Working From Home (Home-based Working Committee Report)

Baroness Lloyd of Effra Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab)]

My Lords, I am pleased to respond for the Government, and I will address the key themes that have emerged through this thoughtful debate. I, too, start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Needham Market, not only for securing the debate but for her skilful chairing of the Home-based Working Select Committee and for its report. I am also very grateful to the noble Lords on the committee who led the inquiry, many of whom are here today. It has made a valuable and timely intervention. It has improved our evidence base on this emerging area. I agree with every previous speaker that the richness of the debate today has been exemplary.

We heard compelling arguments that flexibility around when or where someone works can open up opportunities for people who may otherwise face difficulty securing a job, staying in work or progressing through their career. It can be particularly helpful for people navigating responsibilities in their home lives, whether that is caring for others or managing health conditions.

The Government recognise that the benefits of flexibility extend beyond surmounting those particular barriers at work. When implemented well, flexible working can support improved well-being, strengthen the work/life balance and enable people across the labour market to remain productive and engaged in their roles. It is also associated with tangible benefits for employers, including higher levels of staff motivation, stronger loyalty and improved retention.

That is why the Government are changing legislation to improve access to flexibility. The reforms we have introduced through the Employment Rights Act will make it more likely that flexible working requests are considered and are accepted where they are reasonable. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, mentioned, the reasonable tests have been in place for over 20 years. We will ensure that when the flexible working reforms are finalised, there will be guidance specifically for employers on the reasonable test, and that will be subject to a further public consultation before the reforms take effect.

However, it is important to distinguish between flexibility as a broader concept and the specific question of home working, where the evidence landscape is more nuanced, as many noble Lords have mentioned today. For many, the pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to remote working, and we heard the various perspectives from the noble Lord, Lord Sharma, and my noble friend Lord Monks. Indeed, the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox, put the consequences of the changes that it has made so poetically. Pre pandemic, around 12% of workers reported working from home some or all of the time, compared with around 39% today. The scale and pace of change have inevitably constrained the depth and consistency of the evidence base, and the longer-term impacts are still being understood.

The committee’s report, and many noble Lords today, underlined the gaps in evidence on home-based working. We are committed to improving the UK’s evidence base, in partnership with other government departments and business. We agree that it is important to monitor the effects of the changing ways of working over the years ahead, through both research and data collection.

The noble Lord, Lord Sharma, stressed the importance of working with business representative organisations and other economies. We already take it into account where it is comparable. As we discussed, there are already issues with data clarity, even within the UK. That is an important point and, where it is comparable, we will look to take that forward.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Freeman, and the noble Lord, Lord Fink, highlighted the importance of closer collaboration with the Office for National Statistics. We are engaging with the ONS to strengthen the evidence base, including collaboration on future data collection and research. This includes working through a cross-governmental analytical network to identify evidence gaps and develop more robust and comprehensive data over time.

The department is engaged with academics at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence who are looking at developing linked employer/employee data in the UK. We will continue to explore opportunities to feed into this and benefit from that work. Many noble Lords mentioned the importance of that link.

While the ONS is operationally independent of the Government, the work is progressing on the linked employee/employer dataset, which links workers to their employers using pay-as-you-earn real-time information to track employers and employees over time. The ONS anticipates that a technical note and a set of exploratory statistics will be published later this year.

Many noble Lords talked about the balance that needs to be struck in making sure there is increased flexibility, including home-working arrangements, and that it works for employers as well as employees. The noble Baronesses, Lady Fraser and Baroness Manzoor, and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, set out why decisions about working arrangements should ultimately sit with employers and employees. I agree that a one-size-fits-all approach would not be appropriate. That is why the Government are focused on expanding access to flexibility where it is feasible, encouraging dialogue between employees and employers, while making sure that businesses do not have to accept requests that are not reasonable or will not work in practice.

I listened carefully to noble Lords who rightly drew attention to the potential risks of home working. Several noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Manzoor, Lady Scott and Lady Watkins, highlighted the potential impacts of home and hybrid working on productivity, well-being and business performance. The evidence on these factors is complex and still evolving.

