purpose of this debate is to show that although
London is key in many eyes, it is not a bar to young people
finding work because they can find such high-paid jobs in
their own areas, and that is really exciting.
-
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. It is tremendously
exciting. I discussed it with Invest Northern Ireland,
which was given the task of finding new jobs. One of the
things that it was able to describe—I will come to this
shortly—was the quality of graduates that we have in
Northern Ireland, which is one of the attractions of
Northern Ireland. The hon. Lady is absolutely right that
people do not have to go to London to get a big wage. They
go for different reasons, whatever they may be, but people
can have a job back home and they can stay there. That is
what it makes it so exciting.
In the words of my party colleague, , in his role as
Economy Minister:
“From the North West Science Park in Londonderry through to
the Enterprise Zone in Coleraine and down to Newry, the
home of some of our leading high-tech companies, with
Belfast— Europe’s leading destination city for new software
development projects—at its heart, bit by bit we are
building a Northern Ireland-wide tech industry that we can
be proud of.”
That is what we are doing in Northern Ireland, and that is
what we hope to continue over the next period of time.
In Belfast and other cities in Northern Ireland, global
tech names such as Citi and Allstate, working in the sector
with Silicon Valley firms such as BDNA, are all
recognisable. Each of us here will speak passionately about
our own constituencies, as the hon. Member for York Central
(Rachael Maskell) did, and as other Members will as well.
As MPs we love our constituencies and want to do the best
for them, so the opportunities need to be there. Not only
is our highly skilled workforce attracting global
investment, but we have indigenous tech firms such as
Kainos, Novosco and First Derivatives growing in size and
becoming global leaders in our region of Northern Ireland.
We can be excited about what is happening across the whole
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland. As I often say to my hon. Friends in the Scottish
National party, “Better together”: all the four regions
doing all the same things together day by day and making
things better for everyone, and we should continue to do
that.
It is clear that much of our attraction is the skills base
supported by international-standard research facilities,
such as the Centre for Secure Information Technologies at
Queen’s and Ulster’s Intelligent Systems Research Centre:
education and big business working together. We have done
that very well through Queen’s University. The Minister
might respond to that because that is a key factor to our
moving forward. We will have the education, the big
business, the opportunities, the quality of graduates and
all those things together. We have a range of support and
programmes in place, such as StartPlanet NI and Propel,
aimed in particular at early stage and high potential
technology-based start-ups. Perhaps most crucially, we have
a fast developing ecosystem including the likes of Catalyst
Inc., Digital DNA and Immersive Tech NI, which combine to
create a vibrant tech community across Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland is consistently the top-performing region
of the UK in national exams at age 16 and 18. The fact is
that we have the graduates. People want to stay and the
technical and digital firms want to invest because the
skills base is there. We have the highest percentage of
qualified IT professionals in the UK and Ireland, with more
than 77% holding a degree-level qualification. I say
respectfully to all the other regions that Northern Ireland
as a region is leading the way—from a small base of 1.8
million people, we are up there with London and other parts
of the United Kingdom. Some 77% of high school graduates,
post A-level, go on to further and higher education
compared with the UK average of 71%.
Government, industry and academia have implemented
collaborative initiatives in training and education, such
as cyber and data analytics academies, to ensure that the
workforce continues to meet the needs of the global ICT
industry with competitive salary costs, low employee
attrition rates and lower operating costs, including low
property costs. All those things make it attractive to come
to Northern Ireland. Labour and property costs for a
200-person software development centre in Belfast are 36%
less than in Dublin, 44% less than in London and 58% less
than in New York. It is clear that we are an attractive
place to do business and we must sell that more globally.
I will conclude with this, Ms McDonagh. I am conscious of
time and there are two others to follow me. I read an
interesting article in the Belfast Telegraph in which David
Crozier, part of the commercial team at CSIT, was quoted. I
want to cite his comments because it is important to have
them on the record. He said:
“Belfast has a strong hi-tech industry as it is and cyber
security is a subsection of that so you have transferable
skills in terms of software engineering roles that can
transfer over into cyber security. We’re working towards a
target of about 5,000 jobs by 2026.”
While other sectors are facing uncertainty following
Brexit, Mr Crozier is bullish about its impact on
cyber-security investment:
“It’s really high-value stuff, companies have a demand for
it globally and to a certain extent that does make it”—
I use these words; I know the hon. Member for St Albans
will be happy—
“Brexit proof."
We are looking forward to good times.
