techUK hosted DAC Beachcroft LLP and the Government Equalities Office for an interactive roundtable session with our members on Gender Pay Gap reporting regulations and its successful implementation.

Women in working in the UK are paid on average 19.2% less than men in the UK. This is an indicator of a number of broad issues in the workplace, and one of the key reasons such a wide gender pay gap exists is due to the lack of women working in lucrative careers in STEM sectors.

To address inequality in the tech sector, through targeted actions and collaboration with others, techUK’s Women in Technology programme aims to attract and retain talent from as broad a demographic as possible and increase diversity within the tech sector. The business case is clear to improve these statistics: evidence shows that diversity leads to better decision-making and commercial success. By encouraging women to enter or return to the tech industry at all levels, we become more competitive and more innovative.

Recently announced Gender Pay Gap reporting rules will affect the tech sector significantly and to better prepare techUK members, Khurram Shamsee and Ceri Fuller of DAC Beachcroft LLP outlined some of the context, likely requirements and implications for members in the room. Following their session, Frances Smith of the Government Equalities Office explained what the gender pay gap is (and what it isn’t), some of the causes of the gender pay gap and the policy considerations for driving Gender Pay Gap transparency.

In February 2016, the Government published a public consultation on the draft regulations for employers to report gender pay and bonus gap information. The requirement will impact private, and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more UK employees, with employers expected to start calculating and reporting their pay gap from April 2017.

The power for the Secretary of State to require employers to report their gender pay gap sits in section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 and has been kept under review since then. Although Gender Pay Gap reporting is a difficult topic for a number of companies to tackle and the calculations require a number of steps, there is still time to prepare.

The regulations are currently publically available in draft and some (more likely technical) aspects may change following the public consultation. The requirement to report on gender and bonus pay, as well as publish salary quartiles, will shine a spotlight on the issues and ensure those employers in scope engage with the topic. The metrics that employers will have to publish will have to be signed off by a director (or equivalent – see section 8 of the draft regulations) of an organisation, it will also ensure senior members of large organisations address the issue.

The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average (mean or median) earnings of men and women as a percentage of men’s earnings. The gender pay gap varies by industry sector, occupation, age group and even working patterns. So the gender pay gap is not the same thing as equal pay. Paying men and women differently for doing the same or equivalent work is discrimination and has been against the law since the Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1970. While this does still happen in some cases and can be a component of the gender pay gap, it is not the main reason that men and women’s average salaries differ. An employer delivering equal pay may still have a large pay gap and an employer with a small pay gap may be breaching the law.

The causes of the gender pay gap are both at the business level and the societal level and can have a significant cumulative impact on a woman’s earning potential during her lifetime. We know that too few women get to the top and too few work in the more lucrative professions and sectors (like Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for example). We also know that women are much more likely than men to take time out of the labour market to start a family, look after children or other family members and that there is a lack of well-paid part-time work available to men and women. Other contributing factors include constrained individual choice, corporate cultures, unconscious bias and discrimination.

This isn’t about ‘fixing the women’ however - according to Project 28-40 (over 25,000 respondents) run by Business in the Community’s Gender Campaign, 70% of women have a desire to be a leader and 77% of women have confidence in their ability to lead, exploding the myth that women just lack confidence or ambition.

We also know that some sectors face bigger challenges than others such as STEM and Tech where there is a lack of young people studying the necessary feeder subjects – in particular women.

Whilst the gender pay gap is the lowest on record there is no place for a gender pay gap in today’s society which is why the Government want to accelerate progress by implementing mandatory reporting for large organisations. Reporting is about “creating the pressure for change and being in possession of the facts to focus efforts in the right areas.” The reporting is in place to create conditions for change – something the techUK Women in Tech programme focuses on as a priority.

A £0.5m support package has also been set aside to help companies implement the regulations, including employer-friendly guidance, UK-wide conference events, free online software, targeted support for sectors facing bigger challenges like STEM and the publication of a report highlighting those businesses trailblazing in this area.

For more information on what the gender pay gap is and actions businesses are taking to successfully tackle it, download the Government’s Transparency Trailblazer’s report. For more information on the reporting & regulator details, DAC Beachcroft have published a helpful guideline.

To learn more about techUK’s Women in Tech Programme, have a look at our programme pages or get in touch with Doniya Soni.

{bio}doniya.soni@techuk.org{/bio}

techUK has been working with the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA) to support them in their engagement with industry. They are now looking to renew a large part of their infrastructure, and have shared the below information with techUK members ahead of our industry engagement session on 31 May.

Using tech as an enabler for transformation

Successfully delivering Defra’s 2020 strategy will require flexible, resilient and secure ICT services and technology. Defra is modernising and transforming its ICT infrastructure, services and commercial approach to make it more collaborative, more efficient and more integrated. The UnITy programme is a key enabler for that change.

What are we looking to achieve?

The UnITy programme will replace the ICT services currently provided to Defra by IBM and to the Environment Agency by Capgemini. These contracts are due to end in January 2018 and February 2017 respectively.The programme will increase Defra’s in-house ICT management capabilities and involve a wider range of suppliers.

The UnITy programme will provide modern, common ICT services to Defra, the Environment Agency, the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England, The Marine Management Organisation and The Animal and Plant Health Agency.

