EU Technological Sovereignty Package

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Baroness Kidron

Monday 20th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

Northern Ireland is an incredibly important region for us. It has, as the noble Baroness knows, very high levels of digital connectivity, which puts it in a great place. I know that it also benefits from a thriving and growing cyber security sector and is thus able to tap into many of the adjacent industries that are part of the AI economy as it grows. We are backing cyber businesses in Northern Ireland and supporting them to export and scale.

[Baroness Kidron (CB)]

My Lords, the EU’s tech sovereignty package recognises the importance of procurement in developing a wider sovereign technological regime. Yet, here in the UK, we are increasingly seeing extensive use of lock-in deals across Defence, Health, the Treasury and so on. Can the Minister say what actions the Government will take to prevent tech dependency when they offer public contracts to foreign-based firms to ensure that the UK retains the ultimate say over its policies across all departments?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Baroness highlights the importance of having clear guidance and a clear framework for the public sector as it makes various procurements. That is why, for example, we have published the Cloud Challenge Book 2026, which helps to identify how the public sector can strengthen resilience, improve competition and reduce unnecessary dependency on individual suppliers. That is part of our approach to cloud procurement for the whole of the public sector.

Online Hate Speech

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Baroness Kidron

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Kidron (CB)]

My Lords, social media is where many people and most young people get their news, but it is owned or controlled by a handful of tech billionaires whose views are shared disproportionately and who represent an existential risk to democracy—as we saw when Elon Musk, the owner of X, tweeted in support of the riots. Does the Minister agree with me that our public square has now been privatised and that, for the future of democracy and news, we need to consider an alternative way of sharing news with young people?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The importance of accurate, trusted news is essential. The noble Baroness touched on many different matters in her question. In respect of young people and their access to social media, as I will be talking about shortly, we have put down proposals that will restrict social media platforms in providing content to under-16s. Providing accurate news is hugely important more generally and, as I mentioned on the previous question, we are looking at the role that algorithms play in social cohesion and the spread of online hate. The noble Baroness raises the very important point of media literacy, and we are working with young people and more generally through our media literacy plan to improve the ability of all people, whether young or old, to discern misinformation and disinformation in this important area.

Artificial Intelligence: National Security Implications

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Baroness Kidron

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Kidron]

To ask His Majesty’s Government, in light of the decision of the government of the United States to restrict foreign national access to Anthropic’s Claude AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, what assessment they have made of the implications for the United Kingdom’s security; and what alternative sovereign UK systems or partnerships they are pursuing, if any.

[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, no Government take AI sovereignty and security more seriously than this one. The UK is not a bystander when it comes to the security of AI. Our world-leading AI Security Institute was one of only a handful of organisations with access to both Mythos and Fable before they were released; they were used to identify risks in advance. We are investing £1.6 billion in the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities, made up of £500 million directly in UK AI firms via our sovereign AI fund and £1.1 billion via our AI hardware plan.

[Baroness Kidron (CB)]

I thank the Minister for that response. President Trump gave less than 90 minutes for Anthropic to make Mythos and Fable unavailable to any non-US citizens. In doing so, the White House went from a position of no AI regulation at all to 100% control. These systems are extremely powerful and anticipated to be able to break any other AI system, putting all critical industries and systems into meltdown, and we know other systems of the same ilk will shortly follow. In light of these developments, will the Government ask the AI Security Institute to develop red lines for AI systems deployed in the UK, including those used by government, and bring them forward in the promised AI Bill? Does the Minister not agree that the Government’s increasing dependency on US companies in health, education and security is creating a critical vulnerability for national security?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

We continue to support the AI Security Institute. It is very well respected by developers. That is why it has early access and is able to test the risks. Those risks are obviously going to develop as the models themselves evolve. It is also looking closely at the question of alignment, and that is something we are supporting in particular. In respect of sovereign AI, our approach is about building strength over key parts of the value chain to bring to the table technologies that no one else can do without.

