UK safety tech sector to grow to £1bn by mid-2020s
Safety tech – technology designed to promote a safer online environment – is experiencing rapid growth in the UK.
The UK’s safety tech sector has achieved an annual revenue of £456m, shooting up 20 per cent from this time last year, a new government analysis reveals today.
It bottles this success down to greater investment, global regulation, market diversification and M&A activity, which was at a record high in 2022. The industry is on target to scale up exponentially and reach £1bn by the mid-2020s.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown said the boom comes as “little surprise” given the UK’s ambitions to become a world leader in online safety.
The market shows “significant growth potential” because there is “such a huge mountain to climb to protect users from harm and abuse, whether from grooming, hate speech or an explosion of fraud”, she explained.
The Online Safety Bill, currently in the House of Lords for debate, intends to protect online users from harmful content and hold social media companies to account.
Today’s report emphasised the importance of its timing as new developments in technology soar. It stated “we must be increasingly vigilant and respond rapidly to ensure UK citizens are safe from online harms”.
In March, the government pledged up to £3.5bn to the Department for Science, Innovation and Tech to help the UK become a science and tech superpower.
Labour Digital, the home of digital and technology policy for the Labour Party, were approached for comment regarding whether they would commit a similar amount of funding to making UK science and tech superpower
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is adopting a ‘light touch’ approach towards AI regulation which is pro-innovation and pro-business.
But speaking at London Tech Week, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said he wants to speed up the regulation of artificial intelligence and make it “stronger”.