The First Sea Lord will convene JEF Chiefs of Navy in Whitehall for a summit, bringing together senior maritime leaders to strengthen collective security.
Discussions will focus on deepening cooperation through the UK‑led Joint Expeditionary Force to enhance deterrence in the High North, North Atlantic and Baltic.
The summit comes amid increasingly assertive Russian maritime activity, including interference in shipping and critical undersea infrastructure.
BT is the first provider in the UK to offer a full, end-to-end sovereign portfolio for public and private sector organisations – combining sovereign connectivity, voice, cloud and AI
New research estimates that digital sovereignty could deliver £18 billion in productivity benefits for the UK economy, by providing the confidence needed for faster AI adoption.
BT’s sovereign capabilities allow critical services to be modernised with confidence – reducing cyber risk, improving resilience and enabling faster adoption of new technology
Customers can now run sensitive and regulated workloads in the UK with greater control over data residency, operational governance and security – accelerating adoption of cloud and AI while meeting compliance requirements
Thursday, 23 April, London: BT Business today announced the UK’s first full suite of sovereign services, offering public and private sector organisations an end-to-end portfolio spanning sovereign connectivity, voice, cloud and AI. The expanded sovereign platform is built to help customers keep sensitive workloads in the UK, strengthen operational control and deploy advanced digital services faster – without compromising on security, resilience or compliance.
The commercial launch comes as a new report from Assembly Research finds that concerns over data security are holding back AI adoption in the UK. By giving organisations clearer control over how data is stored, accessed and governed, digital sovereignty can provide the confidence needed to scale AI securely – unlocking an estimated £18bn productivity boost for the UK economy.
The report also highlights the wider commercial opportunity created by sovereign infrastructure. Accelerated investment in UK-based data centres could generate £14.6bn by 2030, while the expansion of sovereign cloud services is estimated to be worth an additional £13.6bn over the next five years.
As part of the expanded sovereign portfolio, BT is building sovereign AI capability with Nscale and NVIDIA to deliver new sovereign AI solutions in the UK. This will enable organisations to run AI workloads domestically, scale capacity on demand and meet data residency, security and regulatory requirements – supporting use cases from operational automation to advanced analytics and AI-assisted customer service.
BT is also launching Sovereign Cloud – a private cloud platform hosted and operated entirely within the UK. Designed for organisations handling sensitive or regulated workloads, it provides compute, storage and backup capabilities underpinned by Rackspace Technology’s UK data centre infrastructure, with UK-based, security-cleared teams and managed services to support migration, operations and ongoing compliance.
Jon James, Chief Executive Officer of BT Business, said: “Organisations, public and private, want to move fast with AI and cloud while keeping control over the sovereignty of their data. That’s why BT is the first UK provider to offer a complete sovereign portfolio – from secure connectivity and voice to sovereign cloud and AI – all delivered in one place. Only BT has the scale and infrastructure to help customers modernise critical services with confidence, delivering real benefits for organisations and for the UK as a whole.”
Matthew Howett, Founder and Chief Executive of Assembly Research, said: “Our research shows that digital sovereignty has become a political focus across Europe and in the UK, as concerns about an over-reliance on non-sovereign digital platforms have intensified. The clear prize on offer should encourage the Government to take further steps to realise the opportunities of a wider adoption of digital sovereignty. As well as the potential economic benefits, the wider adoption of digital sovereignty promises enhanced resilience by giving organisations more control over services.”
Alongside growth, the research highlights the role of sovereignty in mitigating risk. Greater control and visibility across data and digital systems can help organisations limit the financial impact of cyber incidents, reducing losses linked to data, intellectual property and digital assets. The report estimates this could save about £632m a year.
Greater use of domestically controlled systems can also simplify compliance. The research suggests it could make it easier for organisations to meet UK data protection rules and sector-specific regulation, helping to avoid up to £1bn in GDPR-related fines.
Quorum Cyber analysis of 425 global incidents finds sharp increases in attacks with UK institutions experiencing a shift towards disruption-led attacks and 91% of universities reporting breaches in the past year[1].
Edinburgh, UK: Cyber attacks targeting higher and further education institutions increased by 63% year-on-year, as nation-state operations, hacktivist campaigns and organised cybercrime converge on the sector, according to new analysis from Quorum Cyber.
The 2026 Global Cyber Risk Outlook for Higher Educationshows total recorded incidents rising from 260 attacks between November 2023-October 2024 to 425 in the 12 months between November 2024-October 2025, spanning 67 countries.
Assist Security Group (ASG) has secured Secured Environments accreditation at The Arbor, Bankside Yards. The 19-storey office building beneath Blackfriars Station scored 49 green ratings and one amber from 50 criteria assessed by police-backed auditors Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International (PRCI).Secured Environments is managed by Police Crime Prevention Initiatives and PRCI. Established in 2007, the scheme assesses how organisations manage security operationally through six core principles: leadership commitment, understanding security risks, developing effective responses, managing security effectively, implementing security properly, and monitoring crime prevention initiatives. Awards last three years.
To expose official corruption in Nigeria, re-orientate the psyche of Nigerians and usher in the Nigerian renaissance
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