“It’s not going to have a detrimental effect for sure, it
may actually lead to more demand if you see a hardening of
UK national positions around trade tariffs and those sort
of things that’s naturally going to drive investment into
types of technologies to protect sensitive information,
sensitive networks. It possibly produces even greater
opportunity.”
An industry that is yet again embracing the opportunity
Brexit presents, an industry that is able to compete
globally, is an industry that we must invest heavily into,
and the benefits will be deeply beneficial. Brexit-proof:
what could be a better reason than that?
3.16 pm
-
(Bristol North West)
(Lab)
It is my absolute pleasure to serve under your
chairpersonship today, Ms McDonagh. I congratulate the hon.
Member for St Albans (Mrs Main) on securing this debate. I
declare my interest, as set out in the Register of Members’
Financial Interests.
The United Kingdom punches above its weight in the global
digital marketplace, with £170 billon of turnover and £7
billion of tech investment—twice the amount of any other
country in the European Union. However, as we have heard,
this is not just about profits; it is also about
good-quality jobs, with the average advertised salary for a
digital job 44% higher than for a non-digital average. That
benefit is shared by an enormous 1.6 million workers in the
UK’s digital sector, and it is a benefit shared by those
seeking work, either young people or those in retraining,
to get access to higher pay and higher quality jobs.
Such jobs are good, but much more needs to be done both on
gender equality and class inequality in the technology and
digital sectors, with many start-up businesses pioneered by
those with the safety net of a family who can provide for
them when inevitable failures occur. I do not criticise
them for having that safety net, but the stark reality in
my constituency of Bristol North West is that I have some
of the most affluent and some of the most economically
deprived suburbs in the city right next door to each other.
Many of the young people have fantastic ideas but are not
confident enough to take on the risk to try them. We need
to try to find solutions to ensure that there is an
equality of access to the opportunities and excitement of
the digital market.
As we have seen recently, there are still gender inequality
issues in some aspects of the technology and digital
marketplace, so gender bias is as important an issue in
this space as it is in others. I absolutely agree with the
comments made today about the digital skills needed for
young people. It is also important to show why the basics
around science, maths and English can lead to such exciting
jobs so that young people can see what they are aiming for
and understand why getting that maths GCSE, which they
might find slightly boring at the time, is a really
exciting route through to some fantastic jobs. It is also
about reskilling. An example that I gave in the House in
the debate on autonomous vehicles was about when all of our
taxis become driverless taxis and we have a load of taxi
drivers who will need to find new work. This is not just
about young people; it is about reskilling older people to
access the marketplace.
On the whole, the Bristol and Bath region does really well.
We have £8 billion of digital turnover. We had 87% growth
from 2011 to 2015, which now accounts for 35,000 jobs in
our region in the west of England. That is an enormous part
of our economy. I will take this opportunity to pay tribute
to the likes of the Engine Shed, TechSPARK, Business West
and others in Bristol who have been pioneering for many
years.
One key aspect of driving the regional presence is access
to finance. That has been one of our problems in Bristol,
which it has been getting better at. However, start-ups
that want to scale up and get financial backing through
serious funding and other avenues still need to come and
have a presence in London. The networking that they need to
do is in London. The people who have done this and know how
to do it are in London. In my view, we need Government
action to take that knowledge and experience out to the
regions so that companies are able not only to start up in
incubator spaces, but to scale up their businesses in the
region.
That is why our industrial strategy is important, and why
significant efforts should be made not just in relation to
the vast productivity gains that digitisation can make, and
not just in the digital economy, but in standard industries
and public services. There is also a need to continue to
push the benefit out to the regions, creating incentives
and environments that allow digital businesses to start and
be staffed. Opportunities to work in those businesses are
important, given the skills deficit outside London and the
major conurbations. That cannot just mean DFLs—“down from
Londons.” Bristol is pleased to welcome, on average, 80
families a week from London. It causes a bit of an issue
with house prices, but apart from that they are very
welcome. But we must remember that young people born and
raised in Bristol, and especially in Bristol North West,
need access to those jobs too.
There is no denying that London benefits from being the
digital capital of Europe. That position is put at risk by
the Government’s approach to Brexit. Our access to talent
from across the European Union, the attractiveness of
London and other parts of England as a place to call home,
our access to capital through our dominance in financial
services, and the regulatory harmony and access to the
European single market that come with being able to sell
digital goods and services to one of the largest trading
blocs in the world, are all potentially being thrown to the
wind by the Brexit strategy, which is a great shame. The
digital single market that the European Union is pushing is
part of that situation. It will take time to resolve, but
it will be a lost opportunity if we do not have access to
it, through at least maintaining our position in the single
market and customs union.
