Technology Adoption Review

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Monday 15th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that attracting high-calibre talent to this country is incredibly important. We have a number of ongoing initiatives to do that, including the Global Talent Taskforce, as well as through academia, as my noble friend the Minister with responsibility for science and technology talked about. The digital skills jobs plan will also set out how we can support that aim and get the balance right between growing homegrown talent and attracting those we need to from abroad, so that we have the best chances of growing our science base and the spin-outs.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that AI literacy should be extended to the police force and the judiciary? In very recent cases, it is clear that AI provided incorrect quotes in compiling reports and writing judgments; and in the case of the West Midlands Police, a non-existent football match was cited as a reason why Maccabi fans should not be allowed into Birmingham. Do we not have to do a lot more to teach people how to use AI properly?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right that AI has huge potential, but that getting right its adoption and the use of critical skills, whether in the public or private sector, is an integral part of ensuring that it drives productivity and all the promised expectations.

Data Adequacy Status: EU Data Protection Standards

Debate between Baroness Lloyd of Effra and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

To take that question in two parts, we are confident about the EU’s scrutiny of our legislation. The Commission has started its review and published the report that I mentioned in July. The European Data Protection Board published a non-legally binding opinion on its draft decision on 20 October. We are confident that a member state vote will take place ahead of the 27 December deadline. The EU’s proposals to change its data protection framework have only recently been published. We will have a look at the details of those changes as and when they become clear and are confirmed.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, related to data security is superintelligent AI. Many recent reports have suggested that this is a huge threat to our global security. Are we discussing this with the EU and other international partners to try to mitigate some of the potential damage that could be caused by it?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

We continue to look at all potential AI threats and are immensely assisted in this by the work of the AI Security Institute, which has deepened our understanding of critical security threats posed by all sorts of frontier AI and the type that the noble Lord mentioned. We continue to talk about this to international partners.