MP Fox: UK must lead on big data

Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox has waded into the “big data” debate, urging UK companies to lead the world in adopting large data-sets and create “tens of thousands” of data scientist jobs.
Fox, the Tory MP for North Somerset, was speaking at a SAS Careers Fair at Brunel University and he claimed that “exploiting and unleashing the potential of big data is a massive economic opportunity”.
Recent research from e-skills UK and SAS claimed the demand for big data specialists is set to grow by nearly 250% to 69,000 within the next five years, as a third of the UK’s larger companies will deploy large-scale data programmes by 2018.
However, it said that three out of five large UK organisations find it challenging to hire people with the specialist big data skills that they need.
Both e-skills UK and SAS have asked British employers, academic institutions and government to do more to boost interest in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, to bridge the skills gap in big data and ensure Britain can compete in the global information economy.
Fox urged delegates at the event, which was attended by students and SAS customers, to ensure that the UK would be the first nation to profit from the potential of big data.
“It will happen but will it happen here? Someone is going to exploit it; we have to try to make it happen in the UK. We are going to need tens of thousands of data scientists, and they will be a vital component of our success,” he said.