Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what changes they have made to the HM Treasury Green Book in the last two years; and what was the purpose of each change.
Answered by Lord Livermore
HM Treasury concluded its review of the Green Book in June 2025. Since then, it has published a clearer, shorter Green Book, ensuring decisions are no longer based solely on single metrics such as benefit-cost ratios (BCRs), but instead consider the full range of potential impacts.
HM Treasury has streamlined business case guidance, and has published the findings of an independent review into the Green Book discount rate, ensuring the government is taking a fair view of long-term investment proposals.
HM Treasury is also piloting place-based business cases (PBBCs) with four early adopter locations, working in close partnership with regional, local and devolved governments, including mayors, to test a new approach to appraisal that puts local objectives at the centre. Business cases for major projects and programmes are being published consistently, meaning the public can have confidence that every pound of taxpayers’ money is being spent on projects that deliver the best possible value.
HM Treasury has published a report on its progress in implementing the conclusions of the Green Book Review in 2025. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-review-2025-one-year-on
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for the United Kingdom's access to frontier AI models, in the light of the United States' decision to restrict access to Anthropic's most recent Mythos and Fable systems.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government takes AI sovereignty and security extremely seriously.
We are investing £500m in UK AI firms via our SovAI Fund, including in home-grown model developers, like Ineffable. This goes beyond just funding, to include support such as visas and procurement.
Sovereignty is not just about access to AI models. It is about building leverage over key parts of the value chain, such as AI hardware. That is why the Government has announced a £1.1 billion AI hardware plan.
Security is also fundamental to the Government's approach. Our AI Security Institute is world leading, and one of a handful of organisations with access to Mythos before release.
This means the UK is not a bystander. Canada, France, Germany and elsewhere recognise our leadership, and want to work with us to build sovereign assets and learn from our approach to risks.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what sovereign AI systems or partnerships they are pursuing to reduce dependence on US company frontier models.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government takes AI sovereignty and security extremely seriously.
We are investing £500m in UK AI firms via our SovAI Fund, including in home-grown model developers, like Ineffable. This goes beyond just funding, to include support such as visas and procurement.
Sovereignty is not just about access to AI models. It is about building leverage over key parts of the value chain, such as AI hardware. That is why the Government has announced a £1.1 billion AI hardware plan.
Security is also fundamental to the Government's approach. Our AI Security Institute is world leading, and one of a handful of organisations with access to Mythos before release.
This means the UK is not a bystander. Canada, France, Germany and elsewhere recognise our leadership, and want to work with us to build sovereign assets and learn from our approach to risks.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scale of public investment needed to maintain meaningful UK sovereignty in AI infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
For Britain, AI sovereignty is about reducing over-dependencies and increasing resilience in key national strategic priorities, so we secure greater control and greater leverage over the issues that matter most. We will continue to use the best technology and welcome inward investment because that is what our public services and economy demand.
We recently announced a £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan to back British firms developing the chips and computing power behind AI. This includes our Advance Market Commitment to buy novel inference chips, which will equip the UK’s AI Research Resource (AIRR) with powerful next generation chips. Dedicated AIRR capacity supports the AI Security Institute and the Sovereign AI Unit, including guaranteed resource for mission-critical AI safety research, and strategically selected UK AI startups. Over 500 UK projects have already been supported through AIRR infrastructure, and we are further investing £2 billion to expand our public compute offering.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in setting up taskforces to improve government delivery.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Government has started the first two pilots of these taskforces. One that will improve data sharing across the criminal justice system with work taking place between the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office and a second to address violence against women and girls by working to accelerate delivery of support services in communities across the country.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of increasing levels of AI adoption on public sector efficiency.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the significant potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to improve public sector efficiency and productivity.
Analysis undertaken through the State of Digital Government Review indicates there is up to £45 billion per year in potential gains, including up to £36 billion from simplifying and automating delivery. Initial analysis by the Central Digital and Data Office found that baseline spend could be reduced by 31% through the use of AI. However, this is an estimate of opportunity, rather than a forecast or committed saving.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in improving their use of technology to deliver government priorities.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has made significant progress in improving its use of technology to deliver priorities across the public sector.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Government Digital Service is established as the digital centre of government and sets out a clear framework through the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government and the 2026 Roadmap.
This includes accelerating adoption of cloud technologies, tackling legacy IT systems, expanding the use of artificial intelligence, and investing in shared digital infrastructure to deliver more joined-up, resilient and efficient public services.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in setting up AI growth zones.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
To date, Government has announced five AI Growth Zones: in Culham; the North East of England; Anglesey (North Wales); a South Wales Cluster (spanning from Newport to Bridgend); and Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Over £28 billion in private investment has been committed to these announced AI Growth Zones to date, with delivery of these projects underway across multiple sites.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in establishing a national school for government and public services.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Since the Chief Secretary’s announcement in January 2026, we have developed an initial curriculum, begun on in-house design and expanded our capacity. The School is due to launch later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support people with health conditions into work.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We know that work can support health and wellbeing, so we want everyone who can to get work and get on in work as far as possible. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.
We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives that join up employment and health systems such as WorkWell and Employment Advisers in Talking Therapies. Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants and Connect to Work. We continue to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme.
In our Pathways to Work Green Paper we set out our Pathways to Work offer, backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade. We are building towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits, building on existing initiatives.
In November 2025, Sir Charlie Mayfield published the Keep Britain Working Review, setting out recommendations to help employers create healthier, more inclusive workplaces and to reshape how Government works with employers to improve work and health outcomes. We are now working with volunteer employers, providers and regions through a Vanguard Phase to test and refine approaches that support disabled people and people with long‑term physical and mental health conditions to thrive in work. This includes developing effective stay-in-work and return-to-work practices, strengthening prevention, and building the evidence needed to spread good practice so that disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions receive the support they need to remain in employment successfully.
The 10 Year Health Plan builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.