Category: Tech

Summer has arrived, which means hydration should be top of mind every day. If you were intrigued by the arrival of the HidrateSpark Pro 2 smart water bottle earlier this month, you should also be aware of Waterllama’s latest update, which improves the app’s ability to accurately track the amount of water and other liquid you drink every day.

With version 1.89, the company added 100+ popular beverages from around the world, including popular drinks like Coke, oolong tea, horchata, and more, which means you don’t need to fill in your drinks from scratch. Most importantly, the app adds up your hydration score for you, so you can tell whether you’re moving towards your goal or not.

For example, if you drink alcoholic beverages, you’re actually dehydrating yourself because you’ll have to use the restroom more often. If you drink milk instead, you’re actually increasing your hydration because of its electrolytes and nutrients.

Waterllama is also making it easier to create custom beverages. Users can pick a color, match their cup, and choose from 100+ hand-drawn icons, which the app hopes will match your favorite tumbler. In a press release, the company says, “If you’re unsure about hydration or caffeine in the beverage you’re creating, don’t worry. You can simply choose a beverage that it’s similar to, and all the known characteristics will be applied to your new beverage.”

This update also brings self-styled widgets, explanations for failed challenges, and 17 new app icons for you to try out. From the whimsical balloon llama to the elegant flower llama, there’s a new icon for every preference. There are even the unique glass and candy options to give an interesting pop to your iPhone Home Screen.

Additionally, the company is readying an update for iOS 26 later this fall. Waterllama is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. The app is free to download but requires a subscription to unlock all the perks.

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A lack of opportunity for progression is a main reason why women are leaving the technology sector, according to the Lovelace report.

Research by Oliver Wyman and WeAreTechWomen found that between 40,000 and 60,000 women are leaving digital roles each year, whether for other tech roles or to leave tech for good, with a quarter stating the reason to be a lack of opportunity to advance their career in their current roles.

Deborah O’Neill, partner at Oliver Wyman, said the drop in women in the technology industry is usually put down to childcare issues, but really it is more about an unlevel playing field preventing them from advancing in the tech workplace.

“That’s not just a statistic, that is a loss – potential lost innovation, lost opportunities – for this country and for all of our organisations,” said O’Neill. “How can we have a world where everyone wants to deliver these big, ambitious programmes, but women are saying, ‘There’s no way for me to advance’? Something doesn’t add up here.”

Women account for around 20% of the technology sector in the UK, but this number falls when looking higher up in organisations. The report quoted figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showing the number of men working in information and communications increased 11.5% in the past five years, while the number of women working in the same sector decreased 7% in the same amount of time.

Karen Blake, head of strategy and consulting at Powered by Diversity, said the UK is “hardcoding bias” into technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) by preventing women the opportunity to contribute, adding: “We are systemically driving away the talent we need most. Inequality doesn’t just hurt individuals, it creates a sluggish environment that drags down our entire national progress…This goes deeper than economics. We’re bringing women up systemically excluded from leadership and career frameworks. We’re hardcoding bias into the future itself.”

A lack of flexible working, a lack of role models, misconceptions about what tech jobs involve and being deterred from relevant subjects at school are often-cited reasons why women leave the tech sector or avoid it altogether, and while these are important to note, the Lovelace report has painted a different, more up-to-date picture.

Only 3% of women who contributed to the Lovelace report stated childcare as the reason they chose to leave the technology sector, which is a much lower number than usually cited – in fact, 55% of those asked had no children or dependants.

Half of the respondents were earning less than average for their roles, and 60% said they were finding it very difficult to find their way into leadership. But this isn’t down to a lack of experience or expertise, with 60% of those asked having 10 years or more of tech experience, and more than 70% having gained additional qualifications and leadership training.

Instead, the report referred to the “mid-career” point in a traditional pyramid organisational structure being a “bottleneck” for most women in tech. Closely following “lack of career progression” as the main reason as to why women are moving roles or sectors was “a lack of recognition and low salaries”.

Almost 10% said the reason they are leaving their current role is because of poor company culture, while 8% said they feel held back by a lack of role models, sponsors or a supportive network.

More than half of the women who took part in the report said their career progression has not advanced in the way they thought it would, with women waiting an average of three or four years for a promotion, whereas the industry average is usually two years.

Vanessa Vallely, founder and CEO of WeAreTechWomen, said the barriers she has faced in her extensive career are the same many women are still facing now, and the industry should be more concerned with retaining and promoting female talent.

“[Women are] walking away from systems that fail to see them, reward them or provide a future that they can believe in. Mid-level women are waiting over five years for a promotion,” said Vallely. “Over 60% of experienced women are earning below their industry benchmark. Nearly 80% are considering leaving their roles, and these are women who have spent 10, 15, 20 years building their careers and their resilience.”

But this isn’t just a problem for women, it’s also a problem for organisations and the economy during a time where the UK is pushing to be a technology superpower, the report stated. The tech industry is currently lacking between 98,000 and 120,000 skilled professionals, which is a number likely to increase in the wake of fast-paced technology adoption such as AI.