UnITy will ensure staff across these organisations use ICT to work as ‘one Defra’. We will ensure our ICT costs us less to run and maintain by 2020 and is provided by dynamic ICT supplier organisations.

Key to all of this is to ensure that there is reliable, flexible and user-friendly ICT for our staff and customers.

Reaching a key milestone

UnITy has recently reached a significant milestone issuing its first Prior Information Notices to the supplier market to work with Defra on providing a Managed Print Service and Hosting requirements. We have also issued a request for information on Connectivity for local area network. These are important steps forward for the programme and demonstrate that we are moving into delivery mode.

What’s next? 

We have a number of supplier engagement days planned in May. These events will be crucial for us to be able to continue our discussions with the supplier market, helping to shape our final requirements and determine our procurement options over coming months.

• Managed Print engagement workshop - 28 April
• Hosting & Applications Management engagement workshop - 16 May
• Connectivity engagement workshop - 31 May (register here!)

Want to keep in touch?

Contact UnITyCommercial@environment-agency.gov.uk to register interest in the UnITy programme or to join the UnITy supplier group on Yammer to ensure you receive updates from the programme.

{bio}conor.murray@techuk.org{/bio}

Within the highly competitive sporting world, it is not inconceivable to imagine a nation state tampering with Olympic timing machines to help its athletes win a split-second race, or hackers tampering with scores to win large bets. The cyber threat to major sporting events is a growing yet underreported issue – techUK, in collaboration with Major Events International, therefore hosted the Cyber Major Sporting Events on April 12th. This unique briefing was aimed at looking at the possible cyber threats to major sporting events and learn about the nature of the market.

Kicking off proceedings was Dennis Mills, of Major Events International – who identified the scale of cyber opportunities within the competitive and lucrative major sporting market. The key message from Dennis’ presentation was that, in order to win a lucrative cyber contract at a sporting event such as the Olympics or World Cup, one cannot risk dabbling: in effect “you must be in it to win it”.

Market insight and understanding is therefore key. Sporting organisations tend to buy locally, and from experienced suppliers and this makes it essential that one understands the local market.

Next up, Matt Horan from C3IA gave his predictions for which major sporting events in 2016 contain the best opportunities for cyber suppliers, including:

• Apr 16 -Grand National
• May 16 -InvictusGames
• May 16 –FA Cup Final
• Jun/Jul 16 –Euro 2016
• Jul 16 –Wimbledon
• Jul 16 –British Open
• Aug 16 -Summer Olympics

The main event infrastructures that hackers can target before and during such competitions include;

•IT infrastructure
•Transportation control
•Ticketing
•Communication systems
•Physical access control
•Logical access control
•Rescue coordination centres
•Video Surveillance systems

Finally Andrew Taylor, CEO of BeCyberSure, discussed the benefits of security monitoring, staff vetting and adequate staff training in order to help provide adequate cyber defences at major sporting events.

A copy of the slides can be downloaded below.

For more information on Major Events International visit www.majoreventsinternational.com

C3IA visit www.c3ia.co.uk

BeCyberSure visit www.becybersure.com

For more information on techUK Cyber Security events please visit https://www.techuk.org/events 

{bio}talal.rajab@techuk.org{/bio}

In November 2015, Chancellor George Osborne announced a bold series of initiatives and measures designed to enhance the UK’s cyber security. Totalling up to £1.9bn, the measures form part of the UK Government’s new Cyber Security Strategy for the next five years. This strategy will be designed to protect the UK economy and infrastructure, grow cyber companies and deter adversaries.

The new strategy will build on the work achieved since 2011, where the previous Government’s National Cyber Security Programme involved the creation of CERT-UK, the Cyber Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP), Cyber Essentials and various other cyber resilience initiatives aimed at businesses.

On Monday, 20 June techUK will hold a briefing session with James Snook, Deputy Director: Business, Crime and Skills in the Office for Cyber Security and Information Assurance (Cabinet Office), on what to expect in the new strategy and further information on how the Government’s new proposed initiatives will affect techUK members.

With his role within the Cabinet Office and experience across Government, James is in a unique position to inform members as to the Government’s approach to dealing with online threats and growing the UK cyber security ecosystem.

To register for this event, please click the link below

{bio}talal.rajab@techuk.org{/bio}

The National Casemix Office (NCO), which is part of the Informatics and Analytics portfolio at the HSCIC, is commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvements to develop casemix classifications, predominantly known as Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs) for patient’s healthcare activities. The term “casemix” has a number of meanings, from the literal “mix of cases” (patients) seen, to the way in which patient care is classified.

The NCO is seeking a delivery partner to perform development, testing and assurance activities. The delivery outcomes are to provide National Casemix Products and tools to support the NHS and Payments by Results service. Suppliers are, at minimum, anticipated to:

• Provide development, testing and assurance services for a variable number of products and tools (note, minimum levels of development effort cannot be predicted but the need to respond to smaller, tactical builds will be required)
• Be able to work to challenging timescales for end to end delivery
• Be able to work within a niche/bespoke area of health informatics (e.g. Casemix)

The commercial arrangements will be required to be in place prior to March 2017, with a procurement exercise currently planned for 3-5 months prior to that date.

techUK and the NCO are looking to gauge the level of interest from suppliers in order to plan market engagement activities. An initial event is anticipated to take place in Leeds in May.

