Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to increase the adoption of digital technologies by UK businesses.

Government’s Digital Strategy includes plans to boost the nation’s digital skills, infrastructure and innovation, and aims to make the UK the best place to invest in tech.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has now chaired two meetings of the Digital Economy Council, which brings together government and leaders from the tech sector. The Council will drive progress on the Digital Strategy, such as stimulating growth and delivering new jobs in the digital economy. My hon. Friend the Minister of State for Digital will be chairing his second Digital Economy Advisory Group at the end of the year. The Advisory Group specifically focusses on supporting the tech sectors and helping innovation. Both groups will focus on the implementation of the Digital Strategy, along with feeding into the development of the Digital Charter. Membership of these groups is varied and includes: TechUK, Google, BT, Raspberry Pi and Entreprenuer First. Full membership details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/digital-economy-council-and-digital-economy-advisory-group

Actions we are already taking include launching GREAT.gov.uk, a new digital trade hub to help businesses export, which provides advice and support to current and potential exporters. This includes access to a smart database to connect them with global online marketplaces such as Amazon and Alibaba. We have also negotiated preferential rates with key e-marketplaces, making the UK one of the easiest and best places from which to sell goods online around the world. We are delivering promotions in key overseas markets to promote UK companies on these marketplaces.

The Digital Business Academy is a free online platform created by Tech City UK, to provide the skills needed to start, grow or join a digital business. Currently there are 11 courses available created by University College London, Cambridge University Judge Business School, Founder Centric and Valuable Content. Almost 20% of the academy graduates report that they are starting digital companies after finishing at least one skill. TCUK (and Tech North) have received approx £16 million from government over the last 7 years.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave today to Question UIN 111926 where I have highlighted our current period of analysis of the recommendations put forward by two very recent reviews – the government review of Artificial Intelligence and the industry-led Made Smarter Review of industrial digitalisation.