This number is exacerbated by the vast number of women leaving the industry, which is costing the economy between £1.4bn and £2.2bn every year, and between £640m and £1.3bn is wasted every year when women jump between employers looking for a place where they can gain the advancement and recognition they’re looking for in a role.  

To address some of these issues, the report called for organisations to assess whether they are causing “career stagnation” for women, and to tackle it by putting clear advancement paths in place, ensure opportunities are provided to the most skilled workers, and making sure career ladders have visible and defined requirements with equal pay opportunities.

At the report’s launch, Samantha Niblett, MP, a member of the women and equalities select committee, urged the tech sector to keep “pushing politicians” to help develop legislation that will help change the workplace, adding: “If you’re working in the tech sector, don’t give up, don’t move, don’t shift: change it.”

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Tecno

Chinese smartphone vendor Tecno teased the Phantom Ultimate G Fold last week, just ahead of Samsung’s big Unpacked press event of the summer. Tecno’s marketing move was timed to beat Samsung’s own promotional strategy.

Rumors said the Korean giant would tease the Samsung Galaxy G Fold trifold at the end of the media event. The phone is expected to launch later this year, with Korea and China as its only markets.

While Samsung didn’t tease its G Fold, we’ve already seen images of Tecno’s G Fold. Tecno used a similar strategy last year when it revealed the Phantom Ultimate 2 trifold before Huawei launched the Mate XT. Only Huawei’s device ended up as a commercial product.

A week after Samsung’s Unpacked, Tecno has announced its second trifold foldable and the world’s first G Fold model. While the Phantom Ultimate G Fold is official, it won’t be hitting stores. Like the Ultimate 2, it’s a concept device designed to highlight Tecno’s progress in phone design.

What’s a G Fold phone?

Tecno

The Phantom Ultimate G Fold is a “dual-screen, inward-folding trifold” phone, Tecno explained in a press release.

The G Fold name refers to how the 9.94-inch foldable display folds. Unlike the Mate XT, which folds in a Z-pattern and leaves a third of the display exposed, the G Fold trifold folds inward twice, keeping the entire screen protected.

Unlike the Mate XT, the Phantom Ultimate G Fold includes its own external screen.

The phone measures 11.49 mm when folded and 3.49 mm when fully unfolded. That’s thinner than both the Honor Magic V5 and Galaxy Z Fold 7, though the measurement is taken at the thinnest point. The image below shows the thickness variations across the three segments divided by two hinges.

How do the hinges work?

Tecno

G Fold trifolds also feature two hinges, just like the Mate XT. But they’re not identical. One hinge is smaller and the other is larger, allowing both side panels to fold inward. Tecno explained the mechanism in its announcement:

At the core of this innovation is a custom-engineered dual-hinge system, comprising a small waterdrop hinge and a larger primary hinge. When folded, the small hinge allows the right portion of the display to fold gaplessly inward, mimicking a traditional book-style foldable. The larger hinge then folds the
remaining section over the top. A self-locking mechanism ensures the device is both perfectly gapless and secure when closed.

The larger hinge also enables a multi-angle hovering mode, letting the phone be used while partially folded. Last year’s Phantom Ultimate 2 had a similar feature.

To improve durability, Tecno used “2,000 Mpa ultra-high-strength steel for the hinge and ultra-strong Titan Fiber for the back cover.” The Titan Fiber layer is just 0.3 mm thick.

What about the specs?

Tecno

Tecno hasn’t shared full specs for the G Fold. Since the Phantom Ultimate is a concept device, that’s no surprise. Still, the company claims the phone delivers a full flagship experience.

The G Fold trifold includes a 5,000 mAh battery inside that ultra-thin body, a “high-performance” chip, and a “versatile triple-camera system.”

In other words, a phone like the G Fold wouldn’t come cheap. Samsung’s G Fold is rumored to cost around $3,000, which is roughly what the Mate XT goes for right now.

Tecno isn’t planning to sell the Phantom Ultimate G Fold at this time. It will be shown at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, so trade shows might be the only opportunity to see it in person. By then, Samsung may already be selling its own G Fold in select markets.

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With the Bristol Isambard-AI supercomputer now live, the UK government has unveiled a roadmap to delivering 420 Exaflops of compute power by 2030.

The £1bn set aside in the spending review is being used to increase the UK’s compute infrastructure and drive forward artificial intelligence (AI) development. The government’s goal is to reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign computing power, using sovereign compute capabilities to power transformation of public services and drive economic growth.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said the roadmap also builds on the ambition of the 10-year infrastructure strategy and the modern industrial strategy to put the government’s vision into action – increasing investment and growing the industries of the future.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “As technology advances, our plan for change is ensuring we are ahead of the curve, expanding our sovereign AI capabilities so we can make scientific breakthroughs, equip businesses with new tools for growth and create new jobs across the country.”