If you are interested in attending, please email procmail@hscic.gov.uk providing your name, company, email, telephone number, and brief (100words max) description of your company or relevant services to the high level requirements.

Please ensure your email subject line states Casemix EOI – [insert supplier company]. The deadline for expressions of interests is 06 May 2016.

For further information on the market requirements for the delivery partner, what casemix is, how it works, the NCO, please see the attached document below.

{bio}nadya.pavlova@techuk.org{/bio}

**This briefing is for techUK members only. If you are interested in the event but are not a techUK member, please get in touch with Nadya Pavlova.**

**Registration opens at 11am. The briefings commences at 11.30am. Light lunch will be provided.**

techUK has been working on a collaborative project between the Department of Health, NHS England, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and HSCIC to facilitate supplier input into the development of a new data set for emergency care, the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS).

A consultation on the principle and content of the data set ran last summer, followed by a supplier briefing (view the collateral here). Since then, the HSCIC has been conducting an impact assessment which focuses on the impact that implementing a new data set will have on those who collect emergency department data, those who process it and those who use it. The interim results from this report are due in May, with the full report in September 2016.

To that end, on 03 June, techuk will be hosting a briefing for suppliers where the ECDS project team will provide a progress update and will explore the design and implementation of the new emergency care data set further. More information will be published in due course.

Suppliers might also be interested in reading the latest ECDS newsletter (attached below). 

Any queries, please contact:

{bio}nadya.pavlova@techuk.org{/bio}

techUK is delighted to confirm its partnership with EHI Live for the ninth consecutive year. EHI Live is the UK's number one show for all those involved in digital health, hospital information and healthcare innovation. EHI Live 2016 will take place on 01-02 November, in Birmingham. 

As last year, techUK has secured exclusive deals for our members. Special exhibition stand discounts apply for all techUK members, and four of our start-ups will receive complimentary exhibition space on techUK’s stand.

If you’re a start-up and would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please submit a short paragraph (max 175 words) to healthcare@techuk.org by 08 July explaining what your product/services are and why you’d like to exhibit at EHI Live. We will also need details of when your company was founded and total number of staff.

If you’re an SME, and choose to exhibit in techUK’s SME Village, you will get a 20% discount to the cost of your exhibition stand. If interested or have any queries, please get in touch with Josue Paulos (Exhibition Manager, Informa) or fill in the booking form (available to download at the bottom of this page; techUK member login required) and return it to Josue. Places are allocated on first come, first served basis.

This year techUK and Informa are also able to offer special rates for techUK’s larger member companies. Contact Josue Paulos for further information and to book your stand.

That’s not all though! techUK has been invited to deliver a keynote on the first day of the conference (more details to follow shortly) and will be a judge for the EHI Awards – don’t forget to submit your entry by 5pm on Friday 13 May.

ABOUT EHI LIVE

On 01-02 November, more than 4,000 professionals dedicated to IT healthcare will attend EHI Live to discuss frontline use of healthcare technology and just what products will shape the future of the healthcare industry.

EHI Live is where CIO's meet and discuss how concepts such as Cloud, Wearables, Informatics, Big Data and Social Media can improve patient care. It is the go-to-event for people with real buying power in the UK to search for new solutions in IT healthcare.

While IT professionals are at the heart of our audience, we also expect to see healthcare leaders, managers and clinicians involved in the specification, procurement, management and front line use of information systems. To view the 2016 conference streams, click here.

If you are looking to grow your business in the IT healthcare market, the show has many platforms and channels available to engage with the leaders in digital health, source new contacts and increase your company profile.

Exhibiting at the show allows you to:

• Showcase your products and services to an audience of leaders in UK eHealth
• Arrange face-to-face meetings with current and prospective customers
• Gain exposure for your brand at the UK’s largest eHealth event
• Shape debates and conversations by engaging in our extensive conference programme
• Understand the current needs of the UK market place

Any queries, please contact:

{bio}nadya.pavlova@techuk.org{/bio}

Join us for the third in the series of techUK's Big Data Roadshow, hosted in Manchester

Kindly Sponsored by:

With assistance from the Federation of Small Businesses:

Throughout 2016 techUK will be holding a series of regional roadshow events across the UK to demonstrate the value of big data tools and technologies in action. Through technology demonstrations, speaker presentations and networking sessions the roadshows will bring to life case studies and real example of how big data solutions can be applied by business leaders to deliver real business value to organisations of all size and sector.

Click here to view the insight on our first big data roadshow held on 12th April in London.

This half day event will include:

• An exhibition of innovative Big Data and Data Analytics tool, technologies and solutions by techUK members 
• Presentations, panel discussions and Q&A highlighting examples of ‘Big Data in Action’ across both the public and private sector
• Networking session for techUK members to meet and engage with regional business leaders.
• ’One-to-one clinics’ will be organised by techUK and delegates attending the specific event will be given the opportunity to book short sessions during the network session with sponsors/exhibitors in order to meet and discuss opportunities.

All of this will contribute to the ever expanding network of people involved in, and aware of, the value of adopting and implementing Big Data technologies which in turn will highlight the importance of the UK Big Data industry and contribute to the further maturity of the market.

These free to attend events will attract local business leaders that may be considering taking the first step on their Big Data journey and are keen to learn about the positive benefits of Big Data tools and technologies.

