Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to resolve the issues highlighted in the Care Quality Commission’s National review of maternity services in England, 2022–2024, including those concerning workforce planning and recruitment.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) National Review of maternity services in England 2022 to 2024 shines a light on the serious issues that exist within maternity services.

The Government is taking the findings and recommendations made in the CQC’s report seriously and has committed to ensuring that trusts failing on maternity care are robustly supported into rapid improvement, whilst training thousands more midwives and setting an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap.

The Government will continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its 3-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow the maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women receive safe, compassionate care.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what legislative action they plan to take to prevent the creation and distribution of deepfake non-consensual intimate images online, and to prevent the distribution of other AI-generated content that propagates hate speech or incites violence, including gender-based violence.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Women and children receive a disproportionate amount of online abuse and the exponential rise of AI has further exacerbated this threat. That is why tackling child sexual abuse and violence against women & girls (VAWG), including when these crimes take place online, remains a top priority for this government.

Under the Online Safety Act 2023, it is an offence to share or threaten to share intimate images without consent and this includes “deepfake” images. In September 2024, this Government made the sharing of intimate images without consent a ‘priority offence’ - the most serious class of online crime under the Online Safety Act. Companies in scope of the Act’s duties will now be required to proactively tackle this content on their platforms. This Government has also committed to banning the creation of sexually explicit “deepfake” images and is working at pace to identify a suitable legislative vehicle.

With regards to child sexual abuse imagery, UK law is very clear that it is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been generated by artificial intelligence. Possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children carries a maximum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment. In addition, the offence of taking, making, distribution and possession with a view to distribution of any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child under 18 carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Technology companies, including those developing generative artificial intelligence products, have a duty to ensure their products are designed with robust guardrails in place that prevent them from being misused by offenders to create artificially generated child sexual abuse material. This Government is fully committed to tackling the creation of CSAM online and will use every lever possible to prevent it.

Found: Berkeley; Lord Borwick; Lord Drayson; Lord Lucas; Baroness Neuberger; Baroness Neville-Jones; Baroness Northover

Found: Ministers could be asked to give evidence, including:9 HOUSE OF LORDS LIAISON COMMITTEE • Baroness Northover

Found: Berkeley; Lord Borwick; Lord Drayson; Lord Lucas; Baroness Neuberger; Baroness Neville-Jones; Baroness Northover

Found: Berkeley; Lord Borwick; Lord Drayson; Lord Lucas; Baroness Neuberger; Baroness Neville-Jones; Baroness Northover

Found: Chair); Lord Borwick; Lord Drayson; Lord Lucas; Baroness Neuberger; Baroness Neville-Jones; Baroness Northover

A one-off session to explore the work of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).