On the disagreeable basis that we leave the European Union
entirely, we must turn our minds to maintaining Britain’s
digital strength in a global digital marketplace post
Brexit. In many other areas of industry, such as law, which
was my profession before I became a politician, Britain has
a reputation around the world for playing a fair game, with
clear rules and enforcement. That is a British brand that
is trusted and reliable. Britain is renowned as a country
that people want to come to in order to do business and
reduce risk—and, as I said, to get access to the European
Union. We should seek to build that recognition in our
digital marketplace too. Our historic geopolitical position
between the United States and the European Union will be
relevant to the digital market. As we have seen from the
Senate hearings on Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, United
States legislators are now looking to the European Union to
see how to regulate technology and digital business.
That is an area where British MEPs and British
commissioners and staff have played an important role in
defining such things as the general data protection
regulation, the network and information security directive,
and components of the digital single market. In building
that trusted global brand as the best country in which to
start and run digital businesses, we now need to be much
clearer about how we will apply the old rules in the new,
modern digital world—how we will protect consumers who are
buying goods and services that are digital.
We have made good progress, in the Consumer Rights Act 2015
and the implementation of European legislation such as the
digital content directive, but there is more to do, not
least with respect to making citizens and consumers aware
of what is happening, and their rights, and how we regulate
dominant companies in uncompetitive marketplaces. In the
old world of utilities there are regulators to ensure
consumer fairness. In the new world of the ownership and
control of data Ofcom plays an enforcement role, but what
is the competition role in that space? That is something we
need to talk about more. We also need to deal with how we
guarantee old civil liberties in a modern setting,
including the role of the state and public services, the
use of big data, and ensuring the cyber-security that we
have heard about today.
That is why yesterday I was thrilled to kick off a scoping
event, here at the House of Commons, on a new parliamentary
commission on technology ethics, building on the work of
colleagues in the other place—the report of the Lords
Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence came out this
week and it is very good. The Minister’s new data ethics
body in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and
Sport is excitedly anticipated. Also there are issues such
as the control, security and monetisation—with patient
consent—of assets such as NHS data sets, as identified by
Sir in the life sciences
industrial strategy as new ways of funding public services.
Working with the hon. Member for North East Derbyshire (Lee
Rowley), my Conservative co-chair of the all-party
parliamentary group on data analytics—the parliamentary
internet, communications and technology forum—and others,
we shall engage with all stakeholders externally, and with
the Minister and her Department, to create an environment
in the United Kingdom that is good for digital businesses
and consumers in the digital world, and hopefully a beacon
for best practice around the world. There is a balance to
get right, between the vast opportunities that come with
driverless vehicles, the internet of things and digital
public services, and the risks. It will be important to
build trust with consumers and citizens, partners around
the world, and businesses, to create a digital economy in
the UK that we can all be proud of.
3.25 pm
-
(East Dunbartonshire)
(LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms
McDonagh. I congratulate the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs
Main) on securing this important debate.
A couple of months ago I was in this Chamber debating
ethics and artificial intelligence, and I suggested a code
of ethics for people working in data, perhaps to be named
the Lovelace code of ethics. I was delighted, two months
later, to see that the Nuffield Foundation recently set up
an Ada Lovelace Institute to look into data ethics. That is
a think-tank with £5 million of investment, so I have new
respect for the power and reach of Westminster Hall
debates.
I was also delighted to see the House of Lords report on
artificial intelligence on Monday. It is right for
Parliament to discuss those new technological frontiers. In
fact, they should be at the forefront of our debates. I
want to touch briefly on data, accountability, skills and
inequality. There is a huge issue about who owns our data.
The new general data protection regulation is welcome in
helping to give consumers control. When I was Consumer
Affairs Minister, a fledgling project called “midata” was
all about the principle that people’s data should be their
own; if they wanted it from companies, they should be able
to get access to it in a machine-readable format, so that
it could be used for their benefit.
The world has obviously moved on somewhat in five years,
and that was a fledgling effort, but the issue of data as
currency will become more important in years to come. The
Consumer Rights Act 2015 recognised that data could be
treated as consideration: if someone had exchanged their
data to get a product, they should still have some consumer
rights and protections, for example if the product damaged
their equipment. The business models that we are talking
about in the tech sector require a greater level of
consumer choice and transparency about the transaction that
people make when they hand over data. The current model is
one where people give their data away willy-nilly for free
services, often with little control for the individual. In
the future, initiatives such as private data accounts could
be a mechanism giving people more control over their data.
