Zoological Society of London (Leases) Bill

Lord Evans of Weardale Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 10th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Weardale (CB)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, and I will echo a number of her comments and remarks.

The Zoological Society of London is a tremendous national asset. It provides knowledge and research in areas of zoology through its institute, and the Bill is extraordinary timely today. I have been struck by the way in which companies are now increasingly expected to report on their contribution to nature, as well as to climate sustainability, anti-slavery and such other really important factors. How can they do that unless they have proper understanding? That understanding of the scientific background to our wildlife is what the Zoological Society of London can contribute. It is important work, uniquely focused on by this institution, which is also, as has been said, actively involved in conservation. This is not just academic research but an active contribution to conservation in this country and internationally. It is a vital part of our educational infrastructure.

My daughter teaches at a school quite close to London Zoo itself, where many of the children come from a deprived background and have very limited horizons. The access that the zoo provides for those children is vital in exciting them and providing them with a wider aperture to have visibility on the world, helping their education. For inner-city children, that is so important, and something that the zoo does wonderfully.

In the same way, in recent years there has been much greater access. If you go to the zoo as a tourist, it is pretty expensive. If you are a claimant of benefits, you can access it much more cheaply. That is right, and it has greatly extended access to this tremendous location, which is very much to be welcomed. Of course, there is an economic contribution from all this. London Zoo itself and Whipsnade are great tourist attractions, and alongside their contribution to knowledge and education there is an economic benefit.

For all of this, ZSL is not a rich organisation. Unlike many of the museums, ZSL does not receive a grant in aid from the Government. We provide a grant in aid for dead animals but not for live ones, and that is challenging for an organisation that has the sort of infrastructure we see at ZSL. If you visit, it is a marvellous sight. The animals are tremendous, but it is very clear that there needs to be better investment to bring it up to date and to get the full benefit from its location and the knowledge that is there. You cannot do that unless you have a long-term horizon; this is not something that will be done quickly or cheaply. We need to provide the wherewithal and opportunity for ZSL to invest for the long term, to get the opportunities that it offers more widely and to be sustainable.

That is what this Bill does. I heartily support it and am delighted that it has come through the Commons unscathed. As the noble Lord, Lord Randall, said, this is a simple Bill but it is an important one. I very much hope that we can pass it unscathed.

AI in the UK (Liaison Committee Report)

Lord Evans of Weardale Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Evans of Weardale (CB)]

My Lords, I draw attention to my entry in the register of interests as an adviser to Luminance Technologies Ltd and to Darktrace plc, both of which use AI to solve business problems.

I welcome the opportunity to follow up the excellent 2018 report from the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. In 2020 the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which I chair, published a report, Artificial Intelligence and Public Standards. We benefited considerably from the work that had gone into the earlier report and from the advice and encouragement of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for which I am very grateful.

It is most important that there should be a wide-ranging and well-informed public debate on the development and deployment of AI. It has the potential to bring enormous public benefits but it comes with potential risks. Media commentary on this subject demonstrates that by swinging wildly between boosterism on the one hand and tales of the apocalypse on the other. Balanced and well-informed debate is essential if we are to navigate the future successfully.

The UK remains well-positioned to contribute to and benefit from the development of AI. I have been impressed by the quality of the work done in government in some areas on these underlying ethical challenges. A good example was the publication last year of GCHQ’s AI and data ethics framework—a sign of a forward-looking and reflective approach to ethical challenges, in a part of government that a generation ago would have remained hidden from public view.

The view of my committee was that there was no reason in principle why AI should not both increase the efficiency of the public service and help to maintain high public standards, but in order to do so it had to manage the risks effectively and ensure that proper regulation was in place, otherwise public trust could be undermined and, consequently, the potential benefits of AI to public service would not be realised. The Liaison Committee report gives me some encouragement about the Government’s direction of travel on this, but the pace of change will not slow and continuing attention will be required to keep the policy up to date.

Specifically, I welcome The Roadmap to an Effective AI Assurance Ecosystem by the CDEI, which seems to me, admittedly as an interested layman rather than a technologist, to provide realistic and nuanced guidance on assurance in this area—and it is one where effective independent assurance will be essential. I therefore ask the Minister how confident he is that this guidance will reach and influence those offering assurance services to the users of AI. I welcome the consultation by DCMS on potential reforms to the data protection framework, which may need to be adjusted as advances in technology create novel challenges. I look forward to seeing the outcome of the consultation before too long.

The Government’s AI strategy suggests that further consideration will be given to the shape of regulation of AI and is to be published later this year, specifically considering whether we are better to have a more centralised regulatory model or one that continues to place the responsibility for AI regulation on the sectoral regulators. Our report concluded that a dispersed vertical model was likely in most areas to be preferable, since AI was likely to become embedded in all areas of the economy in due course and needed to be considered as part of the normal operating model of specific industries and sectors. I remain of that view but look forward to seeing the Government’s proposals on the issue in due course.

One area where we felt that improvement was needed was in using public procurement as a policy lever in respect of AI. The public sector is an increasingly important buyer of AI-related services and products. There is the potential to use that spending power to encourage the industry to develop capabilities that make AI-assisted decision-making more explicable, which is sometimes a problem at present. The evidence that we received suggested that that was not being used by government, at least as recently as 2020. I am not sure that we are doing this as well as we should and would therefore welcome the Minister’s observations on this point.

General Data Protection Regulation

Lord Evans of Weardale Excerpts

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

I believe that when that happens, that is the end of it. If they ask, they obviously want to know why the noble Lord no longer wants to be in touch with them—I do not blame them for that. Of course, I accept that those emails have a benefit. One of the principal features of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 is that there is a much stronger measure of consent. People have to give active consent to have their personal data processed.

[Lord Evans of Weardale (CB)]

My Lords, are there proposals to review the impact of this measure on small organisations? Irrespective of the fact that there is continuity from the previous Data Protection Act, there is concern that small organisations, such as charities et cetera, will be disproportionately affected. It is important that we should know whether that is the case. I declare an interest as the chairman of the charity Kent Search and Rescue.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

Of course, we have to comply with the GDPR while we are members of the EU. We want to continue to have a data protection regime that is in accord with the EU’s when we leave. I believe that all new legislation is reviewed after a period of time, so we will obviously keep an eye on whether there is a disproportionate effect on small organisations. Charities are obviously important but, for the reasons I set out before, individual data subjects’ rights are important so there has to be a balance.