The strategy involves expanding the UK’s AI Research Resource (AIRR) 20-fold over the next five years. The system, delivered in partnership with UKRI, Nvidia, HPE, Dell Technologies and Intel, brings together supercomputers Isambard-AI in Bristol and Dawn in Cambridge.  

In June, the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing unveiled its 5MW AI supercomputer facility for the 5,280 graphics processing unit (GPU)-powered Isambard-AI phase 2 system. The HPE Cray EX4000 supercomputer delivers over 21 ExaFLOP/s of 8-bit floating point performance for large language model training, and over 250 PetaFLOP/s of 64-bit performance. It integrates two all-flash storage systems: a 20 PiByte Cray ClusterStor and 3.5 PiByte Vast storage.

Unlike traditional supercomputers, Isambard-AI is designed to support users used to running GPUs in the cloud and offer access via Jupyter notebooks, MLOps and other web-based, interactive interfaces.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle formally launched the Bristol facility today. When the AIRR’s planned expansion is complete in the coming years, DSIT said it would be vastly more powerful than the world’s current leading supercomputers.

“Britain has top-of-the-class talent in AI, and our plan will put a rocket under our brilliant researchers, scientists and engineers – giving them the tools they need to make Britain the best place to do their work,” he said.

“This will mean we can harness the technology in Britain to transform our public services, drive growth and unlock new opportunities for every community in the country.”

University College London (UCL) researchers are already using Isambard-AI to line up pioneering AI tools that could revolutionise NHS cancer screening. Using prostate cancer as its initial test case, the UCL researchers are using the new supercomputer harnessing the system to develop one of the first scalable AI models dedicated to medical imaging – using AI to analyse magnetic resonance imaging scans and identify patients in need of treatment sooner.

The Dawn supercomputer in Cambridge is also being used for a research project funded by Cancer Research UK, assessing AI’s ability to analyse computerised tomography scans for kidney cancer compared with radiologists.

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A multinational cyber enforcement operation – led by the European Union’s (EU’s) Europol and Eurojust agencies – has successfully disrupted the NoName057(16) pro-Russian hacktivist cyber crime network responsible for multiple distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Europol said offenders associated with the network primarily focused on targets in Ukraine but shifted their focus to other European countries, many of them Nato members, following the outbreak of war in 2022.

“National authorities have reported a number of cyber attacks linked to NoName057(16) criminal activities,” said Europol.

“In 2023 and 2024, the criminal network has taken part in attacks against Swedish authorities and bank websites. Since investigations started in November 2023, Germany saw 14 separate waves of attacks targeting more than 250 companies and institutions.

“In Switzerland, multiple attacks were also carried out in June 2023, during a Ukrainian video-message addressed to the Joint Parliament, and in June 2024, during the Peace Summit for Ukraine at Bürgenstock,” it said.

“Most recently, the Dutch authorities confirmed that an attack linked to this network had been carried out during the latest Nato summit in the Netherlands.

“These attacks have all been mitigated without any substantial interruptions.”

Takedowns

The so-called Operation Eastwood has resulted in the takedown of 100 servers and a major part of the NoName operation’s infrastructure; two arrests in France and Spain; and 24 property searches across Europe.

Europol said 13 individuals have also been questioned and over 1,000 “supporters” of the NoName network – including 15 admins – have been notified for their legal liability. These individuals are understood to be Russian-speaking hacktivists.

Additionally, the German authorities have issued six arrest warrants against Russian nationals. Five of them have been named as Andrej Stanislavovich Avrosimov, Mihail Evgeyevich Burlakov (aka darkklogo), Olga Evstratova (aka olechochek), Maxim Lupin and Andrey Muravyov. A seventh warrant has been issued by Spanish police.

Burlakov and Evstratova are both accused of being among the group’s ringleaders – Burlakov is suspected of leading on developing and optimising the softwares used to identify targets, and subsequently attack them, as well as overseeing payments made to rent NoName’s server infrastructure. Evstratova allegedly played a key role in the creation and optimisation of NoName’s proprietary DDoSia malware.

All of these individuals – who are listed on Europol’s Most Wanted website – are believed to be located in Russia.

Large network

Unlike well-known Russian state threat actors such as Fancy Bear, the ideologically driven NoName network is thought to have acted more like a cyber criminal ransomware gang, without support from the Russian authorities but on the unspoken understanding that Moscow would not interfere with their work.

Europol estimates that at its peak, NoName had around 4,000 supporters and had been able to build a botnet made up of several hundred servers, which were used to bombard their targets with junk traffic.

NoName’s leaders used pro-Russian channels, web forums, and niche chat groups on social media and messaging forums, with volunteers often informally recruiting their friends and contacts from the gaming and hacking communities.

These individuals were given access to platforms, such as DDoSia, to simplify their processes and automate cyber attacks, meaning the operation could stand up new recruits quickly and enable them to work effectively with minimal technical skillsets.