We recognise that the evidence on home working and productivity remains mixed and difficult to measure, with impacts varying by role and working arrangements. As many have underlined today, there is a very important nexus with good management, and it is important to support that. As the noble Lord, Lord Fink, and the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, rightly emphasised, the Government have a role. We already provide some support and training in this area, such as the Help to Grow management programme, and we will consider whether further support is needed as reforms take effect.

My noble friends Lady Nye and Lord Brooke also noted the importance of public sector practice. The line manager capability programme was developed to improve the quality of line management across the Civil Service, including managing dispersed teams. Some noble Lords highlighted the importance of health and safety. Noble Lords are aware that through the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for people working at home as they do for other workplaces. To improve understanding, the HSE recently promoted its home worker guidance through a multichannel communications campaign, which ran for eight weeks, from February to April this year. These efforts saw a doubling in visits to the web pages based on the previous eight weeks.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Bottomley and Lady Lane-Fox, and the noble Lords, Lord Fink and Lord Hampton, highlighted the experience of young people. We know that face-to-face time can be vital for training and career progression. The changes we are making will not stop employers determining that some work needs to be done in person.

I also want to acknowledge the important contributions that highlight the distinct value, opportunities and challenges of home working for disabled people and those managing health conditions. The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and others, drew attention to the Access to Work scheme. The Access to Work scheme can help disabled people and people with physical or mental health conditions start or stay in work. We have said that it requires some improvements to ensure that it can deliver a timely, efficient and value-for-money service. Reform in this area is complex. We are taking the time needed to consult widely, collaborate and gather evidence from disabled people, employers and representative organisations, and we are continuing to refine policy options. Ministers will announce next steps when they are fully developed in that area.

Many others have also highlighted the importance of the Keep Britain Working Vanguard phase. That is currently considering how employers and government can work together to reduce health-related economic inactivity and build healthier and more inclusive workplaces. That phase is well under way. We are working with 150 employers in 11 regions, and we have begun our work to get the Workplace Health Intelligence Unit up and running to support the outcomes of that Vanguard scheme.

Many noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Manzoor and Lady Scott, highlighted the importance of digital connectivity and skills, and indeed skills in AI. The Government recognise the importance of access to a fast and reliable broadband connection and are committed to ensuring that 99% of premises receive gigabit coverage by 2032. At the end of 2025, over 1.3 million premises in rural and hard-to-reach communities had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through government-funded programmes over years. The UK is now one of the fastest builders of gigabit-capable broadband networks in Europe.

Many noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Freeman, and my noble friends Lord Monks and Lord Brooke, highlighted the uncertain nexus with the development of AI and how the home-based and flexible working we have seen develop post Covid will interact with that. These are very important questions, and I will make sure that I raise the point about flexible working and home working with the AI and the Future of Work Unit, so that when it continues its research it can make sure that the committee’s report and the points made today are considered in future deliberations.

Noble Lords highlighted the importance of delivery of these reforms. We are continuing to work across government to make the dispute resolution system more resilient, ensuring that the measures in the Employment Rights Act can be effectively enforced. This includes a mix of measures and longer-term reform, so the system is fit for purpose for the current landscape of employment rights and equipped to respond to future changes.

A number of important questions have been raised on how the increase in home working is supported in practice, including through workplace support and guidance. In particular, the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, is right to underline the importance of chief people officers, other HR professionals, and the role of line managers in considering how there might be scope for flexible working, given the organisation’s way of working, and how that is communicated with employees. We have listened to calls to engage with external stakeholders as we develop and iterate new guidance about the upcoming flexible working reforms. We have already been working to deliver this with a series of questions in our recent flexible working consultation, looking at the types of guidance line managers, employees and employers will need as these changes take effect. In parallel, officials have held 10 round-table discussions during the consultation to learn more about the guidance and resources that could be most helpful.

We will continue to build on this work, and we will establish a more structured, official-led stakeholder group. This will bring together stakeholders and business leaders to advise and support implementation while helping the Government drive culture change and shift narratives around flexible working. Once again, I would like to thank the noble Baroness and her committee for their report, and I would like to thank noble Lords for all their contributions today.

