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- Policy and influence
- Tech and society
Tech and society
BCS believes in making IT good for society - part of this is navigating the transformative benefits of IT and digital technology safely and securely.
BCS works in a variety of ways with the government, the public sector, private industry and civil society to generate practical solutions to key issues such as online harms, cyber security and data security and protection.
Events, articles and reports
Past reports
Join in
Discover BCS membership! You’ll be joining a thriving community of IT professionals and benefits include access to regular events, conferences, meetings, as well the chance to join our members’ groups such as the ICT Ethics specialist group, or the Law Specialist Group.
Share your support
BCS regularly polls IT professionals and members on topical issues. Our surveys are one way that we listen to our members opinions and this helps to form our policies on major areas of public policy, such as the NHSX contract tracing app.
"Lack of diversity in product development teams is a concern as non-diverse teams may be more likely to follow practices that inadvertently hard-wire bias into new products or services."
Explore our other priorities
Health and care
Digital health is undergoing rapid transformation and BCS, as the professional body for IT, is committed to supporting the establishment of recognised professional standards in this sector. This will enable and empower digital health professionals to mitigate risks and provide secure, insight-driven data to improve patient care.
Education
We support the teaching of rigorous and relevant computer science across the academic spectrum, from primary school to university. We are also the end-point assessor for the thriving digital apprenticeship sector. The UK currently faces a major skills gap and education is the key to kickstarting innovation and sustaining our future economy.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
AI is rapidly affecting all aspects of our lives, but the pace of professional practice doesn’t always keep up with its impact. BCS helps to find solutions to the big public policy questions where AI is used - from facial recognition technology, recruitment, health care and logistics. BCS believes that developing and maintaining a diverse and inclusive AI sector is central to reducing bias in machine learning and delivering AI applications that are fit-for-purpose and representative of our society.
Diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion as standard; that’s the common goal for our industry. Yet women account for only 20% of IT specialists; and BAME IT professionals are less likely to be in senior roles, despite being better qualified. Like many industries, there are complex and wide-ranging challenges we firstly have to face. At BCS, we’re facing them together as a priority.