NoName’s volunteer army was paid in cryptocurrency, incentivising sustained commitment and involvement, and Europol said this may also have played a factor in attracting opportunists to the group.

Culturally, NoName mimicked computer game dynamics, with regular shout-outs, leaderboards and earned badges doled out to instil a sense of status.

Leaders emotionally reinforced this gamified manipulation – often targeted at young, impressionable people – by playing off the narrative of defending their country, where national propaganda often exploits the memory of the 25 million Soviet citizens killed during World War II to convince people the country is facing a renewed Nazi onslaught.

“While the recent international crackdown on the NoName057(16) group has disrupted their operations, it is unlikely to mark the end of their activities,” said Rafa López, security engineer at Check Point. “This Russia-affiliated hacktivist group, which primarily targets countries with anti-Russian stances, continues to operate through encrypted channels like Telegram and Discord.

“Although their DDoS capabilities have been reduced, they are shifting toward more sophisticated methods, including system intrusions and data exfiltration. The group remains active and has built a vast network of affiliates, with thousands of volunteers across various platforms, including online gaming and hacktivist forums.

“We recommend that organisations strengthen their defences by implementing multi-layered security strategies, including robust DDoS protection, intrusion detection systems and regular security audits,” he said.

“It is also essential to educate employees about the risks of cyber attacks, as well as to monitor for unusual activities on communication platforms that might indicate potential recruitment efforts,” said Lopez. “By staying vigilant and proactive, companies can better safeguard themselves against evolving threats from groups like NoName057(16).”

The operation brought together authorities from Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the US, with support also received from agencies in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. Private sector bodies ShadowServer and abuse.ch also provided technical support.

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With the latest generation of mobile communications networks midway through its technology cycle, timely spectrum allocation and proactive policies are defining Europe’s 5G coverage leaders, according to a study by mobile network analyst Ookla.

The study used Speedtest Intelligence data to benchmark progress made in the second quarter of 2025 towards the EU’s flagship 5G deployment objectives, including the Digital Decade 2030 goal of achieving 100% outdoor 5G population coverage.

The analysis laid bare the differences in a region’s 5G health depending on whether or not capital spending on network expansion has peaked for most countries and where the flagship low- and mid-band spectrum auctions necessary for 5G deployment are complete. It found that policy more often acted as a barrier and not a catalyst, with Western and Eastern European countries lagging behind those in the North and South.

Ookla also pointed out that mobile data traffic growth is slowing for the first time, and European operators have been more cautious than peers in North America or Asia in adopting new technologies such as 5G Standalone (SA), largely due to challenging operating conditions related to sluggish average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.

The study found that in Q2 2025, Nordic and Southern European countries maintained a substantial lead in 5G availability, driven by recent 700 MHz band deployments that drove double-digit coverage gains in countries such as Sweden and Italy. By contrast, 5G availability in Central and Western European countries such as Belgium, the UK and Hungary remained less than half that of the leaders. On average, EU mobile subscribers spent 44.5% of their time connected to 5G networks in Q2 2025, up from 32.8% a year earlier.

The deployment and adoption of 5G SA in Europe was found to have remained sluggish, increasing slowly from a very low base and further widening the region’s gap with North America and Asia. Spain emerged as a clear leader in 5G SA deployment, reaching an 8% Speedtest sample share compared with the EU average of just 1.3% as of Q2 2025. Ookla attributed Spain’s progress as being driven by proactive use of EU recovery funds to subsidise 5G SA roll-outs in underserved areas, with a focus on bridging the rural-urban digital divide.

The survey also revealed that fragmented 5G availability across Europe was being driven by a complex mix of national policies on spectrum assignment and broader economic factors, rather than by simple geographic or demographic differences. 

5G availability was found to be more strongly correlated with policy-driven factors such as spectrum allocation timelines and costs, coverage obligations, subsidy mechanisms, and regulations for infrastructure sharing and permitting, rather than with structural factors like urbanisation rates or the number of operators. This indicated that 5G competitiveness is shaped less by technology gaps or inherent market imbalances and more by effective policy execution, said Ookla.

The leading markets for 5G availability were Denmark with a coverage rate of 83.9%, followed by Sweden (77.8%) and Greece (76.4%). By contrast, UK 5G availability has a coverage rate of just 45.2% in Q2 2025. That said, while the UK lagged in 5G availability, it did rank among the top three countries in Europe for 5G SA deployment progress. In Q2 2025, the UK recorded a 5G SA sample share of 3.6%, which is more than double the EU average of 1.3%.

On average, EU mobile subscribers spent 44.5% of their time connected to 5G networks in Q2 2025, up from 32.8% in Q2 2024. By comparison, UK mobile subscribers spent just 37.6% of their time on 5G networks during the same period in Q2 2025.

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The number of charities using artificial intelligence (AI) tools has increased over the past year, but many believe they lack the appropriate skills for the technology, according to research by The charity digital skills report.

