Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether (a) her Department and (b) its Arm’s Length Bodies have financially supported the development of any technical solutions to protect the creative industries from unauthorised AI scraping.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Department has not financially supported the development of any technical solutions to protect the creative industries from unauthorised AI scraping. The Government published a report on AI and copyright on 18 March outlining steps on the use of copyright works in AI training. This includes publishing a review of the mechanisms available for creators to control their works online.
Additionally, UK Research and Innovation funds various investments across Responsible AI development and adoption, including DECaDE: Centre for Decentralised Digital Economy. DECaDE undertook research across technologies to develop robust content fingerprinting, distributed provenance registries, and Trustmark, an open-source watermarking technology.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to Answer of 7 July 2026 to Question 14208, what guidance her Department has issued on the maximum period for which personal data collected for age assurance purposes should be retained.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The government takes the threats of cyber-attacks and data breaches very seriously, which is why the ICO has the power to investigate any concerns raised about the misuse or mishandling of data. It can issue enforcement notices and substantial fines where organisations are found to be in breach of their obligations.
Organisations are required under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act to keep personal data secure and process it fairly, lawfully, and transparently. Whilst the law does not set specific time limits on how long personal data can be held, it stipulates that it cannot be kept for longer than needed.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of personal data retained by age-assurance providers on levels of a) cyber attacks and b) data breaches.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The government takes the threats of cyber-attacks and data breaches very seriously, which is why the ICO has the power to investigate any concerns raised about the misuse or mishandling of data. It can issue enforcement notices and substantial fines where organisations are found to be in breach of their obligations.
Organisations are required under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act to keep personal data secure and process it fairly, lawfully, and transparently. Whilst the law does not set specific time limits on how long personal data can be held, it stipulates that it cannot be kept for longer than needed.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of a) the US Cloud Act and b) the EU AI Act; and whether she has plans to bring forward similar legislation.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The UK’s starting point is relying on existing rules and regulations and empowering our regulators to consider how best to manage the opportunities and risks of AI. We continue to refine our approach to regulating AI and ensuring our law enforcement authorities have the powers they need to keep people safe. DSIT closely monitors international AI legislation from across the US, EU and elsewhere to ensure the UK’s regulatory approach remains suitable.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what industry submissions on cost were received during the consultation on the revised Telecommunications Security Code of Practice 2026; and whether they will publish that underlying data.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Telecommunications Security Code of Practice provides technical guidance for public telecoms providers on how they can comply with their security requirements as set out in the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 and the Electronic Communications (Security Measures) Regulations 2022.
The government is committed to continuously evaluating the effectiveness of the UK’s telecoms security framework, and the Draft Revised Code of Practice strengthens security guidance to public telecoms providers to reflect evolving technology and emerging security threats.
The government ran a consultation on proposed updates to the Telecommunications Security Code of Practice 2022 from 28 August 2025 to 22 October 2025, and an additional cost survey which ran from 25 November 2025 until 28 January 2026.
Cost related feedback received from the consultation, and the additional cost survey, informed the resulting assessment on costs to industry included in the explanatory memorandum for the Draft Revised Code of Practice, published on GOV.UK on 3 June.
Indicative estimates suggest potential one-off implementation costs of the proposed updates to the Code being in the order of £1.9 million to £3.2 million per provider. Estimates for the ongoing annual costs are approximately £285,000 to £445,000 per provider. The Government considers these costs to be relatively minor, given the critical importance of good security and the current scale and revenues of the UK telecommunications sector.
Underlying cost data from individual providers has not been published, to protect commercial confidentiality and mitigate the risk of exposing vulnerabilities in UK telecoms networks.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with regulated online platforms on preventing the spread of social media trends that encourage acts of animal cruelty.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government recognises concerns about online content and trends that encourage or promote acts of animal cruelty.
The Government and Ofcom have identified animal cruelty as one of the priority kinds of illegal harm under the Online Safety Act regulatory regime. Ofcom’s risk profiles and Register of Risks address how such content and trends can spread on regulated services, including through coordinated challenges or user-generated material.
Regulated platforms are required to carry out suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessments that cover animal cruelty, and to put in place mitigations to reduce the risk of users encountering or being encouraged to commit such offences. Ofcom is actively monitoring compliance in this area.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the prevalence of social media trends that encourage acts of animal cruelty.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government recognises concerns about online content and trends that encourage or promote acts of animal cruelty.
The Government and Ofcom have identified animal cruelty as one of the priority kinds of illegal harm under the Online Safety Act regulatory regime. Ofcom’s risk profiles and Register of Risks address how such content and trends can spread on regulated services, including through coordinated challenges or user-generated material.
Regulated platforms are required to carry out suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessments that cover animal cruelty, and to put in place mitigations to reduce the risk of users encountering or being encouraged to commit such offences. Ofcom is actively monitoring compliance in this area.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2026 to Question 15321 on Innovation and Technology: Obesity, whether the evaluation activity will be independent of Eli Lilly and Company; whether it will include control groups, randomisation or other comparative evaluation methods; and whether the results will be published.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme evaluation has been commissioned independently through the National Institute for Health and Care Research and is entirely independent of Eli Lilly and Company. The evaluation team is currently working with funded projects to understand service delivery models and planned data collection, with the final evaluation framework being developed by Autumn 2026. The findings of this independent evaluation will inform national decision-making, including future evidence requirements, and the outputs of the independent evaluation will be disseminated and made publicly available as appropriate.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to support locally led innovation investment in a) Ribble Valley constituency and b) Lancashire.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Through the Lancashire Devolution Deal, the Government is providing up to £20 million in capital funding during the current Spending Review period to support innovation-led growth across Lancashire, including assets to maximise the benefits of the National Cyber Force Headquarters at Samlesbury, which lies within Ribble Valley constituency.
UKRI funding for Lancashire increased from £97 million in 2022–23 to £107 million in 2023–24, demonstrating continued investment in the region's research and innovation strengths.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help improve the recruitment and retention of cybersecurity specialists.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
To improve the recruitment and retention of cyber security professionals across Government, DSIT launched the Government Cyber Profession in February 2026. The profession will introduce a competitive total employee offer, establish a dedicated Cyber Recruitment Hub to streamline recruitment, and create a clear career framework aligned with UK Cyber Security Council professional standards. This will directly address our cyber skills gaps, increase access to and help retain talent, establish cross-government standards, and provide learning and development programmes.
At the national level, the £200 million TechFirst programme is building the UK's domestic cyber talent pipeline, complemented by the UK Cyber Security Council's professional standards which support recruitment and retention across industry.