Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance and RegTech UK, says the Government’s Digital Identity announcement “raises concerns about innovation that need to be addressed swiftly”.

“Reusable digital identity and verification is a critical component of the tech stack that forms the building blocks for FinTech innovation in the UK – helping to reduce fraud and enable financial inclusion,” she said. “The decision to mandate Government ID however risks the discussion being focused on civil liberty and sovereignty – rather than the utility and innovation this technology can bring to people across the UK. It is also vital that the roll-out of Digital ID supports a competitive market, underpinned by a trust framework, not via a monopoly or costly State solution.

“Equally, mandating a Government-issued ID could crowd out companies who have been developing innovative solutions which are accredited against the Government’s own legal framework.

“Design and delivery must enable multiple service providers, unlocking innovation and supporting the growth of our nascent UK digital verification innovators.

“It could provide a useful identity attribute which can then be used by verification providers to provide a range of services. If, however, it becomes the de facto identity scheme or is delivered in a way that hands market power to a few large corporates, it will kill the UK’s innovation opportunity and undermine trust. Swift clarification is needed from the Government on design and delivery principles to prevent his announcement from freezing investment in our vibrant scale up tech firms in this sector.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

We reported this morning that Sara Murray OBE was part of a group of shareholders seeking to oust the chairman of Big Technologies plc, the firm she founded and with whom she is embroiled in a £320m High Court battle.

Murray has now provided a statement to BusinessCloud which claims the board held back this morning’s announcement by a week.

“I think the shareholders are absolutely right to believe that the sooner Alexander Brennan steps down and James Matheson takes over, the better it will be for everyone,” she said, adding: “Given the damage he has done to the business, this is not a moment too soon. I have every confidence that James Matheson will be an excellent independent new chairman and will quickly start to turn the company around.”

Investor Andrew Richer, a former Assistant Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police, said: “I, and a number of other small shareholders, have been asking a series of pertinent questions of the current board as to why they have taken certain actions which we regard as contrary to shareholders’ interests. Answers have either been unsatisfactory or not forthcoming. As a result, we came to the conclusion that a board change was necessary, and on enquiry, it became clear that the majority of shareholders concurred with that view.

“Accordingly, we approached the board of BIG with a request that the views of shareholders be acted upon and provided evidence that the majority of shareholders wished this action to be taken. For reasons which are unfathomable to me, the board appear to be resisting the reasonable request of a majority of the owners of the company.

“It appears that the board have forgotten for whom they work.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Facebook and Instagram are to offer UK users the option of subscribing to avoid seeing adverts in a move welcomed by data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Parent company Meta said that over the coming weeks, it will give people in the UK the choice of subscribing for £2.99/month on the web or £3.99/month on iOS and Android for the first account.

“The experience for those who choose to use our services for free will not change. They will continue to see ads on our platforms and will still be able to control their ads experience,” it added.

The move is a response to recent UK regulatory guidance and following extensive engagement with the ICO.

A spokesperson for the ICO said: “This moves Meta away from targeting users with ads as part of the standard terms and conditions for using its Facebook and Instagram services, which we’ve been clear is not in line with UK law. 

“People must be given meaningful transparency and choice about how their information is used. At the same time, the ICO recognises that online platforms, like every business, need to operate commercially. 

“During the course of our engagement with Meta, it significantly lowered the starting price point at which users would be offered a subscription. As a result, users in the UK will be able to subscribe at a price point close to half that of EU users. 

“In updating its services in this way, Meta has taken steps to address its non-compliance.”

4,000 new jobs are set to be created in London as Japanese property development company Mitsubishi Estate broke ground at its site on Southbank in a major boost for the UK’s creative industries sector.

The £800 million investment will provide 600,000 square feet of new commercial and cultural spaces, including 40,000 square feet of affordable workspace that is tailored to Lambeth’s emerging creative sector with new high-end offices, cultural venues, studios, gallery and presentation spaces.

The former ITV Studio site will also feature a cultural hub that will provide discounted rents for qualifying tenants, encouraging local businesses to start and grow.

School of Coding & AI – the UK’s largest educator in artificial intelligence and coding – has unveiled new £2.5 million state-of-the-art facilities in Birmingham aimed at increasing accessibility and inclusiveness in higher education.

