Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to utilise data sovereignty to gain a competitive advantage over hostile states.

The Government’s approach to data policy is set out in the National Data Strategy. The strategy is ambitious and pro-growth, placing the availability of data and confidence in its use at its heart, and positioning the UK as a global data champion.

Data sovereignty, including improving data use and access in the UK and controlling our own data laws and regulations, presents a major opportunity for economic growth, strategic innovation as well as boosting our national security and defence capabilities. We have published priority areas for where the government will take action on increasing data access and availability in the National Data Strategy Mission 1 Policy Framework. The Government has also recently consulted on an ambitious package of data reforms to create a new pro-growth and innovation-friendly data protection regime that underpins the trustworthy use of data. We will be setting out next steps shortly.

The UK will also continue to champion the international flow of data and support open data and improved data quality and data standards, while working with like-minded international partners to ensure that global data governance supports better outcomes for us all.