Artificial Intelligence: Impact on Human Relationships and Society

Baroness Lloyd of Effra Excerpts

Friday 5th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab)]

My Lords, I am pleased to respond to this debate and I thank sincerely the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury for initiating the discussion and for setting out in her opening speech the opportunities and challenges in the context of some of the most profound questions that face us. As she set out, this debate goes to the heart of what kind of society we want to build in an age of rapid technological change. AI is already reshaping our economy, our public services and how people relate to one another. This Government believe that AI has transformative potential for the UK, from scientific innovation and public sector reform to economic growth. The responsibility on government is clear: to ensure that this transformation strengthens rather than diminishes the fabric of our society.

I join the many noble Lords who have spoken today in appreciating the contribution of the papal encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It is welcome that, as we conclude our debate today, there is a desire that we continue the conversation on how we can build a better society in this AI-enabled world, with all parts of society.

AI capabilities are advancing at an extraordinary pace. In only a few years, systems have moved from completing narrow tasks to undertaking complex workflows, writing code, supporting research and making decisions at scale. These changes are already reshaping the nature of work by automating routine tasks, augmenting professional roles and creating entirely new forms of economic activity, as the noble Lord, Lord Markham, set out.

This transformation presents a profound opportunity to increase productivity and improve living standards. It also raises real questions about disruption, especially to labour markets. AI systems are being integrated into everyday services in healthcare, education, financial services and government. This raises important questions, as many noble Lords have mentioned, about accountability and fairness, how decisions are made, how outcomes are explained and how we ensure that systems work for everyone. Underpinning all this, as noble Lords have pointed out, are broader societal questions. As machines become more capable, where do we want human judgment, human responsibility and human connection to sit?

I will attempt to address the points that have been made in the debate today, so that we can build a cohesive society that works for all, giving people the skills and opportunity so that AI does not lead to further inequality but builds a fairer society, and so that British values and Britain’s unique talents, which many have again highlighted today—our scientists, universities and industry—shape AI for the benefit of all. On matters that I do not address today, I will write to noble Lords.

Many noble Lords, including the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leicester, my noble friend Lady Gill, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Prashar, Lady Teather and Lady Helic, mentioned concerns that the misuse of AI has the potential to alter the nature of truth and public discourse. AI can lower the barrier to entry for creating disinformation, allowing for greater scale and speed of production and more persuasive and realistic content. This can increase the volume and sophistication of misleading information circulating online, making it harder for individuals to distinguish between authentic and false content. We remain well prepared to ensure the integrity and security of the democratic processes, with robust systems in place to protect against a range of threats, including foreign interference.

The Government address these risks through co-ordinated efforts led by the Defending Democracy Taskforce and the Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit, bringing together departments, law enforcement and intelligence agencies to monitor and mitigate threats so there is co-ordinated action to protect electoral integrity and strengthen societal resilience. The Government use a broad toolkit of legislative and non-legislative actions, through the Online Safety Act, engagement with platforms and civil society, and media literacy initiatives, to make it harder to spread false information in the online environment and reduce its impact on users.

Many noble Lords rightly mentioned the importance of media literacy with the advancing technology. The Government absolutely agree that this is critical. We launched our media literacy action plan in March and are working with civil society, industry and others to give people the skills, confidence and critical thinking to navigate the increasingly changing online world.

Alongside that, we are committed to working with schools to strengthen media literacy in the updated national curriculum, following the independent curriculum and assessment review. This will support young people to develop their critical-thinking skills to understand how to spot and understand misinformation and disinformation.

As many noble Lords mentioned, alongside these changes, AI is beginning to reshape the way that people relate to one another. Individuals are interacting not just with technology but through it—in some cases with it, as if it were human. The emergence of the AI companion system is a clear example.

There is also a risk of misleading or harmful advice, especially in contexts such as mental health. While AI can support clinicians and improve access to services, it must be used responsibly. The Government are clear that AI chatbots must not replace advice and support from trained medical professionals in the NHS. Ensuring that AI technologies are safe is a top priority. That is why the Department of Health and NHS England are working closely with key regulators on a number of projects and initiatives to further bolster the safety of AI in health and care, and to ensure that regulatory pathways are clear for both developers and adopters. This includes projects such as the AI and Digital Regulations Service and the AI Airlock.

