Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government has plans to create a domestic sovereign cloud capability similar to the European Gaia-X project.

On Wednesday 24 November 2021, DCMS published the National Data Strategy Mission 1 Policy Framework: Unlocking the value of data across the economy, which provides a framework for government action to set the right conditions to make private and third sector data more usable, accessible and available. The Framework identifies seven priority areas for action, three of which contribute to the goal of supporting the development of data sharing infrastructure within the UK.

The recently formed Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in the Cabinet Office is working on standardising the approach that government organisations take to the use of cloud services and data hosting and continues to regularly review strategies taken by other countries to assess their relevance for the UK government. CDDO is working closely with other parts of Cabinet Office and government departments through the One Government Cloud Strategy forum to ensure it takes a multi-functional view on all decisions.