For the UK, one of the most promising sectors is in AI hardware. We have brilliant start-ups in that area. That is why we announced the £1.1 billion AI hardware plan, which includes up to £400 million to purchase these new types of chips. In respect of regulation, as the noble Baroness knows, we are working with our regulators to support them to take account of the risks posed by AI and the opportunities brought by AI for increased productivity and effective regulation.

Sovereign AI Fund

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Baroness Kidron

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The UK benefits from access to many international service providers, whether from America or elsewhere. The way we think about sovereignty is in ensuring that the UK has the capability, access and influence it needs to ensure that the technologies that will shape our economy do so in the interests of the UK. The reason we have focused on the areas I mentioned before for the AI sovereign fund is to increase our economic resilience and reduce strategic dependency by building areas where the UK can realistically develop a comparative advantage.

[Baroness Kidron (CB)]

Representatives of the sovereign AI unit have repeatedly said that the companies it funds or supports with compute must comply with “applicable UK law”, including when copyright law applies to their training activity. However, they have been unwilling to say whether they will fund or support companies that scrape UK copyrighted material overseas without a licence. Will the Minister confirm that the UK sovereign AI fund will not use taxpayers’ money to support companies that train on copyrighted work without a licence, irrespective of where that training happens, whether in the UK or elsewhere? If she is unable to answer categorically, will she undertake to write with a complete answer?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is correct to highlight that we have been clear that copyright rules should be respected and the use of copyright works to train AI in the UK requires a licence unless an exception applies. Companies supported by the sovereign AI fund are expected to comply with applicable UK law, including copyright. When we are talking about compliance in relation to grant-funded compute allocations, they equally must comply with copyright law while undertaking that funded activity.

Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Baroness Kidron

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her remarks, and for her expertise and input over the course of many years in this area. On the take-down time, we are looking at the experience in other jurisdictions, as I mentioned. We are also looking at the experience of the timelines that are implemented in this country; that is something that Ofcom will look at. We will look at both the scope and the speed of both those jurisdictions. As I think noble Lords have seen, we will look at measures, and if we believe that they are effective and speak to the harms that we are seeing, we will take action.

[Baroness Kidron (CB)]

My Lords, I was in the other place when the Secretary of State made her Statement. I commend her for the strength of her words, but we are beyond words now. We are living in a country where any woman or child can be stripped to a bikini and turned into abuse material, as the price and entry point of being online. I do not accept the Government’s defence. There are many ways to communicate with the electorate, and to choose a company that monetises the humiliation and degradation of women and girls as part of its business proposition is to demonstrate that this is business as usual. It is not action for change.

I also disagree very strongly with the Minister: it has not been shocking. We have had the amendments that the noble Baroness referred to—most of those came from Members of this House, including the AI CSAM amendment that she referred to. In the last few weeks, the Government have pushed back on the amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill and, before that, to the data Bill. We have amendments on these issues. We foresaw it and, to be honest, we foresaw it in the Online Safety Act, so even on the other side this is not a shock.

I ask the Minister now to commit to placing the violence against women and girls guidance on a statutory footing, accepting amendments on chatbots and LLM risk assessments, and making a move with Ofcom to say that companies are not required only to do a risk assessment; they must, on a mandatory basis, mitigate those very risks that they find. We must not legitimise a platform which sows division, degrades women and sexually humiliates children.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her points and for her expertise that she brings to the House. I should have mentioned that I commend all those who have been speaking up from a position of experience. It is a very difficult thing to do, and it brings a unique perspective into the debate.

I spoke before about the Government withdrawing from using these platforms; we do not think that would be effective. We understand why people feel strongly about it. It is something that we keep under review.

The noble Baroness raised a number of other important issues. We are monitoring how Ofcom’s code on violence against women is being implemented. We think it is very important. I will discuss the many other areas she raised with my colleague who is taking that Bill through and, indeed, with the noble Baroness outside the House if that would be of interest.