Research and analysis

Digital and Technologies Sector Statistics – Sector Definition

Published 4 June 2026

1. Summary

The Digital and Technologies (D&T) sector is 1 of the 8 priority sectors in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. A clear and consistent definition is required to support monitoring and evaluation of the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan and to enable robust measurement of the sector across statistical outputs.

This release presents 2 complementary approaches to define the D&T sector:

(1) A company-list definition (preferred), which identifies in‑scope companies directly using Company Registration Numbers (CRNs). This definition has been used in this statistical release and is best suited to analysis where company‑level identifiers can be applied (including linking to administrative and commercial microdata). It is designed to capture fast‑evolving and cross‑cutting D&T activity that is not well represented in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.

(2) A SIC-based proxy (supplementary), which provides a practical approximation where company‑level identifiers cannot be used (for example, where only SIC‑coded aggregates are available, or for certain cross‑sector comparisons). The proxy is less precise and should be interpreted as an approximation rather than equivalent to the company‑list definition.

2. Company-Level Sector Definition

This release adopts a dynamic, company-based definition of the D&T sector, rather than relying on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. “Dynamic” reflects that the company lists are updated periodically (some components are updated annually, while others are updated less frequently) to incorporate new companies entering the sector, company closures, and evolving activities. Therefore, the D&T definition in this statistical series may change between releases as the underlying company lists are refreshed. This approach is intended to better capture the cross-cutting and fast-evolving nature of D&T activities, which are often poorly represented within SIC codes.

Traditional SIC‑based approaches are a weak basis for defining frontier technologies, as frontier technology companies typically account for small proportions of multiple SIC codes, rather than forming the majority activity within a small number of codes. As a result, SIC‑based statistics risk either including significant non‑relevant activity or omitting companies that should be in scope.

To address this, DSIT has developed company‑level sector definitions, referred to as company lists. These company lists identify in‑scope companies directly, rather than inferring sector membership from SIC codes. This definition is DSIT’s preferred definition of the D&T sector.

The D&T sector consists of 107,082 companies, structured around 2 components:

(1) Frontier technologies (10,972 companies) – 6 priority technology areas identified in the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan:

• Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Cyber Security
• Engineering Biology
• Quantum Technologies
• Semiconductors

(2) Digital (96,110 companies excluding overlaps with frontier technologies) – a set of companies comprising the wider digital component of the D&T sector.

Each frontier technology area has an associated company list, and together with a corresponding company list for the digital component, these are combined to form an overall D&T company list.

2.1 Frontier technologies

DSIT has produced several sector studies on the frontier technologies using company lists, with some recent examples including:

• ACT Market Scoping Analysis (forthcoming)
• Artificial Intelligence Sector Study - GOV.UK
• Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis - GOV.UK
• Engineering Biology: Company Performance - GOV.UK
• Quantum Technologies: Company Performance - GOV.UK
• Semiconductor Sector Study (forthcoming)

These sector studies use web‑scraping and machine‑learning approaches to identify UK-based companies whose activities align with sector‑specific keywords and taxonomies. Companies are identified using Company Registration Numbers (CRNs)^{[footnote 1]}, which enables consistent matching across datasets.

Each company list is subject to expert validation to reduce the risk of systematic classification errors. This validation typically includes company‑level sense‑checks of activity and market relevance, such as review of company websites and expert assessment as described in DSIT sector studies.

For this release, the latest available company list for each frontier technology area has been combined to create a single frontier technology company list. These underlying company lists are based on data from different time periods and are not updated on a rolling basis, meaning coverage is not consistent across technologies. As a result, the company lists may not fully capture the current population of companies at a given point in time, so more recent entrants may be excluded.

• Advanced Connectivity Technologies – company list based on 2025 data
• Artificial Intelligence – company list based on 2024 data
• Cyber Security – company list based on 2025 data
• Engineering Biology – company list based on 2023 data
• Quantum Technologies – company list based on 2024 data
• Semiconductors – company list based on 2025 data

Company lists are periodically updated; the combined D&T company list used in this release may not fully reflect the latest versions of individual frontier technology company lists following subsequent quality assurance. The D&T company list will be reviewed at least annually, at which point any updates to its constituent company lists will be considered. Until then, this company list reflects the most accurate and up-to-date definition of the D&T sector.

Further detail on the methodology underpinning individual lists is provided in the technical documentation accompanying each sector study.

Companies can appear in more than one individual frontier technology company list. For the purposes of constructing an overall frontier technology company list, companies are deduplicated by CRN, so each company is counted once in the total. In total, 500 overlapping companies appear in more than one frontier technology list and have been identified and deduplicated.

