Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many (a) contracts were awarded and (b) payments were made to Public Digital by his Department since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
If the Honourable Member consults Contracts Finder, she will see that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has not awarded any new contracts to Public Digital since 4 July 2024.
No payments have been made by the Department to Public Digital. Payments were made by the Cabinet Office for a pre-existing contract which was inherited mid-contract by DSIT in the Machinery of Government change. Further details can be found on Contract Finder.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to Annex A of his Department's FOI release entitled FOI2024-00250: Correspondence about the appointment of Emily Middleton, published on 30 September 2024, if he will publish the document entitled Senior Civil Servant (SCS) Resourcing and Handling of Future SCS Recruitment Exceptions.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Honourable Member can consult FOI2024-00289, Annex F.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Answer of 19 September 2024 to Question HL812 on Emily Middleton, whether the relevant background information provided to the Civil Service Commission included that secondment from Public Digital.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Director General, Digital Centre Design was appointed in line with Civil Service Recruitment Principles. The Civil Service Commission was provided with the relevant background information requested, including Ms Middleton’s full employment history, when approving this temporary appointment. This included Ms Middleton’s CV where the reference to the secondment was made. This text was released in FOI2024-00256 Internal Review.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of (a) trends in the level of online abuse of sport people and (b) the effectiveness of online safety provisions.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is extremely concerned by the online abuse of sportspeople and will continue working with the sports sector to tackle this.
The Online Safety Act strengthens protections for public figures online. Harassment and hate crime are priority offences under the Act, requiring companies to proactively search for, remove and limit users’ exposure to such content and activity.
DSIT is working with Ofcom to develop a longer-term monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the Act’s impact, including assessing relevant data and crime statistics.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress his Department has made on procuring a new supplier to deliver Project Gigabit connections in North Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Project Gigabit is designed to adapt in the event that a contracted supplier can no longer complete its planned delivery, utilising a mix of contracts and interventions to enable us to continue to bring fast, reliable broadband to hard-to-reach premises across the UK.
In North Shropshire, Building Digital UK (BDUK) will be seeking to agree the extent to which Openreach may be able to extend its network to reach premises that require support from Project Gigabit.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67304 on Innovate UK: Northern Ireland, what data his Department holds on the reasons for the reduction in successful bids.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The numbers provided in the response to Question 67304 are the number of successful completed Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects in the specified years, and not the number of successful bids. The bids for the successful projects completing in 2022, 2023 and 2024 would have been made 3-4 years prior to completion. The number of applications in a given year may vary for many reasons and over this time period the number of applications may have been reduced by the Covid pandemic.
Innovate UK will continue to market the KTP across Northern Ireland to ensure businesses and universities understand the benefits it can bring.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to prevent the (a) collection and (b) sharing of personal data by tracking pixels when using (i) police, (ii) council and (iii) other public websites for reporting (A) crimes and (B) abuses.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The use of online tracking technologies—such as tracking pixels—are regulated by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), which require user consent unless certain limited exemptions apply. Where these technologies collect personal data, the UK's data protection laws also apply. Under the UK GDPR’s lawfulness principle, organisations must ensure that any processing is not only compliant with data protection rules but also lawful more broadly. For public sector organisations such as the police and local authorities this includes acting lawfully under the Human Rights Act 1998.
The Data (Use & Access) Act 2025 modernises PECR so that the Information Commissioner has the tools he needs to enforce the legislation effectively.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department has had discussions with professional bodies to promote uptake of cybersecurity (a) qualifications and (b) apprenticeships.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology works closely with the UK Cyber Security Council, the professional body for the UK’s cyber workforce, supporting its efforts to develop professional standards. The Council was formed on the back of work by a coalition of professional bodies including the British Computer Society, the Engineering Council and the Institute of Engineering and Technology. The Council and DSIT continue to work with these bodies to develop professional standards.
The Council’s work creating professional standards and a register of cyber professionals is building pathways to enable more people to join the cyber workforce. Professional registration is a mark of quality that is already required for persons permitted to secure certain government systems. A stronger cyber profession will make the UK more resilient against cyber threats.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to ensure equitable regional access to national cancer (a) research funding and (b) clinical trial opportunities.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Cancer research is a critical priority for the Government. The Government is committed to ensuring that all cancer patients across the UK have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and UK Research Institute (UKRI) have made research inclusion a condition of its funding. Applicants to domestic research programmes are required to demonstrate how inclusion and health inequalities are being built into their research. NIHR’s Be Part of Research service on the NHS App, will provide patients with access to life-changing clinical trials and innovative therapies across the UK.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of (a) violent and (b) abusive pornography on (i) the normalisation of misogynistic (A) attitudes and (B) violence against women and girls and (ii) society.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Independent Pornography Review looked at the relationship between online pornography and violence against women and girls; its findings and recommendations continue to be assessed in detail by the government.
The Review found violent pornography is common and widely accessible on mainstream pornography platforms, leading to acts like strangulation becoming normalised in real-life sexual encounters, with women and girls being the main victims.
Through the Crime and Policing Bill, the government will make pornography depicting acts of strangulation illegal and from 25 July the Online Safety Act will prevent children from accessing pornography through highly effective age assurance.