The report, which was established in 2017, found 76% of charities in the UK are now using AI, but 35% of charities said they aren’t good at using AI tools and 29% said they don’t use them at all.

AI governance was also cited as an issue, with many saying their CEO and/or board members don’t have appropriate skills to make a proper plan, although 48% are now developing an AI policy.

Nissa Ramsay, co-author of the report, said that many charities are using AI in creative ways, including for writing bids, fundraising and comms, but that a lack of funding has stood in the way of digital adoption in many cases, especially in charities with a lack of digital skills.

She said: “For those with limited digital skills and capacity, only 30% accessed funding which covered digital costs, compared to 55% of those at the advancing stage [where they are investing in digital]. The report really demonstrates why we urgently need to find ways to make digital tools, skills, approaches and funding more accessible.”

Digital skills needed for day-to-day life in the UK are already lacking, and worryingly this could get worse in the wake of fast-changing technology such as AI. This means it isn’t necessarily surprising that many charities are without the skills needed for adopting digital technologies.

The report found that charities want to be using technology, but just don’t always have the means to be doing so – 39% claimed to not be very adept at using website and analytics data, and half of charities admitted to not using AI to keep abreast of current tech trends, something many charities want to get better at.

How far along charities are in their digital journey directly correlates with a higher level of digital skill. The Charity digital skills report asked charities to rate their level of digital skill in areas such as using digital tools, using AI, collecting and analysing data, and keeping up with trends. Those very early on in their digital journey were less likely to rate themselves as good, whereas those at an advanced stage of digital adoption rated themselves as excellent in most areas, with 100% of charities at an advanced level of digital adoption rating themselves excellent at using digital tools for everyday work.

When it comes specifically to skills in AI, even charities established in their digital journey aren’t fully able to take advantage of the tech, with only 57% of charities at this stage rating themselves excellent-to-fair at using AI for daily work.

This drops further at other stages of digital adoption – 37% of those who are investing but not yet fully established in their journey consider themselves excellent-to-fair at using AI for everyday tasks, compared with 24% of those starting out and 26% of those who are just curious about digital.

More than half of charities are in these early stages of digital adoption. They are curious about technology and are just starting out with adoption, although this differs regionally as well as between large and small charities, with larger charities more likely to be advancing with digital adoption while more smaller charities are just starting out.

As mentioned by Ramsay, one of the biggest barriers for charities is financial, with 69% of charities saying that a lack of funds is the main reason they’re struggling with digital adoption, despite wanting to be more technologically enabled. This isn’t the only problem, however, with lots of charities wanting to use more tech but not having a digital strategy or being unable to use data to make decisions about the direction they should be going with tech.

More than 60% of charities have increased their level of digital adoption over the past year, and 74% recognise that developments in emerging technologies such as AI are relevant to them. Almost 30% of charities have made progress in looking into or adopting AI tools in the past year, as well as looking at AI use cases and their pros and risks. But 64% of charities want their CEO to be clearer about the direction they are going with digital adoption, and this concern has increased year on year.

As well as a skills gap, charities seem to have a knowledge gap, the report explained, with almost a quarter of charities saying data security and governance are low priority, which is a dangerous attitude when adopting any technology, emerging or not.

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The UK government is on a mission to loosen the grip that legacy IT suppliers have on public sector IT budgets, amid concerns about how police forces, NHS trusts and local councils are wedded to suppliers whose offerings are not good value for money.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle outlined the government’s ambitions on this front during his appearance at the Google Cloud London Summit in July 2025, where he talked about the need to rid the public sector of the “ball and chain” of legacy tech and migrate more of their applications and workloads to the cloud. He said it is the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT’s) intention to “drag” public sector IT into the 21st century by forging closer ties with cloud giants, such as Google.

“My message to big tech companies is clear: bring us your best ideas, bring us your best tech, and bring it at the best price, and – in return – you’ll get access to the biggest client in the country [the public sector], one that will be increasingly intelligent and increasingly digital,” he said.

But it is not just the tech offered by the hyperscale cloud giants that government wants public sector organisations to escape to, Kyle continued. He is also keen for UK-based tech suppliers of all sizes to win their fair share of public sector contracts through their participation in the National Digital Exchange (NDX) marketplace.

Announced in June 2025, the NDX platform is expected to provide public sector organisations with access to pre-approved technology deals at nationally negotiated prices, while also allowing buyers to rate and review the services they procure through it.

Pitched as an app store for public sector organisations, the government said NDX will play a key role in supporting its goal of boosting small business involvement in government contracts by 40% within three years. DSIT claims the platform will unlock £1.2bn a year in savings and modernise how public sector spends £26m a year on technology.

“The National Digital Exchange will make sure more and more UK tech companies can get their slice of [public sector IT spend],” said Kyle. “That means more money for companies operating here in the UK, [including] workers and founders.

“It will help us achieve the economic growth upon which Britain’s future prosperity lies, and it will improve the public services on which British systems depend.”

