Government unveils £23m boost for telecoms March 10, 2025 The UK government has announced a £23m investment in telecoms research and development, aiming to strengthen connectivity across key industries like AI, cloud computing, and agriculture. The funding forms part of science and technology secretary Peter Kyle’s plans to accelerate the deployment of next generation telecoms technologies. He is expected to confirm the funding during [...]
UK unveils ‘National Data Library’ plans for public services February 25, 2025 Plans for the UK’s National Data Library (NDL) have been revealed, a landmark initiative designed to streamline the use of public sector data. In Tuesday’s report, the Tony Blair Institute and The Entrepreneurs Network officially published their plans for the proposed library and a road map to achieve it. The paper reveals how the library [...]
UK savers back AI on pensions, but ‘not as a substitute for humans’ February 12, 2025 UK savers are open to artificial intelligence (AI) playing a key role in pension customer support. But, most would rather have a combination of AI and human interaction, rather than a fully automated system. A recent survey by pension scheme provider PensionBee found that of its 1,000 participants, 79 per cent favoured a hybrid approach. [...]
Public sector tackles inefficiency with new AI tools January 21, 2025 The government has launched a new digital strategy to modernise public services, using a series of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to fix government inefficiency. The science and technology secretary Peter Kyle announced the initiative following a review which revealed various efficiencies within the government. Daily, HMRC was dealing with over 100,000 phone calls, while DVLA [...]
New £500m university science grant can ‘commercialise discoveries’ November 13, 2024 The government has announced it will stump up £500m for 4,700 post-graduate engineering and science university places in a bid to drive long-term economic growth. Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle made the announcement today, with universities and industry set to reap the benefits. The scheme will fund 4,700 new places, equating to around £106,000 [...]
New data bill to loosen red tape for businesses and NHS October 24, 2024 The UK government has introduced a new data bill to parliament to cut red tape for businesses and public service organisations like the NHS, which it claims could add £10bn to the economy over the next decade. The ‘Data Use and Access’ bill plans to make data sharing easier, reducing admin headaches for companies. For [...]
Government hails £6.3bn ‘vote of confidence’ in UK data centres October 14, 2024 Keir Starmer’s government hailed billions of pounds of investment into UK data centres as a “vote of confidence in Britain” today, as ministers announced scores of deals during the flagship International Investment Summit. US firms Cyrusone, Cloud HQ, Coreweave and Servicenow revealed plans to inject a combined £6.3bn in funding into the UK’s data centre [...]
UK government says data centres are now Critical National Infrastructure September 12, 2024 The UK government has officially designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), as it looks to further boost investment in the UK’s critical hubs of digital information. With this new status, data centres will receive extra government support to protect crucial data, including NHS records, financial information, and personal smartphone data against major incidents [...]
University chief says £12,500 fees needed to support higher eduction sector September 6, 2024 A London vice-chancellor has suggested universities could need tuition fees of £12,500 to address the sector’s financial woes. Professor Shitij Kapur, the vice-chancellor and president of King’s College London (KCL), has said the “number to ask for” was between £12,000 and £13,000 – but warned institutions risked looking “out of touch” if they requested the [...]
HSBC: UK’s AI startups on track to raise record-breaking £3.4bn this year July 16, 2024 The UK continues to be the premier European hub for startup innovation and investment, outpacing France and Germany combined in the first half of 2024.