Samantha Niblett

The State of Digital Government review, A blueprint for modern digital government and the Performance Review of Digital Spend, all published this year, have highlighted the need to reform digital purchasing.

The Government has launched a Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, containing experts from the Digital and Commercial Functions, within the Government Digital Service (GDS) in my department. It is pursuing multiple strategies to improve value for money and outcomes including central buying of commodity services, development of a digital sourcing strategy, creation of technical enablers and joined-up management of strategic digital suppliers.

The State of Digital Government review, A blueprint for modern digital government and the Performance Review of Digital Spend, all published this year, have highlighted the need to reform digital purchasing.

The Government has launched a Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, containing experts from the Digital and Commercial Functions, within the Government Digital Service (GDS) in my department. It is pursuing multiple strategies to improve value for money and outcomes including central buying of commodity services, development of a digital sourcing strategy, creation of technical enablers and joined-up management of strategic digital suppliers.

The Government continues to fund the Health Innovation Network to support health and social care teams to identify, test, and scale new solutions – including new health technologies – to major NHS challenges. Since 2018, HIN programmes have created or secured over 10,000 jobs and provided bespoke support to thousands of SME innovators, contributing >£2.6bn to UK economy with a 3:1 return on investment.

Other Government-funded regional networks include the NIHR Research Delivery Network, which enables the health and care system to attract, optimise and deliver research across England. This includes supporting the delivery of research funded by health technology SMEs.

Government procures software via a number of agreed frameworks which are tendered via the Crown Commercial Service and are awarded under the relevant procurement regulations. The introduction of the new procurement act 2023 will provide government with an ability to consider how such services are contracted in the future.

The creation of the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence is overseeing the development of sourcing/category strategies to co-ordinate how we shape demand, drive down usage and optmise the way such assets are used. This work is currently underway.

His Majesty's Government monitors the usage of individual and enterprise licenses across a wide variety of products

The Government is committed to promoting diversity in the tech sector and is doing so in a number of ways. DSIT is supporting the Tech Future Taskforce on Social Mobility, which includes helping companies to collect and act upon data to promote tech workforce diversity. As committed in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, DfE and DSIT will collaborate with industry to publish a plan to improve the diversity of the AI talent pool.

More widely, the Employment Rights Bill and Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will strengthen reporting and action on gender, race and disability by large companies, which includes tech companies.

Innovate UK are currently running an all-women cohort of their Innovation to commercialisation of university research (ICURe) programme, which will identify and support women researchers to explore commercialisation pathways that can lead to spinouts.

Supporting female tech founders and spin-out companies from our universities are important issues that I and colleagues across government are working on.

I am pleased that over time there are more female-led spin-outs, with 32% of spin-outs in 2022 having a female founder, up from 25% in 2017. However, with 68% still having all-male founders, there is still room for improvement.

Innovate UK are currently running an all-women cohort of their Innovation to commercialisation of university research (ICURe) programme, which will identify and support women researchers to explore commercialisation pathways that can lead to spinouts.

Supporting female tech founders and spin-out companies from our universities are important issues that I and colleagues across government are working on.

I am pleased that over time there are more female-led spin-outs, with 32% of spin-outs in 2022 having a female founder, up from 25% in 2017. However, with 68% still having all-male founders, there is still room for improvement.

The Government recognises the key role that science, technology, and innovation will play in Ukraine’s recovery, reconstruction and future economy. The department fosters collaboration between researchers and innovators in both countries to our mutual benefit, working closely with other departments, such as Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Business and Trade. For example, providing financial support to the UK-Ukraine Techbridge and supporting Ukrainian researchers through the Researchers at Risk Programme. We are continuing to work with partners to identify areas for future collaboration and support.

Innovative technology solutions are key to improving online safety outcomes and delivering the government’s commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade. The Online Safety Act and Ofcom’s codes of practice are designed to keep pace with emerging technologies, with Ofcom continuing to research, review and, if necessary, iterate their codes of practice to adapt to technological developments.

On 20^th November the government published a draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for online safety. This sets out five priorities, including the expectation that services are safe by design to improve the safety of all users and tackle violence against women and girls, as well as the importance of innovation in online safety technologies.

Although I am aware that official reports of mobile coverage often vary substantially from people’s experience on the ground, Ofcom reports that 95% of the pre-boundary change South Derbyshire constituency area has 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile operators, and that basic (non-standalone) 5G is available from at least one mobile operator outside 93% of premises.

