Digital sovereignty becomes a buying filter

Digital sovereignty is moving from a Westminster talking point into a buying question for public bodies that choose software, cloud and data systems. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) A House of Commons Library briefing published on March 6, 2026 said the United Kingdom government has no overarching digital sovereignty policy, even as concern has grown over reliance on United States and Chinese technology. The paper was prepared ahead of a Westminster Hall debate on March 10 led by Labour member of Parliament Chi Onwurah. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) The briefing says the argument is no longer only about ownership. It also covers whether public services can keep running if a supplier changes terms, exits a market or is hit by sanctions or other state action. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) That lands in a government estate that already runs heavily on cloud. The Government Digital Service said on February 18, 2025 that about 60% of United Kingdom government and public sector information technology systems run on cloud services, under a Cloud First policy that central government must follow. (technology.blog.gov.uk) The money is large enough for procurement rules to matter. The official notice for G-Cloud 15, the Crown Commercial Service framework due to run from March 18, 2026 to September 17, 2027, lists an estimated value of £4.8 billion excluding value-added tax, and says G-Cloud spend in fiscal year 2023 to 2024 was £3.1 billion. (find-tender.service.gov.uk) The pressure for a new approach is now explicit in Parliament. An Early Day Motion tabled in February calls for a binding United Kingdom digital sovereignty strategy and says dependence on a small number of external suppliers exposes government services and critical infrastructure to service withdrawal, sanctions and unilateral changes in terms. (edm.parliament.uk) Ministers are also talking more openly about changing how government buys technology. Speaking to the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee in March, science minister Patrick Vallance said future contracts should put British companies into procurement more often, after criticism of Palantir deals in the National Health Service and Ministry of Defence. (theregister.com) The existing rulebook does not tell buyers to avoid foreign vendors outright. The Technology Code of Practice says government should be open, use open source where appropriate, and build with open standards so systems are easier to replace, while the public-sector cloud guide says “one size does not fit all” in cloud strategy. (gov.uk 1) (gov.uk 2) That leaves a live argument over what sovereignty should mean in practice. The Commons briefing says some proposals focus on national origin and domestic capacity, while others argue the safer test is interoperability, portability and access to source code so government is not trapped with one supplier. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) The debate is not confined to Britain. France’s digital agency this week backed plans requiring ministries to prepare for non-American alternatives across operating systems, collaboration tools, databases and network equipment, and asked the state procurement department for a timeline to reduce dependence on American technology. (theregister.com) In Britain, the immediate shift is narrower than a ban and broader than a slogan: buyers are being pushed to ask where systems run, whose law governs them, and how fast they can switch if they have to. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk)