Select Committee · Foreign Affairs Committee

Tech and the future of UK foreign policy

Status: Closed Opened: 8 Mar 2021 Closed: 24 Oct 2022 7 recommendations 3 conclusions 1 report

This inquiry will focus on how the FCDO should be supporting the UK’s response to the opportunities and challenges presented by new and emerging technologies, including through new forms of diplomatic engagement and building globally shared understandings of standards, rules and norms for the responsible development and use of new technologies. Read the call for …

Reports

1 report

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Third report - Encoding values: Putting tech at the heart o…	HC 170	8 Jul 2022	10	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

3 items

3 Conclusion Third report - Encoding values: Putting… Acknowledged

The UK should work with allies to ensure global practice in frameworks designed to protect...

The UK should work with allies to ensure global practice in frameworks designed to protect data, and to prevent our adversaries exporting data from around the world to build the massive data sets needed to develop algorithms to automate surveillance systems, military systems and disinformation systems. We need to think …

Government response. The government agrees that global challenges around data collection, aggregation and access are a national security liability, and that the upcoming International Technology Strategy will cover this area. However, they do not advocate export controls on data, instead preferring free …

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

6 Recommendation Third report - Encoding values: Putting… Acknowledged

We cannot meaningfully influence the global order without the cooperation and support of our partners.

We cannot meaningfully influence the global order without the cooperation and support of our partners. While there is an opportunity for the UK to exercise thought leadership, we cannot go it alone and should not seek to carve out a “fourth way” for the UK in global technology governance. We …

Government response. The UK will leverage its position and strengths in technology to ensure that the global technology ecosystem aligns with our values and shape global decisions. The International Technology Strategy makes having a values-based approach to technology governance and regulation a …

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

9 Recommendation Third report - Encoding values: Putting… Acknowledged

The FCDO’s forthcoming International Technology Strategy should set out clear objectives and targeted actions for...

The FCDO’s forthcoming International Technology Strategy should set out clear objectives and targeted actions for achieving them, to be used as a blueprint or framework that diplomats can easily use to guide their decisions and activities at Post level and to ensure a coherent approach across the FCDO’s global network. …

Government response. The International Technology Strategy provides a framework and sets out the UK's top international priority actions to deliver the UK's technology ambitions and will guide the development of more detailed actions across the diplomatic network via an internal implementation plan.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Oral evidence sessions

5 sessions

Date	Witnesses
1 Mar 2022	Chris Jones · Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Professor Charlotte Watts · Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Rt Hon Amanda Milling	View ↗
11 Jan 2022	Balthasar Staehelin · International Committee of the Red Cross, John Hughes · Twitter, Miranda Sissons · Meta, Sarah Spencer · International Committee of the Red Cross	View ↗
2 Nov 2021	David Sullivan · Digital Trust & Safety Partnership, Jason Pielemeier · Global Network Initiative, Joe Westby · Amnesty International, Katie O'Donovan · Google UK	View ↗
7 Sep 2021	Anne-Marie Engtoft Larsen · Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark, Martijn Rasser · Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Tobias Feakin · Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ulrike Franke · European Council on Foreign Relations	View ↗
29 Jun 2021	Ashish Jaiman · Microsoft, Harriet Moynihan · Chatham House, Hugh Milward · Microsoft, Ria Thomas · Polynia Advisory, Toomas Ilves	View ↗

Correspondence

3 letters

Date	Direction	Title
6 Jul 2022	—	Correspondence from the Tech Envoy & HM Consul General to San Francisco on his …
24 Nov 2021	To cttee	Letter from Google following their appearance before the Committee on 2 Novembe…
28 Jul 2021	—	Correspondence from Microsoft following up on their appearance before the Commi…