History repeating

In summary, the government wants public sector buyers to save money by ditching legacy providers and moving to the cloud, while offering them access to an online marketplace where they can easily procure the products and services they need from both hyperscale, overseas tech firms and homegrown providers.

For those who have followed the public sector IT market for the past 15 years or so, some of what the government is proposing may sound familiar, as the founding aims of NDX are very similar to those of the G-Cloud framework.

The latter purchasing agreement made its debut in 2012, pitched as a procurement vehicle that would increase the diversity of IT providers serving public sector organisations and would boost the number of small and medium-sized IT suppliers winning business with them.

At the time, the IT supplier landscape was dominated by a handful of systems integrators and large, legacy tech providers that stood accused of locking public sector organisations into lengthy and expensive contracts.

G-Cloud was hailed as the remedy to that in much the same way that NDX is being spoken about today, except G-Cloud introduced a new way for public sector organisations to procure IT services – and there was no other framework like it out there.

The services listed on it, for example, were pre-approved and transparently priced to ensure all public sector users were charged the same. Contract lengths were initially capped at 12 months to guard against supplier lock-in and to encourage competition.

Over the years, the terms and conditions that G-Cloud operates under have markedly changed from when it was originally introduced, and the government is currently in the throes of preparing to launch the framework’s 15th iteration in spring 2026.

In light of all that, the question is whether the government is risking duplicating effort by simultaneously working on the roll-out of NDX at the same time, given both procurement vehicles appear – at least on paper – to be intent on achieving the same thing.

Nicky Stewart, senior adviser to Open Cloud Coalition (OCC), which is an advocacy body calling for the creation of a diverse and competitive European cloud market, said DSIT’s vision for NDX does sound promising.

“The OCC welcomes any initiative that aims to open up the government digital market to new players – whether they are SMEs, homegrown suppliers or challenger providers,” she told Computer Weekly. “A diverse market is a healthy and resilient market. We urge all providers with an interest to get behind this important initiative to help DSIT realise its ambitions.”

However, Owen Sayers, an independent security architect and data protection specialist with a long history of working in the public sector, has some reservations about what it is the government is trying to achieve with NDX.

Before floating the idea that DSIT could be lining up NDX to eventually replace G-Cloud, Sayers said that he cannot see how running both frameworks side-by-side will be commercially viable long term.

“If both frameworks run, the civil servants will default to what they know, and what they know is G-Cloud, and NDX will be doomed to failure,” he said.

While this might sound like scaremongering, it is worth bearing in mind the roll-out of the first iteration of the hyperscale-focused Cloud Compute framework in 2021. This was introduced as an alternative procurement vehicle for public sector IT buyers that had large-scale cloud projects to deliver that had previously been pushed through the more SME-focused G-Cloud framework.

A Computer Weekly investigation later revealed that just £750,000 of business had seemingly been put through the first iteration of the Cloud Compute framework, with sources claiming this was due to the fact public sector buyers found G-Cloud more familiar and easier to use. 

“If NDX is the ‘new thing’, the government will need to tender it – with terms suitable for that type of competitive feedback-driven marketplace – and, having done so, will presumably retire G-Cloud,” said Sayers.

If this sequence of events does come to pass, it could take several years before the financial benefits generated by NDX are realised, given that contracts called-off under G-Cloud can be up to 48 months in length, he added.

“Many government agencies will have forward-committed spend contracts under G-Cloud, and they won’t want or be able to change them,” he said. “Cancelling live G-Cloud contracts will incur huge costs – certainly enough to wipe out a £1.2bn saving – and so they will persist for their full contract term.

“It will take two-to-four years for NDX to replace G-Cloud and gain traction, and we are unlikely to see any benefit of this type of change in the lifetime of this parliament [given the G-Cloud contract lengths] and nor are the government likely to see many of those projected savings.”

Computer Weekly put Sayers’ concerns to DSIT, and a spokesperson responded with the following statement: “The National Digital Exchange builds on G-Cloud’s success while introducing AI-powered supplier matching, real-time user reviews and pre-negotiated deals that slash procurement time from months to hours – delivering £1.2bn annual savings.

“G-Cloud remains an important procurement route alongside NDX, with transparent pricing and capability-based matching ensuring SMEs can compete on innovation rather than administrative complexity. The platform is designed to open the market to more UK tech firms, with a target to boost small business involvement in government contracts by 40% within three years.”

No checks or balances

Even so, Sayers has some misgivings about the approach DSIT is taking with NDX: “Principally, it looks like they are trying to streamline decisions that already suffer from far too little diligence, and the trade-off of centrally negotiated general deals is that the NDX will undoubtedly be made up of generic commodity products.”

With its emphasis on offering public sector buyers access to pre-approved technology deals, there is also a fear that the government might be taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach with NDX, which rarely works in the public sector, he continued.

“There seems to continue to be a lack of appreciation in central government that each department is different, each vertical part of government is different, and each nation in the UK is different in terms of their applicable legislation, regulation, needs and forms of delivery,” said Sayers.