I am interested not just in whether the public sector can
monetise large data sets, but in whether individuals might
be in a position to have their own data monetised much more
explicitly.
As for accountability, there have been all sorts of
scandals, from fake news to online abuse, and the
polarisation of debate coming from social media companies.
Yet Facebook is only 13 years old, and Twitter, Snapchat
and Instagram are all younger, so perhaps it is no surprise
that innovation has outstripped regulation in that area.
However, those platforms are changing much about society
and need to be held to account. Many of those companies
have huge monopoly power, and the network effect makes that
almost automatic and inevitable for new platforms that are
set up, but I do not think the Competition and Markets
Authority has yet grappled sufficiently with the issues.
The European Commission is perhaps one of the few
organisations to have been able properly to stand up to
those corporate giants, whether on tax, data issues or
competition.
We need to do more about skills, in schools and through
retraining. I agree with the hon. Member for Bristol North
West (Darren Jones) about diversity in the technology
workforce and that situation leading to bizarre decisions,
because it is even less representative than most other
sectors. I also agree about constraints on skilled workers
coming to the UK. That is a problem that I fear will get
worse after Brexit. We have just seen the cap for tier 2
visas for skilled workers from outside the European
Economic Area and Switzerland reached for an unprecedented
fourth month in a row. Until last December, that quota had
been reached only once. There is an concern about whether
companies in the UK can get the skills they need. I declare
an interest as a very minor shareholder of a data start-up,
Clear Returns, on whose board I served while I was out of
Parliament. I can attest, from that experience, to how
difficult it is for tech companies to get access to the
skills of data scientists and analysts that they need.
Finally—I am conscious of the time, Ms McDonagh—I want to
speak about inequality. Inequality in technological skills
needs to be addressed, as does inequality in access to
broadband in different parts of the country. I am still
astonished that a new development in my constituency, which
was built in the last few years in Woodilee, does not have
adequate broadband. That was entirely predictable, and I
have written to Ministers about it. There is also a wider
issue of the huge opportunities that technology provides
for solving problems in society, and the real risk that
that will entrench existing inequalities, particularly
economic ones. If we do not do something about it, those
with capital to invest in tech companies will be those who
reap the rewards. Instead, we should be using automation to
take drudgery out of jobs and strenuous heavy lifting out
of the care sector, so that we leave more time for humanity
and for those job areas to which we as individuals can
contribute with creativity and higher skills.
We must also allow people to build more relationships
outside work. Given the way that taxation works with the
larger, global tech companies, and the way that the
benefits will be accrued, I fear that we could risk driving
serious increases in inequality, and that those who lose
out by losing their jobs will not be compensated in
appropriate ways. That risks division in wider society more
generally.
I know that we have little time in this debate, so I will
bring my remarks to a close, but I hope I have flagged up
some key issues that the House will return to when
discussing these matters, which I hope we will do more
often in future.
-
(in the
Chair)
I will now call the Front-Bench speakers. If they each
speak for eight or nine minutes, that will allow Mrs Main
some time to sum up the debate.
3.31 pm
-
(Edinburgh North and
Leith) (SNP)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms
McDonagh.
I must congratulate the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs
Main) on three things. First, I congratulate her on
securing a debate on this important topic. The hon. Member
for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson) is right to say that
we do not speak enough about this issue, and we need a lot
more discussion about the sector in this place. Secondly, I
am pleased that the hon. Member for St Albans began her
history of creative thinking in the UK by mentioning two
Scotsmen: Alexander Graham Bell and John Logie Baird.
Thirdly, I congratulate her on securing a debate on the
future of the digital and tech industries while Cambridge
Analytica and its various chums are busy whirling away,
trying to pretend that there is nothing to see, and Mr
Zuckerberg is singing “je ne regrette rien”. I am in awe of
that forward planning, and I congratulate her most heartily
on that.
The hon. Lady mentioned the spread of digital clusters
around the UK. I welcome that, and it was excellent to hear
about various cities, such as York, that contain those
important clusters. There is still a considerable
concentration of elements of the sector in London and the
south of England, however, and I hope that is noted by the
Minister and the continuing pull to that area resisted; the
substantial benefits of this industry must be shared around
the nations and regions of the UK. We boast tremendous
talent, and opportunities need to follow.