For the start of the new academic year, is has transformed the disused upper floor of its Birmingham campus into a showcase of AI and technology innovation.

SoC opened the campus earlier this year in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton. At the start of the year, 800 students were enrolled, with 500 more beginning this month. The team now includes 13 highly skilled lecturers across computer science, business management, and health and social care.

Author: Matthew Holman, AI and data lawyer at top 100 law firm Cripps

The government has not yet made the case for why this method will be more effective than other current methods, especially regarding the right to work which already requires provision of ID in the form of passports, utility bills etc. Is the argument simply that a digital ID will be harder to forge?

Similar things do exist in the EU already, with 15 countries having some form of rule regarding ID cards. The existence of these cards has not eliminated fraudulent access to public services or illegal immigration. Examples include Greece (where a national ID card is compulsory from 12 years old) and Bulgaria (where you can be fined for not carrying an ID card).

The PM’s announcement today was in front of his equivalents from Australia and Canada – neither of which have digital IDs of the kind Starmer is suggesting.

A significant part of whether UK citizens feel able to trust the government will in fact hinge on how effectively the government can be held to account if things go wrong with the use of digital data, such as for example being fined for breaches of data protection law arising from unlawful use of digital ID cards.

However, a significant fly in the ointment is that the UK’s state appointed data protection authority (the Information Commissioner’s Office) has become increasingly weak, lenient and disinclined to punish wrongdoing, especially by public bodies. This could result in a situation where the government is not effectively held to account for use – or misuse – of personal data arising from digital ID cards.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has confirmed plans for a new digital ID scheme aimed at tackling illegal working. He says people will not be able to work in the UK without one.

“Frankly, we’ve been squeamish about saying things that are clearly true… every nation needs to have control over its borders,” he said when announcing the move, interpreted as a move to fend off Reform and its populist leader Nigel Farage.

He added the immigration system needs to be “fair” to win the trust of the population.

Cogna has made two senior appointments as the AI-powered bespoke software company scales internationally to meet demand from utilities, logistics and manufacturing clients.

Luke Rogers, currently VP sales EMEA at AI unicorn ComplyAdvantage, joins as go-to-market advisor. He helped AppDynamics grow from $80m to a $3.7bn Cisco acquisition, then grew Instabase revenue more than 7x.

James Dickinson becomes UK solution strategy director. He is a former early Palantir London employee who most recently ran AI strategy at the NHS, working with DeepMind, AWS and NVIDIA on genomics applications.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A founder accused of forgery by the listed firm she founded is part of a bid to oust its chair.

Sara Murray OBE is embroiled in a £320m High Court battle with Big Technologies plc after it dismissed her from the position of CEO in March. Murray’s assets have been effectively frozen during the case; and two weeks ago Big Technologies accused her of forgery and deliberate falsification of documents to push through the company’s £577m IPO in 2021. 

Now Murray is part of a group of shareholders seeking to remove Alexander Brennan, the company’s chairman, from the board and replace him with James Graham Matheson.

Murray – who founded and sold comparison website Confused.com earlier in her entrepreneurial career – was once appointed to the technology strategy board of Gordon Brown’s Labour government.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has secured formal commitments from Ticketmaster – known as undertakings – to improve the information made available to fans when buying tickets for gigs.

It follows widespread criticism of the way it sold tickets for Oasis’ comeback tour. Ticketmaster did not tell fans waiting in lengthy queues that standing tickets were being sold at two different prices, and that prices would jump as soon as the cheap tickets sold out; and it also sold some ‘platinum’ tickets at almost 2.5 times the price of ‘standard’ tickets – without sufficient explanation that these offered no additional benefits over some ‘standard’ tickets in the same areas of the venue.

Ticketmaster will be required to tell fans 24 hours in advance if a tiered pricing system is being used, as well as provide more information about ticket prices during online queues, helping fans anticipate how much they might have to pay. It must also not use any misleading ticket labels.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

A listed investment trust has revealed significant progress in its winding down of operations.

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc has invested in data centres, subsea fibre and wireless network assets since IPO in March 2021. It said in January 2024 that it was to wind down operations following the conclusion of a strategic review.

