The government should provide greater clarity on the regulation of the digital economy, recommends the Common’s BIS Select Committee report on the Digital Economy.
According to the report, the government should explore new regulatory opportunities that exist within the current digital framework in an attempt to ensure that appropriate regulation is in place to support and encourage innovative uses of technology.
This, the report adds, should be done whilst protecting consumers and not disproportionately disadvantaging non-digital industries.
A collaborative approach
In its report, the Select Committee urges the government to consider a more collaborative approach to regulation.
“Digital platforms (the software or hardware of a site) could themselves become key players in the regulatory framework, required to ensure that users are complying with current regulations, and that workers using the platforms have reasonable employment conditions and are not vulnerable to exploitation,” it notes.
Additionally, the report called for the government to outline the measures it is planning to take in the immediate future to support policies connected with the digital economy and in light of the recent Brexit referendum.
“[The government] must ensure that the country’s digital economy remains successful and innovative,” says the report.
A success story
The UK’s digital economy, the report continues, is a success story.
It has the highest percentage of gross domestic product attributed to the digital economy of all European nations, the report adds.
“We recognise and endorse the government’s support of the digital economy and we look forward to its Digital Strategy, even though this is now due to be published in the autumn of 2016, much later than expected,” the report says.
The report also speaks about the difficulties in measuring the digital economy because it is hard to define what classifies as purely digital. Most businesses, it says, have some sort of digital presence, even if they do not trade or operate exclusively online.
“The Government should explore ways of collecting real-time data and of applying standard terminology and coding of activity, in order to measure accurately the digital contribution to levels of UK productivity, and to reflect this in policy making,” the report concludes.
Welcoming the report
Charlotte Holloway, policy director at techUK, commented on the publication of the report.
“techUK welcomes this wide-ranging and timely report on the UK digital economy. The Committee is right to highlight that the forthcoming Digital Strategy from UK Government needs to be refocused in light of the vote to leave the European Union. Whether it be access to the Digital Single Market, data rules, a welcoming environment for skilled digital workers, and more, one of the first tasks for newly-appointed Digital Economy minister Matt Hancock MP will be to work closely with industry on these areas. The UK’s huge potential in digital must be matched by clear prioritisation of the tech sector’s needs in forward approaches to renegotiation. We must now pull out all the stops to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to locate and grow a tech company.”
“The Committee is right to question whether the apprenticeship levy works for strategically-important high-growth tech business. Tech companies have serious and ongoing concerns on how the implementation of the levy will support their sustained growth. Scaling businesses made the difference between recession and recovery after 2008, and it’s now more important than ever that policies such as the levy help rather than hinder our ability to boost the UK’s digital workforce to 2020 and beyond,” she concluded.