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Summary
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Metaverse and Web 3.0 brings together Parliamentarians across parties and leading industry experts, technologists, academics, civil society figures and organisations who share a common interest in understanding and impacting policy within the space. We collaborate in order to inform government decision making, improve understanding of these transformative technologies and explore the most pressing opportunities, issues and challenges facing the Metaverse and Web 3.0 landscape.
We keep MPs and Lords in Parliament up-to-date and encourage, support and promote development of the UK’s exciting Metaverse and Web 3.0 scene, helping to shape the creation of a national strategy towards it. Our goal is to ensure that the UK benefits from the full potential of these rapidly growing technologies and is forward leaning so that the most favourable conditions are created, both for safe and sustainable innovation, and for shared and lasting prosperity that leaves no one behind. Therefore we aim to engage with the broad range of areas that these emerging technologies will impact, from the societal and financial to the technical, considering, exploring and facilitating the exchange of ideas and views.
We are working towards ensuring the UK is a global leader in the space when it comes to policymaking and developing a clear regulatory framework that establishes balanced ground rules and best practices. Current legislation needs to be updated to deal with these new sectors and we seek to make sure that policy keeps pace with the latest technological advancements.
The four key words that best sum up our focus and work are: Asses, Mitigate, Incentivise, Collaborate.
The pillars of the APPG are:
- Expert Consultations and Landscaping
- Research, Evaluation and Evidence Gathering
- Ecosystem Building, Convening and Networking
- Policy Recommendations
The APPG has been established to provide evidence, guidance and recommendations, as well as to conduct research and help build up the UK’s ecosystem, in order to ensure that the UK is a pre-eminent global leader in the space and is not left behind during this wave of great technological change. We promote interaction between policymakers and industry leaders to foster understanding, inform proposals and, most importantly, help shape policy in the Metaverse and Web 3.0 space.
What do we do and where are we based?
Hosted in the Houses of Parliament, we provide a forum to bring evidence, use-case analysis and future policy scenarios from throught leaders and experts into the UK Parliament direct to policymakers, whilst considering the challenges and opportunities of innovation and implementation in the space. Through carefully looking at the benefits, barriers and risks, alongside societal, environmental, economic and other implications, together we shape the policy ecosystem needed for the development and deployment of these innovative technologies.
We explore the need for future regulation by providing a forum for discussion and debate about the key issues affecting the sector, looking both at where regulation is suitable and the extent to which it is required. We seek to improve the policy discourse and public understanding of the technologies, market conditions, and the technology ecosystem needed to grow, protect and project Britain’s interests and position in this space. This involves looking at a wide range of areas within Parliament, industry, and society at large including:
- Discussion of what a suitable regulatory framework for the space might look like and what approaches have other countries taken
- Evaluation of the work of the UK Government and UK regulators in terms of policy and progress so far
- Exploration of a wide range of issues particularly regarding data protection, safeguarding system security as well as user safety and anti-fraud protection. Other important areas include ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), financial education and inclusion, advertising standards, international trade, how best to support innovation and how the UK can attract and retain the best talent in the space. You can read more about more key policy priorities here: Read more
How do we work?
Our method of working includes research, taskforces, reports, briefings, and events (e.g. evidence meetings, roundtables, hot topic panel discussions, webinars, showcases and networking receptions). We also commission briefings and reports/white papers, collaborating to develop practical solutions that will shape better development of the Metaverse and Web 3.0 industry in the UK and globally. Throughout our work we adopt the Quadruple Helix Model of Innovation by bringing together the four major actors in the innovation system: policy, industry, academia and civil society, to co-create the future.
We are a non-partisan group aimed at considering, exploring and facilitating the exchange of ideas concerning the risks and opportunities within the Metaverse and Web 3.0 landscape.
What is at stake?
Today’s world is increasingly interconnected and new technologies intertwine themselves interchangeably between the private and public spheres, presenting opportunities, challenges and risks that necessitate cross-party and cross-stakeholder participation in response. The APPG’s overarching aim is to ensure that UK policy keeps apace with and leads technological, economic, and geopolitical developments across the world and that the right balance is struck so that the UK is not left behind during this period of great technological change. We facilitate informed discussions and debates about critical issues, and, importantly, identify solutions that could be implemented by the government of the day.