Individual DSIT sector studies apply different, sector-specific company classification frameworks (for example, distinguishing between ‘dedicated’ and ‘diversified’ companies for some frontier technologies). An overview of these classifications is provided in Table 1. Because these classifications are not consistent across all frontier technologies, they cannot currently be used to produce comparable breakdowns across the full D&T sector in this release.

Instead, this release presents economic statistics by company size (based on employment levels) to illustrate where aggregate values may be driven by larger, often more diversified companies. For financial statistics, Beauhurst company life cycle stage classifications (seed, venture, growth, and established) are used which draw on multiple indicators including company age, employee numbers, revenues, valuation, and cumulative equity raised.

The methodology used to identify frontier technology companies will continue to be refined in future releases as classification approaches develop.

Table 1. Company classifications used in DSIT frontier technology sector studies

Advanced Connectivity Technologies
- Core ACT companies primarily or exclusively provide ACT-related solutions to the market.
- Hybrid companies are telecommunications companies with some involvement in, or reference to, ACT as part of a broader business.
Artificial Intelligence
- Dedicated AI companies are those for which all or most activity is assumed to be AI-related.
- Diversified AI companies are those where only a portion of employees is estimated to be engaged in AI activity.
Cyber Security
- Dedicated cyber security companies are those for which all or most revenue or employment can be attributed to the provision of cyber security products or services.
- Diversified cyber security companies are those for which only part of revenue or employment is attributable to the provision of cyber security products or services.
Engineering Biology
- Application engineering biology companies use engineering biology to develop products and services across sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and food.
- Supply chain engineering biology companies operate within the enabling engineering biology supply chain.
Quantum Technologies
No study‑specific sub‑classification is applied (single list).
Semiconductors
- Dedicated semiconductor companies specialise in the design, development, and manufacture of semiconductors.
- Diversified semiconductor companies operate across multiple industries, including semiconductors as one area of activity.

2.2 Digital component

Unlike frontier technologies, digital activities are more readily identifiable using SIC codes. As a result, a separate machine‑learning‑based company list is not strictly required for the digital component. However, to facilitate statistical analysis of the whole D&T sector, a company list of digital companies has been constructed

This process uses an updated SIC-based digital sector definition as a starting point, based on the SIC code envelope set out in the Defining and Measuring the UK Digital Economy report. This base definition differs from the Digital Sector definition used in the Digital Sector Economic Estimates series. From this base, SIC codes that overlap substantially with other Industrial Strategy sector definitions (for example, Creative Industries) are reviewed and removed where appropriate, resulting in a refined set of digital SIC codes.

This approach differs from the Defining and Measuring the UK Digital Economy report, which uses IDBR (Inter-Departmental Business Register) data for producing the list. Instead, companies are identified by mapping SIC codes to company-level data in the FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) database, which provides additional filters not available in the IDBR (e.g. restricting to companies with a website). FAME is a commercial database that covers millions of companies in the UK and Ireland, drawing primarily on Companies House filings, supplemented with information on ownership and corporate structures from Moody’s. For more information, see Moody’s website.

Companies reporting one of the refined SIC codes as their primary SIC code are selected. Companies are then filtered to retain only those with an associated website. Frontier technology lists rely on web‑derived signals and restricting the digital list to companies with a web presence helps ensure consistency between the 2 components of the definition. This may, however, under‑represent some smaller companies without a recorded website.

The resulting digital company list is then combined with the frontier technology list, and duplicates are removed to create the overall D&T company list, so that companies appearing in both components are counted once in the overall D&T company list. If you wish to produce estimates on the D&T sector, please contact economicestimates@dsit.gov.uk.

3. SIC-Level Sector Proxy

The company‑list‑based D&T definition described above is DSIT’s preferred definition for most analytical contexts. However, there are limited use cases where company‑level identifiers cannot be applied. Some datasets and reporting products are only available at the SIC-level, and some analyses require consistent SIC‑based comparisons across Industrial Strategy sectors. For these purposes, this release also includes a revised SIC‑based proxy definition of the D&T sector.

This proxy builds on and supersedes the SIC‑based definition used in the June 2025 Digital and Technologies Sector Plan. To improve its relevance, the primary SIC codes reported by companies in the D&T company list are analysed to identify SIC codes most representative of D&T activity.

Compared with the original SIC‑based definition, this proxy is better aligned with the D&T policy remit set out in the Sector Plan, as it removes SIC codes with limited D&T presence and those that overlap substantially with other Industrial Strategy sectors where appropriate.

As a result, the revised proxy does not align with the broader digital‑economy definition, which extends beyond the D&T policy scope. That definition is designed to measure the digital economy as a whole and is not intended to approximate DSIT’s Sector Plan remit. This is why this release provides a separate D&T SIC proxy aligned to the sector‑list definition. For further information visit Defining and measuring the UK digital economy - GOV.UK.

