Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) of the Data and Analytics Research Environments UK research programme; how much if any in additional funds that programme has received from non-UKRI sources; and how much of those funds were finally spent, and by which UK universities or organisations, at the end of the institutional funding chain.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Data and Analytics Research Environments UK (DARE UK) programme is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and co-delivered by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) who jointly oversee programme delivery.
The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UKRI, has provided £24.4m since 2021 to the DARE UK research programme. This was allocated from the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure (DRIC) fund. Funding has been awarded to a range of projects led by over 28 research organisations.
Details of recipient organisations are available at GtR.ukri.org.
A list of the DARE UK Early Adopters (projects supporting the testing and integration of capabilities in UK Trusted Research Environments) awarded by the DARE UK team are available at dareuk.org.uk.
Final spend figures for on-going projects will be confirmed in due course via DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) – HDR UK.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase awareness among local and regional authorities of the economic and social benefits of hosting data centre infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This government has engaged with local authorities to increase awareness of the local benefits of data centres. Through the AI Growth Zones programme, we are ensuring the selected sites deliver for working people, by providing £5 million in support for each AI Growth Zone for local AI adoption and skills. To deliver even broader local benefits to communities, local authorities in England will retain 100% of business rate growth in AI Growth Zones for the next twenty-five years. A central AI planning team backed by £4.5 million will also support local councils across the UK with expert planning advice.
The designation of the sector as Critical National Infrastructure last year was a recognition that the sector occupied a similar level of national importance as water, energy, and emergency services. We are actively looking into how we secure the best deal possible for local communities, ensuring they benefit from ongoing direct employment and this Government encourages operators to seek opportunities for the reuse of waste heat, to invest in local technical skills, improvements to local broadband and other beneficial initiatives.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to strengthen sovereign capacity in cloud services and cyber resilience.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
DSIT is supporting industry in building more data centres in the UK (including via AI Growth Zones), which helps enable cloud providers in the UK to expand. We are working with other government departments to speed up planning permission and grid connection timings to support this.
The Government believes complex issues such as the security of data and digital governance are best addressed through transparent, inclusive multistakeholder engagement. We remain committed to working with international partners within recognised global mechanisms to promote shared understanding and responsible international behaviours, while ensuring support for UK-based data-driven businesses to innovate and grow.
Cyber security is a key part of the Industrial Strategy. DSIT supports the development of sovereign capability in the £13.2 billion UK cyber security sector through its accelerator programmes, including CyberASAP, which commercialises cyber security research, and Cyber Runway, which supports entrepreneurs and companies. Our £187 million TechFirst programme will improve digital skills across the country, including cyber security skills. We are investing significantly in the National Cyber Security Centre, the Government’s technical authority on cyber security, which continues to work to strengthen UK cyber resilience. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will further strengthen UK cyber defences and boost protections for our essential and digital services, including cloud computing.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the resilience of the UK's digital infrastructure following recent outages of online systems and communication services.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring the resilience of digital infrastructure. The Department reviews the most significant risks to the security and resilience of UK digital infrastructure and assesses their likelihood and impact through the National Security Risk Assessment. A summary of these risks is published in the National Risk Register.
Operators of UK digital infrastructure are legally required to take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure their networks are secure and resilient. Ofcom monitors compliance and enforces standards under the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 and the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they were aware that Anthropic downloaded over 7 million pirated books between 2021 and 2023 to train its Claude AI model when selecting Anthropic as the supplier for the GOV.UK chat service; and whether they conducted a risk assessment for the use of a model developed using unlawfully accessed copyright-protected works.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service recognises the importance of ethical, legal, and data protection considerations in the use of large language models.
A range of large language models from multiple suppliers have been considered in developing GOV.UK Chat. GOV.UK Chat is a product in active development that currently accesses Anthropic models through an existing agreement with Amazon Web Services, enabling the Government Digital Service to test a range of models from different suppliers. Risk assessments have been undertaken in accordance with government standards, including consideration of ethical, legal, and data protection risks relevant to the models tested.
GOV.UK Chat is being developed entirely within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants. The Government continues to engage with UK-based AI developers and remains open to collaboration where this supports innovation and the delivery of public services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2024, published on 23 October, what steps they are taking to meet their manifesto commitment to phase out animal experimentation.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Labour Manifesto commits to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal.
The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year which will outline the steps we will take to meet this manifesto commitment.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental and sustainability impact, including energy demands, of the Anthropic Claude AI model used for the Gov.uk chat service.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service recognises the importance of environmental considerations in the use of AI and we are committed to using this technology responsibly. We are working in line with the AI Playbook for the UK Government, which highlights the importance of understanding and managing the environmental impact of AI systems.
Environmental considerations have been reviewed under the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS), with negligible anticipated impact. EPPS principles have been considered, including resource efficiency and sustainability of digital infrastructure.
Model selection decisions are based on performance, security, data protection, cost, and alignment with government standards. Where possible, we use smaller and more efficient models to improve sustainability, including in our use of the Claude models within GOV.UK Chat.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of ethical and legal considerations regarding Anthropic's use of copyright-protected works in training its Claude AI model before awarding the contract for the GOV.UK chat service to the company.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service recognises the importance of ethical and legal considerations relating to the use of copyright-protected material in the training of large language models.
A range of large language models from multiple suppliers have been considered in developing GOV.UK Chat. Earlier iterations tested OpenAI’s ChatGPT models, while the current phase is evaluating Anthropic’s Claude models. Model selection decisions are based on performance, security, data protection, cost, and alignment with government standards.
GOV.UK Chat is being developed entirely within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants. The Government continues to engage with UK-based AI developers and remains open to collaboration where this supports innovation and the delivery of public services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what alternative suppliers they considered for the GOV.UK chat service before selecting Anthropic's Claude model; and what assessment they have made of contracting United Kingdom based AI developers for this project.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service has considered a range of large language models from multiple suppliers in developing GOV.UK Chat. Earlier iterations tested OpenAI’s ChatGPT models, while the current phase is evaluating Anthropic’s Claude models. Model selection decisions are based on performance, security, data protection, cost, and alignment with government standards. GOV.UK Chat is being developed entirely within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants. The Government continues to engage with UK-based AI developers and remains open to collaboration where this supports innovation and the delivery of public services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support UK-based AI developers through government procurement processes, in the light of the establishment of the Sovereign AI unit.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Sovereign AI Unit was announced in the AI Opportunities Action Plan as a new initiative specifically designed to build homegrown capability in emerging areas of the AI ecosystem. Backed by £500 million at the Spending Review, the programme is focused on unlocking opportunities where targeted public intervention can support UK leadership, scale national champions, and secure long-term strategic advantage.
In relation to procurement specifically, the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, established earlier this year following the publication of ‘A blueprint for modern digital government’ by DSIT, plays an important role in shaping best practice in relation to technology procurement policy.