Mark Boost, CEO of London-based cloud services provider Civo, told Computer Weekly that he is broadly supportive of what the government is trying to do with NDX, particularly its pledge to champion homegrown IT providers through the initiative.

However, given how much business the UK government already puts the way of big tech providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google, he has reservations about how DSIT will ensure a level playing field for all suppliers who participate in NDX.

“Any initiative explicitly aiming to make it easier for UK tech suppliers of all sizes to win government contracts is worth celebrating,” he said. “If the policy truly manages to develop and maintain appropriate safeguards to ensure a level playing field for British tech, then we can expect a huge boost to our homegrown tech ecosystem. That said, DSIT’s apparent enthusiasm for ‘big tech’ will give many UK IT leaders pause.”

Particularly in light of how entrenched the cloud technologies of AWS and Microsoft, specifically, have become within the public sector since both parties opened their UK datacentre regions in late 2016. At the time, the UK was home to a thriving ecosystem of homegrown SME cloud providers, many of whom were successfully selling their wares through the G-Cloud framework to the public sector.

However, over the months and years, the number of these SMEs in operation began to dwindle – as some went out of business or merged with others – as more of the public sector deals they previously secured went to AWS and Microsoft instead. So much so, AWS is now the top seller of cloud services to the public sector through the SME-focused G-Cloud framework, with the government’s own Digital Marketplace figures putting its total spend through the framework at more than £1bn.  

And having so much of the UK’s public sector IT infrastructure hosted in the clouds of US-based cloud providers is a risk, said Boost, adding: “Relying on a handful of overseas providers for our digital infrastructure presents a substantial risk, especially when changes in the geopolitical winds can result in sudden software sanctions and shutdowns.

“On top of this, the US Cloud Act remains in force, and any large US provider involved in public sector IT might, at any time, be compelled to hand over British citizens’ sensitive information to US law enforcement. Proper consideration for the UK’s thriving cloud and AI ecosystems will help to rectify this – and I hope the NDX will live up to its promises.”

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VodafoneThree has signed an agreement to become a tier one contractor for the under-construction Sizewell C nuclear power station to provide secure and reliable communications, eliminating coverage gaps and enhancing operational efficiency.

One of the biggest clean energy projects in Britain, the 3.2GW facility on the Suffolk coast is designed to generate 7% of the UK’s electricity needs, providing low-carbon electricity to six million homes for at least 60 years and saving nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere annually.

Majority-owned by the UK government, Sizewell C is intended to play an important role in achieving clean power by 2030, and in supporting the UK’s long-term energy independence. The project will support thousands of jobs across the UK, creating 1,500 apprenticeships, and will deliver 70% of its construction value to British suppliers. Sizewell C has already delivered £4bn in contracts to over 300 UK suppliers, and has so far spent £330m with 77 regional suppliers, including 41 in Suffolk alone.

The connectivity project, which began in November 2024, promises to help support construction site safety, security and efficiency, and strengthen mobile connectivity across the site. The improved mobile coverage is also designed to provide more reliable connectivity for both residents and businesses in the surrounding area, facilitating access to digital services and supporting the growth of the local economy.

Partnering with local specialist Fern Communications, in the first phase of the project, VodafoneThree is building two masts on site to provide 5G mobile coverage for the Suffolk site and the surrounding community. Fern Communications, now part of OEG, will provide radio coverage to eliminate potential communication black spots throughout the Sizewell C construction site.

VodafoneThree says the 5G coverage and radio will bring a whole host of benefits to Sizewell C’s operations, including enhanced communication among workers, enabling co-ordination across teams working on a large-scale construction site. Additionally, it assured that better mobile infrastructure will support the swift exchange of data and updates, improving the overall efficiency and productivity of the construction process.

The operator will also deploy fibre to the site, so that the entirety of the construction project will able to use Wi-Fi to connect to local area networks and wide area networks. This will complement the 5G coverage, enhancing operational efficiency.

Commenting on the deployment, Sizewell C site delivery director Damian Leydon said: “Connectivity is vital for this project. High-quality, reliable connection helps us to operate at the highest standards of safety and efficiency. So, it’s an important step to be working with VodafoneThree and Fern Communications to provide what we need on-site. And it has the added benefit of providing 5G for the local area, too: another great example of how benefits to the project can go hand-in-hand with benefits for the local community.”

VodafoneThree business director Nick Gliddon added: “We are delighted to be the connectivity partner for Sizewell C. Alongside our contractors, we will deliver robust, secure and resilient communications infrastructure that is essential to the success of one of the UK’s most significant energy projects and to support the UK’s transition to cleaner energy.

“This partnership underscores our commitment to enhancing connectivity across the country, ensuring that communities and businesses in Suffolk and beyond can benefit from the advancements in technology and infrastructure that Sizewell C will bring.”

VodafoneThree is also the connectivity partner at Sizewell’s sister project, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, where more than 10,000 people are now working on its construction.

