Speech by: Stephen Timms MP
Venue: BIS Conference Centre
Thank you Steve. I’m delighted to be here and to be able to welcome all of you to the department, because what we are going to discuss this morning will be right at the heart of future UK economic success.
Over the last twenty years, the proportion of people using ICT in their jobs has nearly doubled. ‘Iconic’ technology products have become essentials. Our easy use today of sophisticated technology would have seemed inconceivable even ten years ago. Perhaps we sometimes take it a little too much for granted.
We often worry about new technological developments opening up a new divide between those who have them and those who don’t. I’m interested in the converse – how new technology opens up new opportunities to people who didn’t have them in the past. Ten years ago, I noticed that hard up asylum seekers coming to my constituency surgery – who would never previously have had a phone – were all now giving me a mobile number. New technology, a highly competitive market, and innovative service packaging opened up communications to people who had never previously been able it. And I hope we will see more of that kind of success as we develop Digital Britain.
HMG support for ICT
ICT is an exceptionally vibrant area for innovation, with new forms and new ways of working being developed all the time. ICT is the enabler, providing other sectors with their competitive edge. That is a key part of the rationale for strong Government support for development of ICT and of the Information Economy, set out in New Industry New Jobs and Digital Britain.
We want our information sector equipped to compete and win in the new global economy, securing the UK’s position as a world leading digital knowledge economy. That’s why our draft legislative programme included a Digital Economy Bill, which will promote development of our digital communications infrastructure, and provide a platform for innovation in electronic sharing and lending of copyrighted material.
The UK has great strengths in IT: R and D; business solutions capability; technology innovation; internet exploitation. A large proportion of Internet advertising worldwide is brokered by agencies in the UK. A strong tradition of innovation and creativity is fostered by smaller companies working with larger ones, benefiting from links to university partnerships and knowledge transfer programmes.
The task of this Department, responsible for Business, Innovation and Skills, is to build Britain’s future economic strengths. The department brings together expertise in strategies for business and industrial strength with skills policy and work both to maintain world class universities and to expand access to higher education. We also have the levers for investing in the UK’s science base and encouraging innovation through the Research Councils and Technology Strategy Board.
Our support for ICT is sometimes characterised as application-based, rather than for fundamental ICT platforms. There is some justification in this concern, so the Engineering and Physical Research Council and Technology Strategy Board are investing in development of ICT platform technologies.
When the bar for the application challenges is set high enough, it can provide a powerful pulling force. The Technology Strategy Board is also investing in ICT through a challenge-led approach, such as with its Assisted Living and Network Security innovation platforms, alongside the £30m it will be investing to support Digital Britain. Iain Gray of the Technology Strategy Board will touch on this later this morning. We want to see ICT contributing to a fair society and to a sustainable environment, as well as to a strong economy.
We have seen astonishing advances in communications technology in the past twenty years, and there is another ahead. There is a crucial debate about how best to develop ‘next generation networks’, which hold out great potential for both consumers and businesses. Digital Britain argued, rightly in my view, that extending the coverage of next generation networks beyond two thirds of the UK will require public support. Our aim is 90% coverage by 2017, drawing on a Next Generation Fund containing the proceeds of a 50p per month levy on telephone lines. My aim – as the Treasury Minister responsible for the finance bill – is to legislate for the levy ahead of the General Election.
EU dimension
We need to pursue this work in clear acknowledgment of the international context. The European Commission is consulting at the moment on Europe’s future ICT programme, i2010. We are working hard with European partners to negotiate a successful conclusion to the European Electronic Communications Framework Review.
The Commission fully recognises the potential of the Future Internet. Five of the six workstreams for the EU Future Internet Assembly are being led by Britons – a clear indication, if one was needed, that UK expertise can make the most of a range of new technologies. That is in all of our interests. The communications sector provides vital infrastructural underpinning for the economy as a whole, but its also a major source of growth and employment in its own right.
Policy makers joining up with ICT research base
ICT provides opportunities in the public sector just as in the private. We are seeing major shifts in how numerous public services – and private sector utility services – are delivered, all enabling more effective and efficient delivery to customers:
- in healthcare, through the use of telecare to manage long term conditions, where the Technology Strategy Board’s Assisted Living Innovation Platform meshes with the DHealth Whole System Demonstrator – some £80m of public R&D investment;
- in energy management, where UK SMEs are producing ‘smart’ plugs linked to displays to enable users to know exactly where the energy they are consuming is going; and
- in transport, where web-based Intelligent Transport Systems let customers plan journeys – and get the best fares online.
To make the most of the opportunities, Government needs to have a better understanding, not only of potential applications of existing ICT, but also of potential applications resulting from new ICT developments. And by this, I don’t just mean what is around the corner. We need to be thinking about the opportunities which Web 3, the Internet of Things, and the Semantic Web will open up.
Nobody would have thought 10 years ago that you’d be able to buy spare parts for your lawnmower or oven online – and then use the web, from your mobile, to track the order’s progress down to the time it’s put on van for delivery.
Policy makers are not usually technical experts. So it is vital that, in developing policies for the long term, we engage with ICT developers and the research base to gain a better understanding of what is possible.
Today is a good start. We’re in the same room, and I’m intrigued by the demos here for us to try out – all of which are looking more appealing than my other engagements this morning. Please take advantage of this opportunity to make the connections which I hope will stand us all in good stead in the future, and let’s keep working together.
Thank you.
