July 11, 2017

On 3 July 2017, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport chaired the first meeting of the Digital Economy Council, bringing together some of the most influential voices in the tech sector to stimulate new growth and deliver new jobs in the digital economy.

The Government says that the Council has been set up to provide a forum for collaboration as the Government works with leading industry figures on the implementation of the UK Digital Strategy and the development of a Digital Charter. Its members include TechUK, Google, Facebook, Cisco, Dotforge, Coadec, TV Squared, BT and Apple.

The Government explains that the Digital Strategy includes plans to boost the nation’s digital skills, infrastructure and innovation, and aims to make the UK the best place to invest in tech. It will help to deliver the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place to start and run a digital business, creating more of the high-skilled, high-paid jobs of the future with the benefits felt in all four corners of the UK.

The Council will help ensure that the tech sector’s enormous potential is fulfilled as the UK leaves the European Union. The UK is already home to more than 200,000 digital businesses supporting more than 1.4 million jobs. It will also help break down barriers so every individual and every business can seize the opportunities of digital technology.

The Council, which will meet quarterly, includes leading UK digital businesses as well as global tech firms and representatives of the broader digital economy.

Government will also shortly convene the Digital Economy Advisory Group, which represents a variety of UK tech businesses, to focus on the specific challenges and opportunities of starting and growing a tech business. To read the DCMS press release in full, click here.