The hon. Lady also mentioned the importance of the free
flow of data between the UK and Europe in the forthcoming
negotiations, the express desire of companies in the tech
sector for access to international talent, and the part
that the immigration system must play in that. Topically,
she also mentioned cyber-security and education—a few
Members have said how essential it is for STEM subjects to
be pushed to the forefront, and I commend the Scottish
Government for their STEM strategy, which is now starting
to reap some benefits.
The hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) made a
tremendous contribution and mentioned many things that I
did not know about York. I knew some of them—I have been
there—but the fact that it is UNESCO city of media arts was
news to me. She spoke at length about many exciting
developments in her constituency. For me, however, the most
important part of her contribution was her talk of that
essential marrying of creative arts and technology.
I once sat on the board of Creative Edinburgh, an umbrella
organisation for creative industries in Edinburgh, and that
point was made time and again: one cannot have a computer
game, for example, that people want to play if the story is
boring. The contribution of writers is essential, and
creative thinking is so important in those industries. We
must remember that and be clear that neglecting the arts is
very short-sighted when trying to push the sector forward.
The hon. Lady also touched on telehealth and the importance
of inclusiveness in the development of the tech sector, and
I entirely agree.
The hon. Member for Aldershot (Leo Docherty)—he is no
longer in his place—reminded us of the explosion of growth
in this sector, and it still staggers me when I reflect on
that. I hate to age myself, but to someone whose house
possessed only a small black and white TV for most of their
formative years, the sort of digitech on offer today is
still a little mind blowing. He emphasised the importance
of security, particularly with cloud storage facilities,
which is certainly worth noting.
The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) gave his
constituency an impressive plug, as always, and mentioned
the high quality and pay of the jobs on offer in this
sector. I recently visited two cyber-security firms in my
constituency. They moved there not simply because of the
lower living costs that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, but
because of access to high-quality graduates from
Edinburgh’s variety of universities, and in particular the
informatics centre at Edinburgh University. They also spoke
about the shortage of qualified graduates across the UK,
and the fact that as a result, salaries in the sector are
higher than average and conditions are excellent. We must
make more of that to our young people when they are
choosing what professions they wish to enter.
The hon. Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones) spoke
about the extra support needed for equality of access,
which is important, and about the equality of opportunity
that must be made available to everyone. He also mentioned
STEM subjects, and reminded us of the importance of
reskilling employees—the Scottish Affairs Committee also
considered that in some depth in our most recent inquiry
into future work practices in Scotland. The hon. Member for
East Dunbartonshire mentioned the transactional nature of
data, which was extremely interesting, and raised the
possibility of private data accounts, which is certainly
worth considering. She also spoke of innovation
outstripping regulation.
Let me return to my important point about Cambridge
Analytica, Mr Zuckerberg, and so on. It is natural that
people’s suspicions rise when they hear of potentially
nefarious deeds and the questionable morals of companies
operating in that sector, but we must take time to remember
that good things also come from the digital and tech
sector, and that they outweigh the bad. Even the bad lads
have done many good things: Facebook helps to keep families
and friends in touch across oceans and continents, for
example, and it is one of the few things for which I do not
have to ask my daughters for advice on how it works.
Youngsters are, of course, far ahead of the game when it
comes to dealing with new technology—that has been the case
since a woman invented the wheel—and we look to them for
much of what we understand about how the sector will
develop. I often worry that many younger folk do not
appreciate how often they are the product rather than the
consumer in the virtual world, and I am concerned that many
do not appreciate the dangers of sharing too much of their
lives online. Why would they? They are young, and I suppose
they can get old and cynical in their own time.
The public alarm often raised about how our youngsters
interact with IT is that too often they are closeted in
their bedrooms playing games on the computer. Adults
previously worried about TV, rock music, radio—in my
father’s case, his father worried about him listening to
jazz—and, for all we know, books. Although we should take
such concerns on board, it should not make us believe that
video or computer games—I will focus on them, although I am
not always certain of the terminology —are, in and of
themselves, bad or corrupting. Scotland has a vibrant
computer gaming industry, and my constituency boasts not
only creative incubators and tech centres for digitech
companies, but a number of people employed in the computer
gaming industry. We can be sure that they have been in
frequent touch.
The creativity involved in making a game is intensive. It
is no longer just the classic “space invaders”, and it
involves multi-disciplinary working. Someone writes that
music, someone creates those images, someone programmes the
game, and someone writes the storylines, as I mentioned.
That is an industry that grew itself. It has simply moved
too fast over the years for the Government to catch up.