Public understanding of these technologies and related industries, and policy to support them, has not kept up with this technological revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and accelerated our reliance on technology, refocused government attention on encouraging innovation in the technology market, and reinforced the importance of engaging with technologists as a key part of the solution to critical problems. The promise of a new, more democratic kind of internet that improves upon past iterations is hugely exciting and could perhaps be the answer to the many challenges that the world faces today. From the rise of divisive and authoritarian politics to growing mistrust in public institutions globally, calls for disrupting the status quo are widespread and the world as we know it is on the brink. A key promise of these latest technologies is that they could help unstick the deadlocked state of inertia that many countries and societies have found themselves in where they are incapable of responding adequately to the greatest challenges of our times. The potential is enormous but it must be realised in order to actually make a difference and this is where policymakers have an important role to play.
Strategy and policy around new technologies must jointly address both individual and collective needs, and consider how to best achieve a balance between encouraging innovation and protecting consumer rights. Policy which fails to account for individual rights undermines the democratic values that our government seeks to uphold, whilst policy that stifles innovation means the country falls behind in benefitting from the full potential of the latest cutting edge technologies. This tension, if not accounted for, could ultimately even put citizens at risk. Introducing legislation therefore requires a nuanced, empathetic, cross-party debate to ensure that policy reflects fundamental ethics, norms, and values and is forward leaning.
Why now?
The APPG was established in 2022 in recognition of the transformative nature of these emerging technologies that will profoundly change our societies and the future of how we work, live and interact, as a new, more democratic type of internet is built. We believe that it is critical that the UK is forward leaning when it comes to policymaking, robust consumer protections and encouraging responsible innovation in this rapidly growing space that has been attracting ever greater attention in recent years. A truly privacy-preserving, more decentralised and more democratic digital world is something most around the world would want to see and the promise is very exciting. However, just because the future of the internet could be built with these values in mind does not necessarily mean it will end up that way. The Metaverse and Web 3.0. space is still very much in its infancy but it is precisely in these early days that we have the chance to most effectively shape its direction towards safe and sustainable innovation and demand that its drivers seriously consider and address major issues from the start. By being proactive from a policy perspective, we can avoid awkwardly patching up egregious errors after it is already too late, in a similar manner to how we have seen societies deal with issues around many other mega-platforms and bad actors in previous waves of innovation.
The APPG has been launched at an important time, with growing interest from policymakers globally, heated debates about how to stimulate innovation whilst protecting consumers, and various different approaches being adopted by countries around the world towards the space. Governments and regulators have an important role to play to ensure that this wave of innovation is more inclusive than previous ones, leaving nobody behind and to ensure that the country can make the most of the many opportunities presented by these new technologies. This is where the APPG comes in to help make the UK one of the most pioneering global leaders in this important space, shaping an exciting future for our country!
Who runs the APPG?
You can see the official register entry of the APPG for the Metaverse and Web 3.0 here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/220722/metaverse-and-web-3.0.htm The Group is co-chared by Simon Fell MP and Baroness Uddin. You can see the other members of the APPG which includes cross-party MPs and Lords who bring broad experience and expertise from a range of sectors here: Click here
The Group’s Secretariat which supports the work of the APPG is the UKIIC Accelerator and also serves as the Advisory Board to the APPG. You can see the Advisory Board Members here: Click here
The APPG encourages participation from thought leaders across business, technology, academia, policy bodies, civil society and more.
All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal all-party groups in the UK Parliament. They are run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords. The APPG aims to function as the permanent authoritative voice within the UK Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords) on all Metaverse and Web 3.0 related matters. It has become a key reference point for policymakers, regulators, industry, academia, civil society and others interested in the space.
This is not an official website of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. It has not been approved by either House or its committees. All-Party Parliamentary Groups are informal groups of Members of both Houses with a common interest in particular issues. The views expressed in these webpages are those of the group.
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