Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 25
25
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The issues surrounding Huawei’s removal and the UK’s consolidated vendor ecosystem illustrate the need for...
Recommendation
The issues surrounding Huawei’s removal and the UK’s consolidated vendor ecosystem illustrate the need for a coherent long-term strategy for the UK’s technical and technological ambitions. It is not clear to us that the Government has a cohesive strategy in this area. The Government should learn lessons from debates around Huawei and seek to formulate a long-term plan for tech in the UK, this should include, for example, the Government’s plan relating to OneWeb and the UK’s removal from the Galileo satellite system.
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132
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We duly note the recommendation to articulate a long-term plan, which aligns with the PM’s ambition for the UK to be a ‘Great Science Power’. On 1 July, the Government published its ambitious Research and Development Roadmap to ensure the UK is the best place in the world for scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs to live and work, while helping to power up the UK’s economic and social recovery and level up the UK. The Roadmap builds on the ambitious commitment set out at Budget to increase public spending in research and development to £22 billion by 2024/25, putting the UK on track to reach 2.4% of GDP being spent on research and development across the UK economy by 2027. We are now working with universities, businesses, the third sector and across government to develop a more detailed plan for delivering on the Roadmap’s ambitions. This will complement a refreshed Industrial Strategy, which will put the UK at the forefront of emerging technological opportunities and will boost productivity across the country, while supporting our long-term recovery and transition to net zero. As part of our work on the Roadmap, we continue to very actively consider how best to protect the research and development assets we regard as central to the UKs interests and will report on this in due course. Concurrently, we are continuing to develop principles and refine the necessary governance to guide future strategic decision making on critical and emerging technology. The Government is committed to the long-term security and enduring resilience of the UK’s telecoms network. We have published the 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy for the telecoms industry to deliver on this commitment. It is vital that we address the market failure that has led to a lack of competition in the telecoms supply chain. This is not just an issue that the UK is facing. Diversification is a global issue and we need to work collaboratively with like-minded partners to deliver solutions that open up the market to alternative telecoms infrastructure providers and to develop new and sustainable supply chain capacity on a global scale.