This SIC proxy is provided for supplementary use only for any analysis that cannot rely on company-level data and should not be considered equivalent in precision to the company-list-based definition. Where SIC proxies are necessary, DSIT recommends using this new proxy going forward.

3.1 SIC Proxy Construction

The SIC-based proxy definition of the D&T sector that was published in the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan has been revised using information from the new D&T company list – specifically, the primary SIC code under which companies in the D&T company list are registered at Companies House. The SIC-based proxy definition is based on SIC 2007 codes.

In revising the proxy, DSIT assessed 3 factors, with a corresponding criterion for each:

1. Factor: How important is the SIC code to the D&T sector?

   • Criterion: At least 5% of companies in the D&T company list are registered under this SIC code

2. Factor: How important is the SIC code to individual frontier technologies?

   • Criterion: At least 15% of companies in the frontier technology company lists are registered under this SIC code

3. Factor: How important is the D&T sector to the SIC code?

   • Criterion: D&T companies account for at least 15% of all companies classified under that SIC code

SIC codes from the original proxy were retained in the revised proxy if they met at least 1 of these 3 criteria.

3.2 SIC Proxy Limitations

This method results in a narrower SIC‑based proxy that better aligns with the Sector Plan policy scope (see Tables 2 and 3). However, the proxy does not fully capture all companies in the preferred D&T company list and also includes some non-D&T companies.

Specifically:

• 21% of companies in the D&T company list are not captured by the revised SIC proxy; and
• 61% of companies captured by the revised SIC proxy are non‑D&T companies.

These limitations are due to the aggregate nature of SIC codes, which do not capture well the activities of emerging and often cross‑cutting D&T companies.

Table 2: SIC codes included in the revised proxy of the D&T sector

SIC	Description
2611	Manufacture of electronic components
2612	Manufacture of loaded electronic boards
2620	Manufacture of computers and peripheral equipment
2630	Manufacture of communication equipment
2640	Manufacture of consumer electronics
2651	Manufacture of instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation
2731	Manufacture of fibre optic cables
4651	Wholesale of computers, computer peripheral equipment and software
5829	Other software publishing
6110	Wired telecommunications activities
6120	Wireless telecommunications activities
6130	Satellite telecommunications activities
6190	Other telecommunications activities
6201	Computer programming activities
6202	Computer consultancy activities
6203	Computer facilities management activities
6209	Other information technology service activities
6311	Data processing, hosting and related activities
6312	Web portals
7211	Research and experimental development on biotechnology
7219	Other research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering
9511	Repair of computers and peripheral equipment

Table 3: SIC codes excluded from the revised proxy of the D&T sector

SIC	Description
2670	Manufacture of optical instruments and photographic equipment
2680	Manufacture of magnetic and optical media
2732	Manufacture of other electronic and electric wires and cables
2790	Manufacture of other electrical equipment
4652	Wholesale of electronic and telecommunications equipment and parts
5811	Book publishing
5812	Publishing of directories and mailing lists
5813	Publishing of newspapers
5814	Publishing of journals and periodicals
5819	Other publishing activities
5821	Publishing of computer games
5911	Motion picture, video and television programme production activities
5912	Motion picture, video and television programme post-production activities
5913	Motion picture, video and television programme distribution activities
5914	Motion picture projection activities
5920	Sound recording and music publishing activities
6010	Radio broadcasting
6020	Television programming and broadcasting activities
6391	News agency activities
6399	Other information service activities n.e.c.
7112	Engineering activities and related technical consultancy
7120	Technical testing and analysis
9512	Repair of communication equipment

3.3 SIC Proxy Appropriate use

Use of this SIC proxy is recommended only where company‑level identifiers cannot be applied, for example due to data availability or the scope of the analysis. Examples include analyses based on published business population statistics available only by SIC; work using third‑party datasets without CRNs; and cross‑sector comparisons where all sectors are represented using SIC proxies.

In such cases, analysts should explicitly acknowledge the limitations set out in Section 3.2 – in particular, the extent to which the proxy does not capture D&T companies; and the extent to which it captures non‑D&T companies.

These limitations will be reviewed and updated annually as the company‑list‑based definition evolves.

4. Feedback 

This is an ad-hoc statistical release using exploratory methods to produce statistics for the D&T sector. We welcome feedback on the sector definition used. Please contact: economicestimates@dsit.gov.uk.

5. Footnotes

1. A Company Registration Number (CRN) is a unique, unchangeable 8-digit identifier (or 2 letters followed by 6 numbers) assigned to incorporated businesses in the UK by Companies House. ↩