Event Details:

Date: Tuesday 25 October 2016

Venue: The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ

Timings: 08:30 Registration & Networking | 10:00 Session begins | 12:30 Lunch & Networking | 13:30 Event Close

Agenda:

8.30 -10:00: Registration and Breakfast  

10:00 – 12:30: Presentations and panel discussion

12.30 – 13.30: Networking lunch and exhibitions

About our Sponsors: 

The STFC Hartree Centre is accelerating the adoption of high performance computing, big data and cognitive technologies into UK industry.

Backed by over £170M of funding from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and with strategic partnerships with a range of organisations including IBM, Hartree Centre are enabling businesses and academic organisations to apply these technologies to industrially relevant challenges to gain insight, value and competitive advantage.

Key offerings:
• Collaborative R&D
• Software development and optimisation
• Platform as a service
• Training and skills

You can find out more about who Hartree Centre is, and how you can collaborate with them on their website

Sponsorship & Exhibiting Opportunities:

Sponsors and exhibitors will benefit from the opportunity to meet potential new business partners and develop regional networks. techUK will promote and raise awareness of these events through social media and both national and regional press contacts.

If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at the event, please contact francesca.whyte@techuk.org

From 1 April, the Better Regulatory Delivery Office and the National Measurements and Regulation Office were combined to form the new BIS directorate for Regulatory Delivery.

The Better Regulatoy Delivery Office had a focus on improving the way in which local and national regulators enforce regulations, whilst the National Measurements and Regulation Office operated as an Executive Agency within BIS, aiming to simplify technical regulation and conduct market surveillience activities.

The new Regulatory Delivery directorate will be led by the existing BRDO Director, Graham Russell and will report to Small Business, Industry and Enterprise Minister, Anna Soubry.

BIS has confirmed that the directorate will work to ensure that the way regulation is enforced is proportionate and risk based. It will deliver existing functions such as Primary Authority, legal metrology and hallmarking policy, technical regulation and enforcement work.

Although a large chunk of BIS's environmental product policy work was moved to Defra on 1 April, enforcement and market surveillience remain with BIS, with responsibilities spanning the eco-design Directive, energy labelling, chemical restrictions under the RoHS Directive and the WEEE Directives and batteries. 

{bio}susanne.baker@techuk.org{/bio}

CONTEST, the Government’s strategy for countering terrorism, was first published in 2003, and refreshed in 2006, 2009, and 2011. Government announced in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review that CONTEST will be updated in 2016 through a new National Security Council (NSC), chaired by the Prime Minister. This work is now underway. The review is being conducted by officials from across Government and led by the Home Office. CONTEST 2016 will reflect the changing and growing threat from Daesh and its affiliates, Al Q’aida, and technological developments and the exploitation of the internet to recruit, radicalise and plan attacks.

Government continues to improve capabilities, strengthen partnerships, and ensure we have the requisite legislation and powers to keep pace with the serious and rapidly changing threats the UK faces. Cross-Government spending on counter-terrorism is set to increase by 30% in real terms over this Parliament, to £15.1bn. The SDSR announced uplifts to key counter-terrorism capabilities including improvements in aviation security, investigative capabilities, and targeting capabilities at the border.

It is vital that that Government continue to engage with, and strengthen its engagement and partnerships with private sector and industry partners, including SMEs, to:

· Make best use of knowledge, skills and expertise in the private sector;

· Develop a shared understanding of the threat and risk reduction and mitigation;

· Build resilience across the private sector; and

· Explore innovative ways to work together to respond to specific threats, in the wake of an attack, and over the longer-term

You are therefore invited to contribute to the CONTEST Review through an event on 20 May, 1 – 4pm at techUK (10 St Bride Street, London, EC4A 4AD). This is an open discussion to explore what, in your view, are the challenges and opportunities for the private sector to do more to reduce risks, increase resilience, and be innovative.

*Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis*

To register for this event, please click the link below

The techUK IoT Council meets quarterly to provide strategic direction for techUK's work exploring the opportunities and challenges presented by Internet of Things.

The Council is invitation only, if you wish to find out more about how to get involved with techUK's IoT programme or Council, please get in contact:

{bio}Aimee.Betts-Charalambous@techUK.org{/bio}

The techUK IoT Council meets quarterly to provide strategic direction for techUK's work exploring the opportunities and challenges presented by Internet of Things.

The Council is invitation only, if you wish to find out more about how to get involved with techUK's IoT programme or Council, please get in contact:

{bio}Aimee.Betts-Charalambous@techUK.org{/bio}

May techUK be the first to wish you a very happy Star Wars day. Since 2011, on the fourth of May, Star Wars fans around the world have taken a day to celebrate the movie franchise. This year’s celebrations are likely to be bigger than ever with the release of episode seven “The Force Awakens”, which was filmed and produced here in the UK. The Force is strong with Star Wars fans once again, particularly those that work at techUK...

A (not so) long time ago in a technology industry association far, far away, the techUK team took a moment to consider what the Star Wars movies tell us about how technology could evolve in the future. And whether many of the technologies George Lucas envisaged back in 1977, when Star Wars was first released, have in fact become part of our everyday lives.