This Government wants all areas of the UK to benefit from reliable and good quality mobile coverage. Our ambition is for all populated areas, including rural areas, to have higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030, and to increase 4G coverage to 95% of the UK landmass by the end of 2025 through the Shared Rural Network programme. We are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework to support investment and competition.

DSIT is working closely with Departments, including DHSC, to support better adoption of AI. For example, through the £21m AI Diagnostics fund, DHSC is supporting the deployment of technologies in high-demand areas such as chest X-Ray and chest CT scans to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England.

At the recent International Investment Summit, over £24 billion of investment was pledged to harness the opportunity AI offers. DSIT will continue working closely with Cabinet colleagues to ensure AI is safely deployed to deliver service enhancements, earlier diagnostics and improved patient outcomes.

Digital inclusion is a priority for Government. It means ensuring everyone has the access, skills, support and confidence to engage in our modern digital society, whatever their circumstances. I know that digital exclusion disproportionately impacts certain demographics, including older people, those with disabilities and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, creating new inequalities and exacerbating existing ones. As we develop our approach on tackling this issue we will be working closely with the third and private sector and local authorities to ensure interventions are targeted to individual needs.

DSIT has pledged to create a National Data Library bringing together existing research programmes to help deliver data-driven public services, including transforming the NHS.

The Department for Health supports NHS digitisation by:

1. Empowering patients through improvements to the NHS app
2. Speeding up the implementation of the NHS Federated Data Platform

DSIT investment in the Data for R&D Programme helps ensure secure access to UK health data for research and development through a network of Secure Data Environments. UKRI has invested over £1billion in AI research. DSIT will continue to ensure safe deployment of AI to deliver service enhancements.

This Government is committed to strengthening diversity in the tech sector, including supporting female-led start-ups, and has made breaking down barriers to opportunity one of our five national missions.

Programmes like DSIT’s £12m Digital Growth Grant and Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards are supporting female-led businesses through grants and wider business support.

In September, the Chancellor announced Government support for the Invest in Women Taskforce. The Taskforce aims to establish a funding pool of more than £250 million for female-founded businesses through private capital, making it one of the world’s largest investment funding pools aimed solely at female founders.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers great economic potential for the whole of the UK.

The UK’s AI Sector was valued at £72.3bn in 2024 - larger than any country in Europe. Forecasts suggest it could eventually be worth over £800 billion by 2035.The AI Opportunities Action Plan will outline recommendations for Government, to harness AI's potential, including boosting economic growth, productivity, and job quality through widespread AI adoption.

DSIT's Secretary of State collaborates closely with cabinet colleagues on AI-related matters.

Digital skills are a priority for the Government’s missions to kickstart economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity. We are working across government departments to widen access to digital skills training as part of our wider approach to digital inclusion. We are also engaging with key industry partners through the Digital Skills Council to ensure the digital skills system is joined up and comprehensive, and that it meets the needs of both employers and individuals, across the UK.

The Government is committed to the rollout of fast, reliable broadband to all parts of the UK. Through Project Gigabit, there are 36 contracts in place, set to connect over 1 million homes and businesses that would otherwise miss out, with more contracts to be awarded in the coming months.

We are also working with the UK’s four mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network, improving 4G mobile broadband connectivity for people living, working and visiting the UK’s rural areas.

This Government is committed to strengthening diversity in the tech sector, including supporting female-led start-ups, and has made breaking down barriers to opportunity one of our five national missions.

Programmes like DSIT’s £12m Digital Growth Grant and Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards are supporting female-led businesses through grants and wider business support.

In September, the Chancellor announced Government support for the Invest in Women Taskforce. The Taskforce aims to establish a funding pool of more than £250 million for female-founded businesses through private capital, making it one of the world’s largest investment funding pools aimed solely at female founders.

As outlined in the Autumn Budget, we are continuing to drive progress in improving broadband and mobile coverage across the country, including in rural areas, confirming over £500 million of funding for next year (in 2025‑26).

We are committed to Project Gigabit and its goal of achieving nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030. Through the Shared Rural Network, we will also improve 4G coverage to at least 95% of the UK by the end of 2025.

The government is continuing to consider alternative ways to improve connectivity for those not due to be covered by existing government programmes or commercial activity.