UK Council for Science and Technology Publishes AI Sovereignty Advice

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The Council for Science and Technology on October 19, 2026, published a letter of advice to Minister for AI Kanishka Narayan on how the UK can build and direct its own AI capability, setting out four recommendations aimed at what the Council calls AI sovereignty.

The letter is dated July 30, 2026, and signed by the Council’s co-chairs, Dame Angela McLean and Lord Browne of Madingley, who congratulated Narayan on his appointment. The co-chairs wrote that the Council is developing advice for the government on AI sovereignty and attached a summary of that advice as it currently stands. The Council describes itself as the government’s top-level independent advisory body on cross-cutting science and technology issues, drawing together leaders from academia, business and finance to advise the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

The letter defines AI sovereignty as having “sufficient agency across the AI value chain to deliver the UK’s chosen outcomes, capture economic and public value for the UK, and maintain resilience under duress.” The Council wrote that choices made now will shape the UK’s long-term competitiveness, resilience, public trust and strategic autonomy, and that the benefits of early action are substantial.

It warned that without deliberate and urgent action, the UK risks becoming a buyer of AI rather than a country able to shape the technology and how it is used.

The letter was copied to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the Secretary of State for Defence, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the chair of the Prime Minister’s AI Taskforce, the Cabinet Secretary and relevant departmental permanent secretaries.