“In the Star War Universe, farmers really are the Chosen Ones. Or nerf-herders depending on your perspective. So how does real-life agricultural technology shape up in relation to the films? Recent advances in technology are piloting a revolution in precision farming, moving from a per herd or field to a per animal and plant approach. Robotics will play a huge role in driving this. Now if you are thinking about C3PO then maybe these aren’t the droids that you are looking for. But with automated tractors alone delivering 10% fuel savings via GPS controlled steering and optimised route planning you may be seeing them on a farm near you sooner than you think.

Although not as iconic as moisture vaporators that Luke tended to on the Lars Homestead, water-from-air units are sold on a commercial basis and are occasionally thought of as a solution in drought areas like California. Like Yoda, it’s a technology that shouldn’t be judged on their size with water bottle level technology also available. Whilst these tend to be high-tech solutions Polythene mesh has also been used. It’s trap! for water in clouds or fog banks and has proved to be so successful that small-scale agriculture has become possible in places such as the Atacama Desert.” Matt Evans, Executive Director, BSG, SmarterUK, Internet of Things

“Security systems for mission critical infrastructure have come on a bit since the late 1970s, which is good news for our data centre operators and the many customers who depend on them. Unlike the Empire’s engineers, data centre designers avoid building single points of failure (SPOFs) into facilities. So the Death Star proved vulnerable to two droids, three rebels, a smuggler and a wookiee because there were no security fences, inadequate search procedures and no biometric controls. It was obliterated by a single, well placed shot because it ran on a single, highly explosive fuel and had no back-up power supply. Without a mirrored facility or any software enabled backup, contingency planning amounted to building it all again from scratch. Fortunately Darth Vader’s idiosyncratic approach to customer relations always kept complaints to a minimum.” Emma Fryer, Associate Director, Climate Change Programmes, Energy and Environment

“George Lucas had the foresight to include Augmented and Virtual reality technologies way back in the first Star Wars movie in 1977. R2-D2 relays a 3D Holographic message from Princess Leia to Luke Skywalker and Luke uses head up display technology and advanced visual graphics to fly the Millennium Falcon, as do Rebel Alliance and the Imperial Forces fighter pilots. Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies are on the cusp of huge growth potential as the applications broaden out beyond gaming and traditional commercial applications such as airline pilot training. 9 million VR headsets are forecast to be sold in 2016 alone and the combined AR/VR market value is forecast to reach $120 billion by 2020. To Paraphrase Star Wars, “We have a good feeling about this”. Paul Hide, Director of Operations

“Three potentially habitable planets were discovered in our galactic backyard, it was announced this week. These planets orbit an ultracool (red) dwarf star much fainter than our own Sun, so unfortunately no twin-Tatooine sunrises. Located in the constellation of Aquarius about 39 light-years from Earth, we are going to have to develop a much faster way of travelling to compete with the Millennium Falcon, which supposedly made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.” Skye MacLeod, Programme Manager

“On this note, a new project called Breakthrough Starshot has been proposed by Stephen Hawking and Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner with the goal of exploring technologies needed to create small, light-powered spacecraft capable of reaching the nearest star to our Sun, Alpha Centauri, in just 20 years. Alpha Centauri is more than four light years ( 25 trillion miles) away which means that Breakthrough Starshot will need to travel at more than 134 million miles per hour. The project is intended to investigate the feasibility of developing ulltra-light and highly compact space versions of sailboats, called “lightsails” similar to the one launched by Bill Nye and the Planetary Society last year. Such spacecraft use the Sun’s light or solar wind for propulsion. In addition, Breakthrough Starshot would also use a giant laser array (as well as light sails) to provide the impetus to achieve the high speeds. Starshot's sails would measure a few meters wide but only a few hundred atoms’ thickness to achieve low mass. Emerging nanotechnology will make it possible to develop very small spacecraft called "StarChips" carrying functionalities such as power supplies, photon thrusters, cameras, sensors, power supplies, communication and navigation equipment, and photon thrusters, to be towed behind the sails. The challenges to be surmounted cannot be underestimated but slowly but surely the imaginative ideas that have captivated us in Star Wars are being transformed into realistic steps. “ Raj Sivalingam, Executive Director, Telecoms and UK Specturm Policy Forum

“Whether it’s R2-D2 storing Princess Leila’s secret message and the Death Star’s technical plans or the map of Luke Skywalker’s location held within the DD-8 droid in the Force Awakens, information plays a pivotal role in the Star Wars films. You could argue that without the role played by data there wouldn’t be much of a story at all. No one would have been able to attack and destroy the Death Star 2, and save the Ewoks home planet in the Return of the Jedi, without the information that sadly many Bothans died for!

While the importance of data and information is a theme that runs throughout the franchise, what we also see is the coming together of data and machines with the abundance of automated robotics droids undertaking both mundane jobs as well as tasks that even humans today would struggle with. For example, C3-PO is an intelligent protocol droid that has been programmed to be fluent in over six million languages. What we see in the films are droids that have been programmed to perform specific civil and military tasks. What we perhaps don’t see however is evidence of the existence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven droids that are making specific decisions without human involvement. This is perhaps because back in 1977 Artificial Intelligence was not a common technological concept that even George Lucas envisaged becoming a reality by the times of the Clone Wars or the Age of the Empire. With the recent victory of Google’s DeepMind AI technology beating the professional champion player of the Chinese game Go, in a 4-1 victory, and other companies such as Facebook and IBM also investing in AI research perhaps we are already a step closer to a world that George Lucas never imagined, where decisions that impact the way we work, live and shop may be made autonomously by machines, or drones, based on data. Perhaps these are the drones we are looking for!” Sue Daley, Head of Programme Cloud, Big Data and Analytics

From the comments above it would seem that there is much that the technology sector could learn from the way technology is depicted in the Star Wars movies and maybe even try to apply today. But as Yoda would say there is no try, only do!

