— What is Labour’s tech plan? They don’t fully know themselves yet, but we’ve got some clues.

— ‘Well-intentioned’ efforts have done little to increase diversity in STEM industries, a Commons Report finds today, outlining how we can do better.

—  It’s the morning after TikTok’s boss faced a lengthy grilling in the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, Parliament is the latest organization to block the app on its devices. 

Good morning and happy Friday.

You’ve almost made it to the weekend, but before we let you go, an important message: 

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Send your news, tips and views to the team: Annabelle Dickson, Mark Scott and me on email. You can also follow us on Twitter @TomSBristow @NewsAnnabelle @markscott82. 

WHAT WOULD LABOUR DO? With the Labour Party still miles ahead in the opinion polls, the tech industry is on tenterhooks to work out what the pitch from a Prime Minister Keir Starmer is going to be, and what it might mean for them. Labour strategists tell us they don’t want it to be just about Big Tech bashing.

More regulation coming? Regulation is coming in “various forms around the world,” Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell, who has the all-important tech brief in the shadow cabinet, told Morning Tech. It shouldn’t be a “means to just stop everything, and stop the world happening,” she said, but to “enable good practice” and “give people confidence.” 

You’ll have to wait though: It is “too soon” for the all-important detail of what that might mean in practice, although Powell says she is open to more online safety laws if the various amendment efforts in the House of Lords don’t do enough to toughen up the current government’s bill. 

German example: In the meantime, strategists at the heart of the Starmer operation are looking more broadly at how tech could be used to reform public services. They are examining digital policy in Germany where they think the “positive vision for tech that makes it a tool for social democratic values” pitch could be a vote winner. You can read more here. 

Coming attraction: Shadow ministers, officials and think tankers are working on a paper, due to be published in May, which will lay the foundations of the party’s approach to tech and the wider digital economy, if it wins power at the next election. Watch this space.

Quick-fire Powell: While we spoke to Powell this week, we put her through the quick-fire paces. In the big AI debate, Powell opted to “write it herself” over using ChatGPT. She opted for U.K.-style regulation rather than choosing U.S.-style or EU-style lawmaking. She chose Twitter over TikTok, but favored Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg over the “big ego” of Twitter’s Elon Musk. 

VALLANCE REVIEWS: Sir Patrick will look back at his time as Chief Scientific Adviser and ahead to challenges the government faces in a talk at the Institute for Government at 1 p.m.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: The data bill is coming back to Parliament for its second reading on April 17.

**A message from Google: What do parents really want to know about online safety? Google and Mumsnet invited the 8 million-strong Mumsnet community to share questions for experts and MPs at a recent roundtable. The takeaway? Helping families start conversations is key. Learn more here.**

NOT MOVING THE DIAL: The Commons Science and Tech Committee released a report this morning into diversity in STEM, or rather the lack of it. Workers from ethnic minority groups, particularly people from Black Caribbean backgrounds, are massively underrepresented across science, tech, engineering and math. Meanwhile, there is a very low uptake of physics (23 percent) and computer science (13 percent) among girls at school, leading to issues with women’s career progression in STEM fields.

Nine years later: MPs on the committee said it was “sadly notable” that many of the conclusions from a 2014 report on STEM diversity could still apply today. 

Business not as normal: One of the report’s key findings is that “well-intentioned efforts” have done little to improve diversity. The most important part? “The status quo must not be accepted by those with the ability to drive change. It is not simply a legacy problem that will fade as society becomes more diverse. Action must be taken that truly moves the dial,” it reads. Chair Greg Clark adds: “No one intervention can solve this. As well as better data, we need targeted interventions that really make a difference.”

Now do this: The committee wants the government, led by DSIT, to make improving diversity and inclusion in STEM part of its mission, and to set out how it intends to achieve this. Its recommendations fall into two broad areas – education and research.

On education: MPs heard evidence that the national curriculum constrained efforts to improve representation. The committee wants the curriculum to be updated to include more diverse examples of scientists, for example. They also said there was a lack of Black science teachers.

On research: The report said there were no Black male postdoctoral physics researchers in the U.K., while in one research council committee, there were no attendees who disclosed their ethnicity as Black over five years.

And funding: MPs said the country’s main R&D funding body, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), should set and meet targets to reduce underrepresentation in funding awards. On awarding bodies, they said greater diversity could be achieved by appointing on potential, rather than on past achievements.

Right on cue: UKRI published its first equality, diversity and inclusion strategy yesterday, setting out how it intends to build a “thriving, globally attractive research and innovation system where everyone feels included, and can participate in, contribute to, and benefit from our investments.” You can read the strategy here.

