Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for national resilience and economic security of high levels of concentration in the UK cloud infrastructure market.

The Government prioritised the commencement of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) new powers in digital markets last year to boost competition and fairness in the digital tech sector. Although the CMA operates independently of Government, the Government gave a clear steer for the CMA to use these new powers collaboratively and proportionately.

In March, the CMA announced a package of actions to strengthen competition in business software and cloud services. This includes a Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft’s business software under the UK’s digital markets regime, alongside voluntary actions from Amazon and Microsoft that will improve interoperability, reduce data egress fees and make switching easier in cloud services. Taken together, these steps aim to address identified concerns and support a more competitive, resilient cloud market in the UK.