Tech News
4 December 2025
UK Autumn 2025 Budget – £300m NHS Tech Boost, £1.8bn Digital ID Plan, and More
The Autumn 2025 Budget held no blockbuster tech surprises but delivered several tech investments – including £300 million extra for NHS technology and a £1.8 billion plan for digital ID cards.
£300m Boost for NHS Technology
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced £300 million of additional capital investment in NHS tech. This is to “boost productivity, support staff and improve patient outcomes, driving the shift from analogue to digital”. The new funding will go into modernising NHS IT systems. For example, expanding the NHS App to ensure seamless communication between GPs and hospitals. Also to close gaps in patients’ access to digital health records.
£1.8bn Digital ID Cards Scheme
The Budget also highlighted plans for a national digital ID card system, though notably no new funding was allocated for it.
Instead, ministers indicated the digital ID scheme will be funded from “existing budgets.” However, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed that rolling out digital ID cards is expected to cost about £1.8 billion over the next three years.
The OBR further noted that “no specific savings have yet been identified” to cover these costs.
Other Tech and Digital Measures
Beyond healthcare IT and digital identity, the Autumn 2025 Budget included a few other tech-focused initiatives:
- Modernising tax systems: Government will invest £59 million in new technology over five years. This is intended to add real-time digital prompts to VAT and Corporation Tax filing software (starting 2027–28). The idea is to help businesses get it right first time by reducing filing errors and simplifying compliance.
- AI and chips: The Treasury launched an “advance market commitment” worth up to £100 million. The hope is to spur development of novel UK-based AI processor chips.
- Startup & scale-up support: Growing tech companies get a boost from new tax incentives. The government is raising the size limits for companies qualifying for Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) stock option schemes. This is so that larger scale-ups can offer tax-advantaged shares to their employees. Similarly, the limits on Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are being raised to let investors continue funding companies beyond the startup phase.
Overall, this Budget emphasises continuity over revolution in tech policy. The government is mostly topping up existing digital projects. They are investing more in NHS IT, laying groundwork for digital IDs, and adjusting tax levers to help tech firms – while keeping an eye on the public finances.
The hope is that this will improve efficiency and spur growth, helping Britain “break out of its cycle of decline through stability, investment and reform“.