Leading by example: A mention to DSIT who will have the only all-female executive committee in Whitehall next month when Professor Dame Angela McLean succeeds Sir Patrick Vallance.

“Renewed focus and energy”: “It is great to hear the committee has called out these glaring disparities which have long stymied our STEM sector and have largely been ignored by legacy government policy,” Ashleigh Ainsley, co-founder of Colorintech, told Morning Tech. “Sadly as the publication outlines, much hasn’t improved in the last decade. However we are optimistic that renewed focus and energy from [DSIT] will mean they actually take on the recommendations and tackle this issue head-on.”

HATE SPEECH: France’s top court has forced Twitter to provide more information on how it fights hate speech online in the country, POLITICO reports.

BEIJING: The Chinese commerce ministry has said it is firmly opposed to a forced sale of TikTok, warning it could damage foreign investment in the U.S., the FT reports.

**Have you registered to the FIC yet? The opening session will include speeches by the EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, a ministerial panel about resilience in the digital world and Agency Director panels about the defense-security continuum.**

CEO GETS GRILLED IN WASHINGTON: U.S. lawmakers saw momentum to re-up a push for privacy legislation as TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew took the stage to testify before Congress on Thursday. The controversy over TikTok and the risks it poses to U.S. and Europeans’ data “helped move the privacy bill” forward, Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois, told POLITICO’s Rebecca Kern after the hearing.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers plans to reintroduce an American Data Privacy and Protection Act in the coming weeks that would ban targeted ads and the collection of sensitive data from kids under 17. Pressed on what he thinks of that proposal, Chew said: “I actually am in support of some rules on privacy.” (The “some” does a lot of lifting here.)

One quote that stuck: “Within minutes of creating an account, your algorithm can promote suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders to children,” the chair of the session Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Republican, from Washington state) told Chew during the hearing.

Recap: TikTok’s CEO did not pass the vibe check, Rebecca Kern reported in her recap of the hearing.

Meanwhile, in London: As Chew took a seat in front of Congress, 3,500 miles away more bad news was breaking. At 2 p.m., the U.K. Parliament sent out an email to MPs, telling them they would no longer be able to access the app using parliamentary Wi-Fi or on parliamentary devices. The Scottish government, meanwhile, followed London in banning TikTok on official devices.

Counter-attack: The BBC announced it was advising staff to remove the app from their work devices on Wednesday, in a move that appears to have made TikTok nervous. Morning Tech hears that on a video call on Wednesday with media reps, TikTok’s public affairs boss Theo Bertram hit back, explaining why the company was not a security threat.

HOW TO BECOME A SUPERPOWER: A report from Pragmatic Semiconductor, a microchip developer in Cambridge, has set out 10 ways the U.K. can meet its tech “superpower” ambitions. With input from MPs, think tanks and industry bodies at a parliamentary roundtable, its main ask is for the government to “level the playing field” with other countries by providing incentives for science and tech companies to keep their operations in the U.K.

No surprises: It also wants policy papers on AI and semiconductors published ASAP (not long to go now) and to use public sector procurement to support U.K. firms. Oh and supply chains need securing too.

Selling the Brits: The report calls for a global comms campaign to promote British tech abroad and more opportunities for U.K. post-grads to do international secondments. It also wants a streamlined visa system. Conservative MP for Sedgefield, Paul Howell, who chaired the roundtable said he was looking “forward to the debate” the report would provoke. Stay tuned.

BUILD DIGITAL: Building Digital UK is looking for a chief exec in London or Manchester. The salary is up to £120,000 and you’ll be leading the agency as it delivers digital infrastructure for the hardest to reach areas.

SKILLS: A report by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee lays out the importance of more investment in digital skills to kickstart the economy.

FEELING CHIPPER: Arm is looking to raise the prices of its chip designs ahead of an anticipated float in New York later this year, the FT reports.  

Morning Tech wouldn’t happen without editor Oscar Williams, Emma Anderson and Grace Stranger.

**A message from Google: Parents understand the joys and pitfalls of family life online better than anyone. So Mumsnet and Google invited parents from the Mumsnet community to share their most pressing questions about online safety, for MPs and experts to discuss at a policy roundtable event. Experts including Paul Scully MP, Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, Internet Matters CEO Carolyn Bunting, and broadcaster and “Honest Mum” author Vicki Broadbent looked at how policy can help protect children online. One of the main takeaways from the discussion was the shared responsibility of government, schools, and parents. Legislation can help create the right conditions for a safer internet, and teachers can help support good habits, but only parents know the right balance for their family online. Google offers tools to help parents start the conversation with their children. Learn more here.**