EDM: Digital sovereignty and sovereign public procurement strategy

Digital sovereignty and sovereign public procurement strategy

Tabled by Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat) 37 signatures

The motion

That this House notes that we live in an increasingly digitised world, with our jobs, finance, transport and national security depending on technological solutions; further notes that many of these services, including Government services and critical national infrastructure, depend on technology and/or supply chains that are not owned or located within the UK; highlights the economic benefits and employment opportunities that increasing support for British technology over foreign alternatives in sectors such as AI, digital infrastructure, the semi-conductor industry and cloud computing could have; additionally notes that dependencies on technology such as cloud computing from outside the UK pose potential national security threats due to possible disruptions to accessing these services caused by geopolitical tensions, foreign policy decisions, service withdrawal, sanctions, foreign data scraping and changes to service terms; further notes that digital sovereignty goes hand in hand with the UK’s military power and subsequently the protection of the country’s national security; further notes that current Government procurement processes for digital services favours big multinational technology companies, as opposed to smaller domestic companies; calls on the Government to publish a digital sovereignty strategy that sets out how the Government intends to secure opportunities for UK technology companies whilst tackling the risks posed by over reliance on foreign technologies; and further calls on the Government to adopt a sovereign public procurement strategy ensuring economic resilience in the technological world and the management of possible national risks caused by technological dependencies.

Signatories (37)