Government can at times be quite glacial; the IT sector is
the river rapids.
I had imagined, before I found out more about the industry,
the average “gamer”, as I have heard players are called, to
be a child, adolescent, teenager or—at most—a young adult.
In fact, it is common for all those whippersnappers under
50 to be gamers, and not even uncommon for crumbling MPs
such as many of us to be engrossed by such games. We all
have a stake now that gaming is a cultural norm. I have
been told that the phenomenon is almost global. The
opportunities are immense, and it is time for the
Government to catch up with the industry.
Video games tax relief has helped to advance some parts of
the sector, but it has given an advantage to the larger
studios at the expense of smaller and more innovative ones,
which have closed in recent years. I would like to see that
reversed. It is perhaps time to look at expanding the tax
relief and offering upfront funding, even in the form of
loans, to help games development. I encourage the Minister
to address some of those points in her response.
3.41 pm
-
(Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms McDonagh. I,
too, congratulate the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main)
on securing the debate.
I recognise the enormous progress that many of us have
celebrated this afternoon, but I want to sound a note of
warning about becoming complacent. For all the progress
that we have talked about in our constituencies and around
the country, the truth is that, across the horizon, others
are moving much faster. We have heard about some of the big
technology firms that are troubling us from the west coast
of the United States, but look east, to Alibaba, Tencent,
and Baidu.
Look at the fact that China is now not only the country
that invented paper currency, but will soon become the
first cashless society, where everybody pays for everything
on WeChat. That country is now backed by the biggest
science spend on Earth. There are countries around the
world moving much faster than us, and if we want to ensure
that this great superpower of the steam age does not become
an also-ran in the cyber age, the Government will need to
make a number of important policy reforms and changes of
direction, three of which I will touch on very quickly.
First, we have to ensure that the digital economy in this
country has a much more robust foundation of trust. Trust
is the foundation of trade; it always has been and always
will be. However, as we have seen in the debate surrounding
Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, that trust is evaporating
very quickly, which is why we need a clear statement of
principles and a clear Bill of digital or data rights for
the 21st century.
The truth is that we are going into a period of rapid
regulation and re-regulation. That is perfectly normal and
sensible. There was not just one Factory Act during the
course of the 19th century; there were 17. We regulated
again and again as the technology and the economics of
production changed. That is what we are about to do in this
country, yet if we do not have a clear statement of
principles, that regulation will be difficult for anybody,
frankly, to anticipate.
It should not simply be about our rights as consumers; it
should be, as the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo
Swinson) said, about basic equalities. In South Korea, they
want to use wearable technology to increase life expectancy
by three years. How do we ensure that those new privileges
are not simply the preserve of those who can afford the
technology? How do we ensure that we democratise both the
protections that we need and the progress that we want to
share? That is why a Bill of digital rights is so
important.
It is important that the Government pick up on one crucial
component of trust: the electronic ID system—a public
choice for EID—that we currently lack. At the moment,
public data is scattered between the Driver and Vehicle
Licensing Agency, the Passport Office, the Department for
Work and Pensions, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and
the Government Gateway, which I see the Minister’s
Department has now claimed. At the moment, that information
is so disjointed that we cannot use it as citizens to
create a secure public EID system, as they have done in
Estonia. That has been the key to Estonia’s creation of
3,000 public e-services and 5,000 private e-services. It is
the foundation of what is now the most advanced digital
society on Earth. The Government need to put in place those
important foundations of trust.
The second point is on infrastructure. It is not just here
in the Houses of Parliament where the digital
infrastructure is appalling. I do not know about you, Ms
McDonagh, but I certainly cannot get a mobile signal in my
office, on the fifth floor of Portcullis House, and I know
that frustration is widely shared, but it is not just a
problem here. In fact, the areas of this country that
Brexit will hit hardest are those where download speeds are
slowest. The parts of the country that will be hurt most by
Brexit are therefore the least prepared to prosper in the
new digital society that we are all so much looking forward
to.
Other countries are racing ahead of us in terms of the
targets that they are putting in place for broadband
access. I was privileged to visit South Korea last week,
where they have 60% fibre to the premises. What is it here
in Britain? It is 3%. Not only do they have much greater
penetration of fibre than we do, they have not one but
three mobile networks delivering 100% broadband access, and
they will commercialise 5G not in 2020, but this year. That
is why the Government should be far more ambitious about
universal service obligation for broadband access. We
proposed 30 megabits per second, and proposed putting £1.6
billion behind that. The Government should be more
ambitious than they are today. We will soon go to
consultation on what it would take in terms of public
investment to commercialise widespread 5G. We hope that the
Government will look closely at our results.