More broadly, we must consider how systems designed to be engaging and persuasive interact with the fundamental human need for connection, recognition and meaning. If these systems are not designed and governed carefully, there is a risk that they could exploit rather than support those needs.

My noble friend Lord Knight and the noble Lords, Lord Tarassenko, Lord Magan, Lord Carter of Haslemere, and many others, raised the issue of chatbots. We have taken powers in the Crime and Policing Act to bring unregulated chatbots into the scope of the Online Safety Act and its requirements in relation to illegal content.

As many noble Lords know very well, we have discussed extensively the powers in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act. To respond effectively and quickly to the consultation Growing Up in the Online World, we have taken powers to act quickly on those findings in relation to children. We are looking in that context at children’s use of chatbots. These issues go to the heart of what it means to be human in a digital age.

I also want to reference the many points that have been made today about connection and community being a vital part of our human nature. We absorb and adopt AI in a social context; we live and work in families, as individuals and in communities—and with charities and faith organisations, our third sector, we all have an incredibly important role in building our communities. The noble Lords, Lord Alderdice, Lord Raval and Lord Frost, all mentioned the importance of the social context in which we live and the importance that we all have in doing this.

Sometimes in these AI debates, we tend just to look at how AI is being adopted in public services. Obviously, there is a whole host of other initiatives that the Government are taking. For example, one very significant pillar of the Government’s 10-year health plan is the neighbourhood health centres. There will be 27 new neighbourhood health centres across England, partnering with charities and others to deliver targeted support locally. These will go alongside our efforts to adopt AI in public services.

Many noble Lords returned to the question of AI regulation, including my noble friend Lord Watson, the noble Baronesses, Lady Prashar and Lady Kidron, and the noble Lords, Lord Holmes, Lord Taylor, Lord Waldegrave and Lord Clement-Jones. The Government are taking the approach to regulation that ensures that AI is safe, secure and trustworthy. As noble Lords know, we are taking a context-based approach, ensuring that AI systems are regulated at the point of use by regulators who understand their sectors. We are strengthening the capability of those regulators so they can respond effectively to emerging risks. The Government wrote to 19 regulators earlier this year, asking them to publish plans setting out how they will enable safe, AI-powered innovation and report on progress.

We have also criminalised some of the most harmful uses of AI, including tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate images. We are taking the powers that I mentioned to respond quickly to our consultation through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, ensuring that we can act on evidence related to children’s use of AI systems, which is also looking at addictive features, something that the noble Lord, Lord Hastings, mentioned in his intervention. The consultation generated enormous engagement, with 100,000 responses. The points that noble Lords made about the importance of discussing these matters, and the development of AI is very well appreciated.

The noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, and others talked about the importance of understanding and managing frontier risks, and many noble Lords mentioned the importance of the AI Security Institute, which is indeed world-leading. It enables us to assess the most advanced systems and identify where safeguards are needed by collaborating with leading developers. This work is already improving the safety of systems before they are deployed at scale. It enables us to anticipate risks from misuse in areas such as cyber and biosecurity to the potential for persuasion and manipulation. Through the AI Security Institute, the Government will ensure that we have the institutional resilience required to respond to novel risks and protect our society, should it come under threat from the most advanced systems.

I also want to mention, in response to the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, and others about the importance of trust for AI adoption, that the development of AI assurance is a critical part of ethical responsible development of AI. We published a road map for trusted third party AI assurance in September 2025, setting out our ambition and the actions that we are taking to support a thriving AI assurance market in the UK and ensure widespread adoption of safe and responsible AI across the UK.

Noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Markham, Lord Johnson and Lord McNally, the noble Baronesses, Lady Spielman, Lady Stuart and Lady Fall, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford, importantly drew our attention to the impacts on labour markets. We are looking very seriously at how AI may reshape the labour market and the lived experience of work across the country. We have established the AI and Future of Work Unit, bringing together expertise from across departments and industry to monitor how AI is affecting jobs, wages and opportunity in real time. Early analysis shows that AI is progressing rapidly and may be changing patterns of hiring in some occupations, but it also makes it clear that these trends are complex and not driven by any single factor. That is why our approach is not to assume outcomes but to track closely, assess rigorously and act early where needed. We are strengthening this capability further through the creation of the new AI economics institute, expanding our ability to understand the broad economic impacts of AI.

