What BCS stands for
As the professional body for computing, BCS champions a tech industry that works for everyone. Here’s what we believe:
- Accountability matters: The responsible and trusted use of technology, especially AI, depends on IT experts with strong professional standards, ethical oversight, and transparent accountability.
- Those in a significant IT role—especially in vital services like health, defence, or infrastructure—should be professionally registered. That means becoming Chartered, just as engineers or accountants are expected to do.
- Digital skills for life: Every child and adult deserves a world-class computing and digital literacy education. The digital divide is today’s measure of inequality—and closing it is essential if the UK wants to stay ahead on the global stage.
- Tech that reflects society: Trust, bias, and safety issues in tech won’t be fixed until we fix the diversity gap. Over half a million women are ‘missing’ from the profession, and older people and disabled people are still under-represented. We’ll only build tech that works for everyone when it’s built by everyone.
Discover more BCS policy
Key policy stakeholders we work with:
As the professional body for information technology, we have partnerships and associations with other organisations and bodies across the sector.
BCS is an active member of:
- The National Engineering Policy Centre, hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering
- The UK Cyber Security Council, which is the self-regulatory body for the UK's cyber security profession
- The Alliance for Data Science Professionals, which is an alliance of the Royal Statistical Society, BCS, the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, the Operational Research Society, the National Physical Laboratory, and the Alan Turing Institute, which is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society
- The Data Skills Taskforce, hosted by the Alan Turing Institute, which is a forum for many organisations working to support DCMS to address the UK’s data skills challenge
- The Federation for Informatics Professions (FEDIP), is the only public register for all informatics professionals in the UK dedicated to delivering better health and care through the advanced use of technology.
- Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) Diverse IT Charter - BCS is one of the founding members of the DiversIT charter, a CEPIS flagship initiative, aimed at reducing gender disparity in IT roles