It has now disposed of all but two of its businesses and paid off its revolving credit facility.

A new National Commission will help accelerate safe access to AI in healthcare and across the NHS by advising on a new regulatory rulebook, set to be published next year.

With expertise from global AI leaders, clinicians and regulators, the Government says the Commission will immediately review tech that’s being held back by regulatory uncertainty, such as AI assistants for doctors.

It follows new tech being trialled to speed up discharges and let GPs focus on patients instead of taking notes, as tech plays central part in transforming the NHS under Labour’s Plan for Change.

MindGym plc, a global provider of human capital and business improvement solutions, has appointed Nick Stone as interim CFO to cover the forthcoming maternity leave of Emily Fyffe, with effect from October 2025.

Stone has held senior finance roles at AIM and main market companies including as CFO at Braemar Plc (2019-2023), group finance director at Hornby plc (2013-2016) and operations and finance director at KBC Advanced Technologies PLC (2001-2012).

He will not be appointed as a director or join the board of the company. Fyffe anticipates returning to a full-time role in October 2026.

The board of Smarttech247 Group PLC,  a provider of AI-enhanced cybersecurity services, is proposing a cancellation of the company’s admission to trading on London’s junior AIM market.

Headquartered in Cork, Ireland, the firm has offices in several global locations including London. It provides automated managed detection and response for a portfolio of international clients.

The firm also reported revenue ahead of market guidance for the year to 31st July 2025, adding: “Recurring revenue for FY2025 represents approximately 74% of total unaudited revenues for the year compared to 61% for FY2024.”

Renalytix plc raised £7m from its recent share placing, subscription and retail offer as it seeks to expand its product into the US market.

The precision medicine diagnostics company is behind kidneyintelX.dkd, which claims to be the only FDA-approved and Medicare-reimbursed prognostic test to support early-stage risk assessment in chronic kidney disease.

Zilch, which claims to be the UK’s fastest growing FinTech, has appointed Boriana Tchobanova as chief operating officer.

Tchobanova joins from American Express Global Business Travel, where she served as chief transformation officer, leading the business’ post-COVID recovery and M&A activity – and paving the way for its multiple billion-dollar IPO in 2022.

Prior to this, she spent almost 15 years with American Express across multiple senior roles in strategy, transformation and operations, including as COO of the company’s digital business.

Zilch doubled revenues to £110 million for the year ending March 2025, marking a fourth straight year of 100% growth, with gross profit surging 143%.

The latest hire follows the addition of BlackRock director Mark Wilson to the board as a non-executive director.

The Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund (Ben) is offering bespoke support to the thousands of people affected by the ongoing cyber attack at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

Since 1st September, JLR has experienced a cyber attack that has shut down production at its three manufacturing sites in the UK.

The attack is hitting Merseyside hard, with production at the Halewood site disrupted and workers facing uncertainty over shifts and schedules.

Encyclis and the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have reached a landmark agreement on the commercial framework to deliver the UK’s first full-scale carbon capture plant for Energy-from-Waste, in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

The confirmation of Government support for the Protos carbon capture and storage (CCS) project is described as a breakthrough for UK industrial carbon capture deployment and will advance the North West’s economic growth in pursuit of net zero.

The plant is on track to be operational by mid-2029 and will capture around 370,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from Encyclis’ adjoining Protos Energy Recovery Facility (ERF), which provides an essential public service by safely and sustainably converting non-recyclable waste into baseload electricity, heat and other reusable resources.

FinTech Pleo has launched a new embedded finance solution.

Its says Pleo Embedded allows businesses managing large networks of SME customers to offer their customers smart company cards, automated expenses, accounts payables and real-time cash management suite as a fully white-labelled or co-branded solution.

It marks Pleo’s first move into embedded finance.

Midlands-based HealthTech Rem3dy Health has secured a £500,000 SAFE investment from Future Planet Capital Regional, part of a larger £9 million raise including investors such as Suntory, ADM and UPSA.

The funding will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, build new production facilities and support market growth in key regions including the US and Asia.

Rem3dy Health produces personalised nutrient gummies through its Nourished brand, using patented 3D printing technology to create bespoke seven-layer ‘stacks’ from natural, food-derived ingredients. To date, the firm has raised £19m.