From all of us here at techUK May the fourth be with you.

techUK and the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) are holding a market engagement event for suppliers interested in potential opportunities for Enhanced Secure Authentication and Citizen Authentication services.

HSCIC operates an authentication service for SPINE on behalf of Department of Health. This service is a new requirement for an additional authentication service as part of the smartcard authentication. HSCIC is looking for an authentication service to improve the current SPINE Authentication for the NHS, in England.

This preliminary market engagement event will provide an overview of HSCIC current thinking and is a great opportunity for suppliers to feed in and shape plans for the service. There will be 1:1s opportunities for suppliers on the day. This event might be followed by further supplier engagement to clarify information before finalising an updated set of requirements.

HSCIC might go out to competitive tender on this requirement in June or July, 2016. The contract may be for a period of three years.

If you’d like to register for this event, please email procmail@hscic.gov.uk with email subject line HCON00421.

Structure of the Day

09.00 – Registration
09.30 – 12.00 – Briefing and Q&A
12.00 – 16.30 – 1:1s (20 min slots)

Further information regarding agenda and exact location in Leeds will be sent to suppliers along with confirmation.

Background

The existing Spine CIS (Care Identity Service) Authentication Service (or Spine Security Broker) was transitioned in-house (HSCIC) in February 2015. It was re-housed on new infrastructure and an up to date platform. However, as the main remit of the transition was to minimise the risk to the organisation on transition itself, the functionality and interfaces it delivered remained the same. The IT authentication landscape and the NHS itself have evolved considerably since the original inception of the Spine Security Broker, and subsequently, there are needs which cannot be satisfied by the original service.

Requirements

A: Enhance Secure Authentication
The Care Identity Service (CIS) is the Identity and Access Management System for users and systems wishing to connect to the NHS Spine. It provides registration, authentication and authorisation functionality for over 1 million users and 28,000 system endpoints across 21,000 organisations.

As part of the Service HSCIC is looking for a new Enhanced Secure Authentication service to authenticate, authorise or federate all users who provide services within or for the NHS.

B: Citizen Authentication
The National Information Board’s Personalised Health and Care 2020: A Framework for Action (Nov 2014) advocates better use of data and technology to improve health, transform quality, and reduce the cost of health and care services. A key objective of this framework is to enable citizens to make the right health and care choices, by providing digital access to health and care information and transactions.

The NHS Citizen Identity Project has been established to deliver an approach that a citizen can use to verify their identity and create a trusted digital identity to transact online with multiple national health and social care services. As part of this project an Authentication, Authorisation, Federation and Consent solution(s) will be required.

{bio}nadya.pavlova@techuk.org{/bio}

As part of our continued engagement with HSCIC on the challenges and opportunities facing the Business Intelligence (BI) market, we held our fourth workshop on 27 April. It looked at the principles for access to patient level data, and the forthcoming changes that will take place when IGARD (Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data) succeeds the Data Access Advisory Group (DAAG), as well as the differences between the two bodies. Suppliers had the opportunity to hear directly from Dr Joanne Bailey (current Chair of DAAG/IGARD).

The briefing also provided an update on the new online system (DARS Online).

In addition to Joanne, guest speakers from HSCIC included Dr Alan Hassey, former Chair of DAAG, and Garry Coleman, Head of Data Access.

A copy of the slides used on the day can be downloaded from below. 

Background information:

HSCIC ran a consultation on the draft terms of reference for IGARD from 16 June to 31 August 2015, and techUK’s response can be found here.

Collateral form the previous three workshops with HSCIC, held on 15 June, 15 July and 02 December 2015, is available on our website.

{bio}nadya.pavlova@techuk.org{/bio}

Small, high-growth online platform businesses from the UK, Germany and France visited Brussels to meet senior EU policy-makers

Last week, techUK and Coadec took a delegation of digital scale-ups to Brussels to meet with European policy-makers on key issues that matter to them. The eight companies from the UK, Germany and France who joined the delegation were small, high-growth European online platforms.

This delegation focused on the online platforms debate, which has been heating up in the European Commission and Parliament since September 2015. techUK believes online platforms are a fundamental driver of economic growth and consumer benefit. It is crucial that Europe sees the opportunities, not the risks in online platforms and enables these businesses to grow and scale across Europe. Taking living and breathing small online platforms to Brussels enabled policy-makers to check their views on online platform regulation against the backdrop of these growing success stories.

The delegation met with a range of key policy-makers from across the Commission and European Parliament, including the Heads of Cabinet to Commissioner Oettinger and Commissioner Jourova, a Member of Cabinet to Commissioner Ansip, and Claire Bury, Deputy Director General of DG CNECT in the European Commission. The delegation also met with a number of MEPs including Anneleen Van Bossuyt MEP, Neena Gill MEP, Julia Reda MEP, Victor Negrescu MEP, Daniel Dalton MEP, Clare Moody MEP, Catherine Stihler MEP, Vicky Ford MEP, and Kaja Kallas MEP.