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Through the confidence and supply arrangement that the
Democratic Unionist party made with the Conservative party,
we secured £150 million for broadband to take us up to that
level, so we can continue to be the leader in regions
across the whole of the United Kingdom for economic
development and delivery.
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Well, lucky you! If the west midlands had enjoyed a per
capita bung on the same level as Northern Ireland, an extra
£600 million would be coming into my region; I know I am
not the only one to look at the deal that the hon.
Gentleman and his colleagues skilfully struck with some
jealousy.
The final component is skills. My hon. Friends the Members
for Bristol North West (Darren Jones) and for York Central
(Rachael Maskell) made brilliant speeches about the
importance of skills. I come from the city that is home to
Soho House. Soho Manufactory was the first great factory,
built in 1766. People have heard, of course, of James Watt,
but many forget Matthew Boulton. It was Boulton who put
together not only the best engineers in the world, but the
best designers in the world. Where did he get them from? He
brought engravers and artists from France, Germany and
central Europe. That was the strength of the business; it
married design brilliance and technical brilliance.
What do we have today, 250 years later? In Jaguar Land
Rover, we have a company producing vehicles where the
infotainment system is now worth more than the engine.
Design brilliance and technical excellence need to go
together, but design brilliance is being smashed out of the
curriculum at the moment. I speak as a father of a boy
going through his GCSEs, so I see it first-hand when I go
home.
Young people are at the sharp end of the jobs risk of
automation—that was confirmed by the International Monetary
Fund yesterday, and by the OECD a week or two ago. However,
as my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West
mentioned, older workers are also crucial. By the age of
52, a working-class man in this country has paid £103,000
in national insurance. What happens if he loses his job? He
gets sent down the job centre like everybody else, with no
extra help, retraining or reskilling for the digital
economy. Yet this is the country of the Open University,
the Workers’ Educational Association, Unionlearn, and great
education entrepreneurs such as Dr Sue Black and . We should be
bringing those players together to create a different kind
of lifelong learning for the 21st century.
This is a nation of scientific genius. We have been burying
our sovereigns with our scientists since we interred Isaac
Newton over the road in Westminster abbey. We are the only
country in the world that could make films about great
scientists such as Turing and Hawking. We are the nation of
the industrial revolution, but if we do not change course
soon, this foundation of the industrial revolution will not
be the leader in the fourth industrial revolution.
3.49 pm
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The Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries
(Margot James)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms
McDonagh. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for St
Albans (Mrs Main) on securing this debate and on her
interesting, comprehensive and inspiring speech. The impact
of the digital and tech industries on the UK economy is a
vast subject. I will try to respond to as many points as
possible.
We heard from many Members about the staggering growth and
exciting opportunities that the sector offers our country.
The digital economy here is growing 32% faster than the
wider economy. I took note of the statistics that my hon.
Friend quoted about her constituency. St Albans has access
to more than 400,000 digital and tech jobs in and around
the surrounding areas and clusters. She mentioned
Imagination Technologies in Kings Langley. I am delighted
to accept her invitation to visit it to learn more about
that exciting new company.
In March 2017 we published our digital strategy, which set
out the key pillars of a healthy ecosystem for technology.
The foundations can be met when we achieve nationwide
access to world-class digital infrastructure. Although
London is the capital of European tech investment, almost
70% of that investment is in regional clusters outside
London. I find that an encouraging statistic.
In the Budget, we unlocked more than £20 billion of capital
funding for digital enterprises through the enterprise
investment scheme and the British Business Bank. I very
much take on board the point, raised by the hon. Member for
Bristol North West (Darren Jones), that it has been easier
for start-ups or scale-ups to raise capital if they are
located in London. We want to build on that for the
regions, so that SMEs no longer have to keep coming to
London to raise capital. We announced a further £4.7
billion for the national productivity investment fund,
which will benefit the sector, and £75 million of
investment to take forward recommendations following the
independent review on artificial intelligence and the
artificial intelligence grand challenge, which was
announced in the industrial strategy.
Several Members mentioned the huge importance of data
ethics. The hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo
Swinson) mentioned the debate that she secured a few months
ago. I hope the newly announced centre for data ethics and
innovation will have discussions with the Nuffield
Foundation and will benefit from its Ada Lovelace centre
for ethics. Such measures are vital to ensure public trust,
which, as the shadow Minister said, is a vital plank of
success.