The noble Lord, Lord Johnson, and others drew attention to the fact that we will need to adapt our curriculums, higher education and universities. The Government are working closely with industry through the modern industrial strategy. We are working closely with all the sectors to identify what skills they will need for the future, so that we have clarity on whether those are the skills we expect today or ones that need to be evolved and changed following the developments we are seeing in all parts of the labour market, including AI.

Fundamentally, we are investing in people because we believe that the opportunities of AI in the UK will be realised only if the workforce is equipped to harness them. I wholeheartedly agree with my noble friend Lord Griffiths of Burry Port and his focus on digital inclusion. It is essential that we pursue a full digital inclusion agenda not just for young people, to ensure that all can benefit from safe access to the digital economy and AI, and that they have the confidence and skills—and the connectivity and devices—to do so. That is why we published our digital action plan and why we are working with local communities to support digital inclusion.

Much has been said about the rising numbers of NEETs during this debate, and Alan Milburn’s important report. The causes of this rise, as he set out, are varied. The extent to which AI is playing a role in driving this trend remains uncertain. We are taking action through the youth guarantee and growth and skills levy to expand high-quality training, apprenticeships and workplace experiences so young people can enter all sectors with confidence and gain the skills they need to enter the workforce today. We want employment rates to increase, and to see more young people entering fulfilling roles.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Stuart and Lady Teather, and the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Ahmad, highlighted the importance of responsible AI adoption across the public sector. We are embedding a framework, standards and guidance to ensure AI is deployed in a way that is fair, transparent and accountable. This includes the Data and AI Ethics Framework, the AI playbook, and transparency standards that ensure that the public can understand how systems are used.

We are also supporting the development of a third-party AI assurance ecosystem across all sectors. This is critical not just for risk management but for building business confidence in deploying AI and building trust in the systems we use. One of the areas in which this is most important is education. DSIT and the Department for Education are working together to enable schools to access safe, high-quality and effective AI tutoring tools. Up to eight edtech and AI organisations will be selected to receive up to £300,000 each to design and build the next generation of AI tutoring tools in order to support up to 450,000 disadvantaged pupils with personalised one-to-one learning.

I want to talk, as many noble Lords did, including the noble Lords, Lord Raval, Lord Magan and Lord Johnson, about the opportunities for the UK. In the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we set out a bold vision to lead in shaping the AI revolution. One year on from that plan, the vision is being realised, with the majority of commitments delivered and the next phase firmly under way. At the heart of this approach are our AI growth zones, which are transforming the UK’s capacity to build and deploy AI at scale. We are ensuring that the UK’s AI infrastructure is developed in a way that is sustainable and aligned with our clean power ambitions. We are unlocking £104 billion in water infrastructure investment, which includes improving water supply around data centres.

Just as importantly, we are ensuring that the value created by AI is anchored here in the UK. UK AI sovereignty means ensuring that the UK has the capability, access and influence it needs in the technologies that will shape our economy, public services and national security. For too long, we have seen British innovation scale elsewhere, with companies forced to move abroad to access capital, infrastructure or markets. Our response is the creation of the sovereign AI unit and its associated fund, with a new, more active approach to supporting AI companies. Backed by around £500 million, this initiative will allow the Government to invest directly in promising UK firms, to support the development of critical technologies and to provide access to assets such as compute data and early procurement opportunities. This is not about total self-sufficiency or turning away from trusted international partners; it is about ensuring that, where the UK has genuine strengths in research, talent and innovation, we can translate them into long-term economic benefit.

The most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury has rightly caused us to ask not only how AI will impact society but what we will do with AI. The outcomes will depend on the frameworks we build, the safeguards we put in place and the values we uphold. The Government are determined to ensure that AI serves society, not the other way round, and that it strengthens our economy, supports our public services and enhances human relationships rather than undermining them. If we approach this moment with seriousness about the risks and confidence in our ability to shape the future then AI will become a force not for division but for shared progress and collective benefit. I look forward to continuing this important discussion with the House.