Ranging from car ride sharing platforms Hiyacar (UK) and DailyRide (DE) to holiday home rental platform Under the Doormat (UK), venue and workspace rental platforms Setting.io (DE) and Vrumi (UK) to online ID verification platform Yoti (UK) and train ticket booking site Captain Train (FR), the delegation showed the vast diversity of businesses that could be defined as ‘online platforms’.

Discussing with Members of European Parliament and senior European Commission officials, the delegation shared hopes and concerns about EU-level discussions. In particular, the meetings honed in on what online intermediary liability, data protection, and obstacles for to scale across Europe mean for these businesses.

Clear liability regimes - Online intermediary has been considered in the sharing economy as well as in regard to pirated content online. The E-Commerce Directive has been a functioning mechanism for over 15 years clarifying the liability regimes for online companies. Challenging the liability regime enshrined in the Directive would cause major concern especially for the smaller online platform players. It is key for small companies that they can factor in risk. Legal uncertainty and unclear liability regimes can make it impossible to find an insurance, especially in the sharing economy. These risks can break young companies in their early growth stages.

Harmonising key legislation - Fragmentation of legal systems regarding data protection, consumer rights, tax laws and other rules make it very difficult for small companies to operate across several EU Member States. The opening up of a true Digital Single Market has to bring more harmonised rules, particularly to reassure B2C businesses that they can understand and comply with all rules without having their own compliance and legal team.

Understanding the role of data - Data analytics drive the quality of many online platforms and the services they offer. The delegation companies do not sell their user data on, instead they collect, anonymise and analyse it in different ways to make sure they understand their customer needs and adapt their service accordingly. Data drives growth in these companies and in Europe’s digital economy. It is important that data protection concerns recognise the different ways in which data can be used and do not weigh down on these data analytics that are drivers of better services and growth.

Check out the write-up of our parallel online platforms event on 20 April 2016.

Check out testimonials from the trip. 

For further information contact Charlotte Holloway, Head of Policy, techUK.

{bio}charlotte.holloway@techUK.org{/bio}

techUK will be launching a survey seeking views from members active in the Local Government market

According to the latest figures from the Government Digital Service (GDS), in February 2016 seventy seven per cent of total sales by value on the G-Cloud were through Central Government; with only twenty three per cent through the wider public sector. Despite the G-Cloud framework intended for the whole of public sector there still remains low uptake from local Government and barriers still exist. techUK’s Procuring for innovation and growth: Making the case for British based SMEs report recommends that more should be done to incentivise Local Government commissioners to use G-Cloud.

Ahead of the next iterations of G-Cloud and a greater focus on engaging local authorities from the Cabinet Office, we are asking members for their experiences of G-Cloud, what works, what could be improved and what would be in their ‘wish-list’. .

If there are specific issues you would like us to address in our survey, please get in touch.

To find out more about techUK’s Local Government programme and our work with the Digital Marketplace team please click here.

This is a special joint meeting of techUK and ADS EGADD member experts with representatives of the ECO and CESG. The main topic of discussion will be the export of Electronic Components and Systems that use Encryption.

This meeting will discuss the issues around export licensing for communication components and systems that use Encryption, especiall in relation to devices intended for mass market use in consumer, industrial and commercial applications.

The meeting will have representatives present from the ECO and CESG and is strictly by invitation only. For more information, please contact Ken Ball.

The next full meeting of industry experts will be held on Thursday 19th May at BIS, 1 Victoria Street in London. We will be joined by representatives from the ECO for part of this meeting. If you wish to attend, please contact Ken Ball.

In the past week, the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has approved Elizabeth Denham's appointment as the UK's new Information Commissioner and new rules to end mobile roaming charges came into force. You can also read about our recent delegation of European platform startups to Brussels.

Top Tech Policy News

New rules to end mobile roaming charges in the EU have come into force (Guardian)
New rules welcomed by consumers to cut charges for using mobile phones in other European countries.

Elizabeth Denham confirmed as new ICO Commissioner (techUK)
The new Commissioner is due to take up the role in late June amid implementation of new EU data protection rules.

Europe's Digital Commissioner meets with G7 ministers to back global data flows and champion the Digital Single Market(Europa)
Meeting in Japan, Ansip the Commissioner said "Free flow of data underpins the digital economy, and how to achieve it globally while ensuring trust and privacy will be part of the discussions".

Minister Matt Hancock MP pledges greater transparency and effective open data (GOV.UK)
Cabinet Office Minister highlights the importance of promoting transparency and fighting corruption across the world.

*ICYMI* Check out what the tech sector is looking for from the next London Mayor (techUK)
Ahead of tomorrow's elections, check out what techUK, Tech London Advocates and Centre for London are looking for from a truly digital next Mayor of London.

techUK Action and Reaction

Cabinet Office backs calls for clear data ethics council on big data (Civil Service World)
techUK believes the framework and new council would help foster "a culture of data confidence and trust" across the UK.

techUK President featured in top 10 woman in UK tech (CBR Online)
Jacqueline de Rojas outlines her ambition to help the UK become a world leading connected and inclusive economy.

techUK hosts recent debate on the future of European platforms in Brussels (techUK)
As the House of Lords launch report into platforms in Europe, growing scale-ups join techUK to talk about opportunities and obstacles to growth with policy-makers from the Commission and European Parliament.

