Britain cannot be better off in a contested world unless the systems beneath the economy hold. That means defence that contracts at the speed of threat, cyber resilience that works in practice rather than on paper, supply chains that bend instead of breaking, and sovereignty built on what the UK can do rather than where a supplier is registered.

Britain starts from a position of strength; genuine world-leading capability in cyber security, AI assurance, quantum and defence systems integration. Our members build that resilience and we want to deliver it alongside Government.

UK context:

£100 billion and 1.7 million jobs	5% of GDP	4 per week
The gross value added and employment of UK digital technology; the foundation every other Industrial Strategy sector depends on. Source: techUK Local Digital Index 2025	The NATO commitment: 3.5% core defence and 1.5% security and resilience. Industry has been given no roadmap to either. Source: NATO Hague summit commitment, 2025	Four nationally significant cyber attacks each week. And more are coming. Source: NCSC Annual Review 2025

techUK objectives:

Core ask:

The security and resilience landscape across government remains fragmented, with cyber security recently moving to DCMS, frontier technology to BIST, and AI Strategy, the AI Taskforce and AISI to Cabinet Office. To avoid resilience becoming ‘no one’s priority’ we would encourage Government to prioritise:

clearer departmental accountability for security and resilience, with a defined centre of gravity able to coordinate policy, investment, adoption and growth across Government;
clear interfaces for industry, and a more deliberately integrated pathway from research and validation through to procurement, adoption and deployment; and
better alignment between existing Government–industry forums, including the SRGP, the Cyber Growth Partnership, RISC and the DIJC to ensure industry input on security, resilience and cyber growth is mutually reinforcing.

How can techUK support:

The tech sector is the one most directly affected by how the UK answers the sovereignty question, and the one that has to deliver the answer. techUK is well placed to support.

We sit on the Defence Industrial Joint Council, RISC, Security and Resilience Growth Partnership, Cyber Growth Partnership, and Tech7.

Our members include the largest grouping of cyber security companies in the UK and an established defence technology community.

We will be a delivery partner, coordinating roundtables, defence technology engagement, cyber resilience briefings, and published frameworks government can pick up and use.

Related Report:

Report

Report: Confident Sovereignty - techUK’s framework for sovereignty to support growth, security and resilience

8 September 2026

overview

Digital technology is the UK's primary growth sector, adding over £100 billion in GVA a year and employing 1.7 million people. It is the country's most significant export engine and the foundation every other industrial strategy sector depends on. The UK has the third-largest tech ecosystem in the world by valuation, the deepest tech labour market in Europe, and in 2026 alone has raised roughly as much venture capital as the rest of Europe combined. The question is no longer whether government should intervene in technology markets. It is how to do so without weakening the firms the UK relies on for growth.

Report

techUK Report: Towards a UK–EU Partnership for a New Age

10 September 2026

overview

As Europe navigates a more turbulent geopolitical landscape, this report sets out the scale of UK–EU digital and security interdependence - worth over $350 billion in bilateral digitally deliverable services trade - and the practical opportunities for closer cooperation ahead of the UK–EU Summit.