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Civil rights groups have highlighted a “worrying lack of transparency” in how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is embedding artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK’s social security system.

According to separate reports from Amnesty International and Big Brother Watch, both published in early July 2025, the opaque use of AI systems by the department to determine people’s eligibility for social security schemes like Universal Credit (UC) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is having “serious consequences” for benefit claimants.

Both organisations highlighted clear risks of bias associated with the use of AI in this context, and how the technology can exacerbate pre-existing discriminatory outcomes in the UK’s benefits system.

They also detailed how such systems undermine benefit claimants’ data and privacy rights, and treat them as automatically suspicious by design.

However, despite such risks, they say the DWP has created a “wall of secrecy” around how its AI systems operate, leaving people in the dark about how it has made important decisions that affect their day-to-day lives.   

“Internal DWP documents obtained by Big Brother Watch show that the Universal Credit Advances model, used to risk score almost a million Advances claims each year, displays consistent, statistically significant bias,” said the privacy campaign group.

“Fairness analyses of the Advances model and a string of other pilot tools show that algorithmic disparities have been found for age, nationality, relationship status and reported illnesses – even more concerning as these characteristics are also used as proxies for ethnicity, marital status and disability.”

Refusal to publish information openly

Big Brother Watch added that the operation of the DWP’s “suspicion machine” has been shielded from public scrutiny because of its refusal to publish information openly.

Similar points were made by Amnesty, which added that the DWP is justifying its opacity on the basis that disclosing information could enable individuals to exploit the benefit system. “This fundamentally misunderstands how these systems are frequently discriminatory and demonstrates the adoption of a punitive approach,” it said.

“These systems often rely on identity characteristics to establish profiles or risk scores, which for ‘race’ or ‘disability’ are fixed and therefore cannot be changed by an individual to cheat the system. This results in a system that is optimised for fraud detection, rather than being optimised to serve the majority of applications which are legitimate while still being able to detect outlying cases of fraud.”

Both organisations are therefore calling for greater transparency from the UK government about how it is using these high-risk data tools, so that DWP can be held to account for the negative impacts of its systems, and people can challenge wrong decisions made about them.

“The DWP’s ongoing roll-out of high-tech algorithmic tools, which its own assessments have found to be riddled with bias, is alarming,” said Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch. “This becomes even more concerning when the DWP is hiding behind a wall of secrecy and refuses to disclose key information that would allow affected individuals and the public to understand how automation is used to affect their lives, and the risks of bias and to privacy involved.

“Instead of pressing forward, the DWP should take a step back and pause the use of any model containing unexplained disparities, and it must become more transparent about how it uses high-tech tools. It is wrong to subject millions of innocent people to shadowy automated or algorithmic decisions, and refuse to explain how these work.”

Amnesty said in its report that while the “real-world impacts” of the DWP’s AI systems are apparent from people’s experiences of interacting with them and what’s been uncovered by civil society groups, the full impacts cannot be truly known without greater transparency. “Without transparency over the use of technology, there can be no meaningful evaluation of whether these systems are operating efficiently or lawfully, and whether or not discrimination is occurring,” it said.

Big Brother Watch similarly highlighted how documents such as data protection impact assessments containing vital details about the systems – including the types of personal data they process and how these are ultimately used by the models, as well as how they meet legal tests around proportionality and necessity – are either not disclosed, or are otherwise redacted heavily if they are published.

“The DWP uses the threat of welfare fraud as a get-out-of-jail-free card to operate in secret, but with machine learning tools allowing for human-light profiling on a large scale, more scrutiny and transparency is clearly needed – not less,” it said.

Imogen-Richmond Bishop, a researcher on technology, economic, social and cultural rights at Amnesty International, added that the DWP’s mission to reduce cost is at the heart of its over-reliance on these problematic technologies. “People are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table due to cuts in social security, and yet the DWP is more concerned about experimental technologies to surveil claimants,” she said.

“The tech-enabled system to claim and manage welfare benefits is resulting in relentless dehumanisation and strain for people who are already wrestling to access their basic needs in a broken system.” 

Amnesty also highlighted in its report that despite the DWP’s stated goal of “cost-saving”, it doubts whether these professed savings will ever actually materialise.

“The UK’s National Audit Office has expressed doubts that these savings will ever materialise,” it said. “As of 2024, the DWP estimates that, since 2010, it has cost £2.9bn to implement UC. These growing costs and continually delayed completion dates bring into question whether it is even possible for the digitalisation process to introduce the efficiency and cost savings which were used to justify its introduction.”

DWP comment

Computer Weekly contacted the DWP about both reports and the claims made about its use of AI throughout the social security system.

“We want to improve the experience for everyone who needs to access and use our services, and technology plays an important part in that,” said a spokesperson.

“We ensure the appropriate safeguards are in place to guarantee the lawful, proportionate and ethical use of data and technology. All decisions regarding benefit entitlement or payment are made by DWP staff, who look at all available evidence.”

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