What the tech sector needs to know about Gender Pay Gap reporting (techUK)
techUK's Doniya Soni reports on our recent roundtable with the Government Equalities Office on the Gender Pay Gap.

Brussels Bulletin

Top EU policy-makers welcome Europe's small online platform businesses (techUK)
techUK recently took high-growth platforms from the UK, Germany and France to Brussels to meet senior EU policy-makers to discuss intermediary liability, the sharing economy and more.

EU Commission face demands for action from MEPs over digital content (ArsTechnica)
UK Conservative MEP Vicky Ford summed up concerns saying that lawmakers cannot simply "cut and paste from rules for tangible goods to digital services".

Allied for Startups showcase a startup a day for 100 days in Brussels (Allied for Startups)
New campaign shines a light on how startups are solving problems in Europe.

More News & Comment

BBC and Google team up to tackle cyber bullying and protecting children's privacy (Guardian)

The FT has launched a special series looking at the impact of robotics across the world (FT £)

Dan Rosenthal, former senior staffer to Clinton, says 'Policy risk' should be on the agenda for startups (TechCrunch)

Upcoming events - View full events calendar

May - 10 techUK Public Services 2030 Conference with Eileen Burbidge, Martha Lane Fox

May - 17 Developing Digital Skills for the Next Generation

June - 20 London Technology Week

July - 06 techUK Annual Dinner with Lord Bridges and Andrew Neil at The Dorchester

As ever, please get in touch with the team and let us know if there are topics you'd like us to include, leave out, or talk about. We really do like feedback!

{bio}charlotte.holloway@techuk.org{/bio}

Yesterday, 4 May 2016, techUK’s Cloud, Big Data and Analytics and Financial Services and Payments programmes held a joint event on the role of Big Data in Insurance and Financial Inclusion.

Dr Christopher Royles, Systems Engineer at Cloudera, Matt Cullen, Assistant Director and Head of Strategy at the Association of British Insurers and Paul Brook, Head of EMEA Program Manager Big Data and Cloud Solutions at Dell, all spoke about how big data is increasingly informing the behaviour of insurers and to what extent big data is having an impact on the ability of individuals to get insurance cover.

The presentations highlighted how the ‘explosion’ in data creation is set to revolutionise the way insurance works and will change the relationship between the insurer and customer, with the majority of insurance organisations seeing implementing big data strategies as a key strategic priority. It was widely agreed that the insurance sector has been slower than others in embracing the big data revolution but with that set to change, various technical and ethical challenges will need to be addressed.

Through using big data tools and technologies, insurance companies are increasingly able to extract far more granular information about their customers given the varied data sources they are able to use in assessing an individual’s risk portfolio. Historically, a very crude model has been used to determine risk with only limited pieces of information being available. The availability of real-time data providing insights into customer’s behaviours is changing that.

These insights are likely to have a number of impacts on the insurance industry, with different, and possibly more flexible, product offerings based on a clearer understanding of the needs of a customer through analysis of their data. For example, as is already the case in California, we are likely to see the development of motor insurance ‘by the mile’ and a movement away from annual premium payments. Similarly, some UK start-ups are acting as insurance brokers in offering real-time insurance to consumers. It is envisaged that in time, big data technologies will enable customers to update their insurance information as their circumstances change, which is likely to have an impact on pricing models.

It was suggested that it will ultimately be competition that dictates this trend from pooled risk to a more individualistic approach as insurers chase optimal pricing. However, as discussed at the session, this raises the question of fairness, and inclusion, in the insurance market when a risk is highly differentiated throughout the population. It was also speculated that the market will become increasingly segmented by those who do, and do not, provide consent and access to their data, and this could impact the outlook for the application of big data technologies.

The use of big data is challenging the historical norm of pooled risk in favour of an individualistic approach some people paying a lower premium and those with a higher risk profile being charged higher premiums. It was felt by those attending the session that this is perhaps not just a technical issue, but a philosophical one.

Flooding insurance provided a useful case study to frame this discussion, where individual pricing was deemed not fair as it left those facing a high risk of floods with extortionate premiums which essentially left them excluded from the market.

The flooding example is set in a context whereby individuals do not have a huge amount of choice about whether they are regularly flooded. How will fairness inform insurance exclusion where there is a personal choice, such as how fast you drive or what lifestyle choices you may which might impact your health? These questions remain unanswered.

The lively discussion throughout the session confirmed that where the risk distribution is small, individualistic pricing will not have a severe impact on the number of ‘uninsurables’ and the benefits of using big data such as a more personalised and interactive service should outweigh concerns about inclusion.

If you would like to know more about techUK’s Cloud, Big Data and Analytics and Financial Services and Payments programmes please contact Jeremy Lilley and James Lee.

techUK's Cloud, Big Data and Analytics and Financial Services and Payments programmes will be holding another joint event on 23 May 2016 on 'Banking on Big Data'

{bio}jeremy.lilley@techuk.org{/bio}

{bio}james.lee@techuk.org{/bio}