A number of hon. Members mentioned cyber-security and
safety. The safety of our citizens and businesses is
absolutely crucial. There is an increasing number of risks,
which can have damaging implications, as we live and
operate online. The digital charter aims to increase public
confidence and trust in new technologies and create the
best possible basis on which the digital economy can
thrive.
Our work on keeping the UK’s cyber-space safe is clear. As
we stated in the “Internet Safety Strategy” Green Paper,
what is unacceptable offline should be unacceptable online.
I look forward to bringing forward the response to that
consultation in the next month or two. All users should be
empowered to manage online risks and stay safe. Technology
companies have a responsibility to their users. We fully
understand that it is vital to have strong data protection
laws and appropriate safeguards in that area to enable
businesses to operate across international borders, as well
as empowering citizens with full control over their
personal data.
Several hon. Members mentioned digital skills, which are
crucial, particularly as we approach Brexit. We need to
build a digital economy that works for everyone, and we can
do that only if we equip people with the skills that are
needed. We are not only looking at training and skills in
schools and among the older population, but we want to
maintain our position as a go-to country for new talent, so
we announced a doubling of the number of tier 1 exceptional
talent visas last year. We have introduced an entitlement
for adults who lack basic digital skills to enable them to
undertake fully funded basic digital skills training from
2020.
I was struck by the statistic about salary levels that the
hon. Member for Bristol North West offered. He said that in
the digital sector people can expect to be paid 44% more
than the average for other employment. We want to open that
up. The hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) also
made the point that the tech and digital sector can be a
great force for social mobility, but only if we ensure that
everybody has access to skills training.
Hon. Members talked about young people. We have a big
commitment in schools, and we have the benefit of corporate
support for our programme of education. The hon. Member for
Strangford (Jim Shannon) talked about the importance of
bringing together companies, civil society and everyone
with an interest in promoting tech education and improving
the technology curriculum. We now have coding classes for
children as young as five, with the support of wider
society.
Accelerating the growth of the digital tech sector across
the country is important. We are supporting 40,000
entrepreneurs and up to 4,000 start-ups as they scale up
their businesses. As Tech City UK becomes Tech Nation, we
will deliver support in 11 cities across the UK, including
Belfast, Cardiff and Newcastle. Our digital skills
partnership is central to the skills provision across the
whole of the UK.
Several hon. Members were kind enough to invite me to their
constituencies. I do not know whether it is rude to say
that I am going where I have not been invited, but I am
actually going to York. As the hon. Member for York Central
said, it is also known for fibre. TalkTalk is investing
hugely in connecting fibre to premises in the whole of the
city of York. A very interesting piece in the Financial
Times just this morning said that York is taking the lead
in piloting the use of digital technology to map traffic
congestion in realtime, so that traffic signals can be
adjusted to improve the flow of traffic, with all the
additional benefits that that brings. I was interested to
hear about the digital creative labs there and about the
importance of the gaming industry, which is absolutely
crucial. That industry engages young people, so it has a
double advantage. I shall endeavour to visit it while I am
there.
My hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Leo Docherty)
talked about procurement opportunities for UK SMEs, which
are very important. In some respects, it will be difficult
to secure a preference for UK SMEs in contracting. It will
depend on the final terms of our relationship with the EU
when we leave, and on any new trade deals that we are
successful in negotiating. With that proviso, I certainly
share his desire to see better opportunities for SMEs in
procurement.
The constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for St Albans
is at the centre of a great number of exciting developments
in technology, and it is terrific that she is taking the
lead in her constituency and making her contribution to the
rest of the UK’s development. The Government are committed
to making Britain a world leader in the digital and
technology sector.
It is fantastic that so many colleagues made excellent
contributions this afternoon. I apologise for running over
slightly.
3.59 pm
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Mrs Main
I am delighted that the Minister is coming to St Albans. I
shall be ruffling through the diary with Imagination
Technologies. This debate was so valuable because, apart from
the odd barb here and there, everybody was in agreement. I
completely agree with the shadow Minister—I do not usually
say such things—that broadband access is vital; it absolutely
needs to be rolled out. We have to lose the concept that
everything is London-centric. I am delighted that this is the
way forward. This is the world of the future. I am pleased
that so many colleagues took part in the debate. I thought
their speeches were excellent. The hon. Member for York
Central (Rachael Maskell) talked about learning online. We
will have to have some new excuses to replace “The dog ate my
homework” in a digital world.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
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