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Written Question
Digital Assets
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to introduce the Law Commission's draft Bill on Digital Assets this parliamentary session.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Law Commission’s final report on Digital Assets did not include a draft Bill. However, the report recommended statutory confirmation of the existing common law position that certain digital assets and other intangible assets are capable of attracting personal property rights. The Government is carefully considering the Law Commission’s recommendations and will respond in due course.


Written Question
Artificial Intelligence
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage public participation in questions around the use of AI and its impact on society, what role citizens assemblies might play in those plans, and how the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation will be involved.

Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In 2021 the Government published its National AI Strategy – a 10-year vision to make the UK an AI superpower by investing in our ecosystem, driving adoption of AI across sectors, and ensuring we get the governance of AI right. The strategy recognised that public trust and support in government’s approach to and use of AI was crucial to maximise its opportunities and value, whilst minimising its risks.

To develop the Strategy, the Government ran an open survey through the Alan Turing Institute. The survey received over 400 responses, in addition to having engaged over 250 organisations and businesses across different sectors.

The Government also ran a consultation to inform the AI regulation white paper, published this year. We heard from over 400 individuals and organisations, with a wide range of views represented including regulators, industry, academia, and civil society. The Government has also engaged regulators, businesses, start-ups, research groups, trade unions, charities and advocacy groups through roundtables and workshops.

In advance of Government’s AI Summit to be held this month, DSIT has engaged broadly with stakeholders to ensure voices and views of diverse groups and individuals have helped to shape the Summit’s focus. This included four official pre-Summit events with the Royal Society, the British Academy, techUK and The Alan Turing Institute as well as public Q&As on X and twitter.

We will continue to engage with the public to inform our approach to drive responsible innovation in AI including through the work of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI). The CDEI’s Public Attitudes team conducts an ongoing programme of quantitative and qualitative research to engage the public on AI. This has recently included focus groups and deliberative dialogues with diverse groups to understand public attitudes towards the use of AI in society. CDEI also conducts a large-scale annual survey which monitors public attitudes to data-driven technology and AI, the latest wave of which will be published in November this year. CDEI disseminates the findings from its research widely, and the insight is used across government, academia and the private sector to help ensure trustworthy approaches to AI.


Written Question
ICT: Public Opinion
Wednesday 25th October 2023

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have used or tested tools, such as Pol.is or CitizenOS, as a way of gathering public opinion on different issues.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

There is no centrally held record of government use of tools such as Pol.is or CitizenOS used as ways of gathering and understanding public opinion. The use of such is devolved to individual departments.

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), within Cabinet Office, is responsible for supporting departments to build and operate modern, state of the art, highly responsive, cost-effective technology that meets the needs of our end users and delivers the cross-government digital strategy.

CDDO is working with departments to establish the frameworks and policies to guide the responsible adoption of new technologies.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Wednesday 19th January 2022

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 30 November (HL Deb, col 1265), what new solutions to support citizens who use its services the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is exploring; whether the DWP is running any proof of concepts on digital payments; what “alternative technologies” they are considering; and what plans they have to reconsider distributed ledger technology solutions.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

DWP is committed to harnessing the potential of new technologies in making a positive difference to our customers’ lives.

The department is currently undertaking a modernisation programme of work which does also include reimagining the future of payments, exploring using disruptive and alternative technologies to challenge traditional thinking and processes.

DWP has previously undertaken proof of concept using disruptive technologies such as Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology to challenge and change how we manage and distribute money, drive more resilience and security. In this proof of concept, DWP examined how blockchain technologies could be used to issue welfare payments to our banking partners on a near real-time basis, helping reduce 3rd party dependencies. During this initial internal proof of concept, no claimants were involved and the work was used to inform the decision to develop a future method of payment strategy that outlines DWP’s commitment to improving the methods available to make payments to customers.

We continue to explore payment innovations, including distributed ledger and blockchain technologies and their potential to securely deliver services that our customers rely on.


Written Question
Crown Commercial Service: Financial Services
Monday 26th April 2021

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure financial technology solutions are considered as part of the Debt Resolution Services supplier roster being created by the Crown Commercial Service.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

The Debt Resolution Services Framework will include specific lots for data and affordability solutions. These will be supplied by organisations that provide a range of technology and digital solutions including but not exclusive to; conversational artificial intelligence, open-banking, credit reference agency data, and automated standard financial statements.

Public Sector organisations can utilise these solutions and services to better understand customer financial circumstances and ensure affordable outcomes while providing increased access and choice in the way that customers interact with the services.

It is anticipated that the contract notice for the Debt Resolution Services Framework will be published in June 2021.


Written Question
Business: Government Assistance
Monday 29th June 2020

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the request by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 15 June for organisations and individuals to submit their own responses to the questions asked by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the economic recovery roundtables, how many responses they received to that request; how many of those responses focused on the use of private sector investment in research and development; and what plans they have to publish (1) the responses, and (2) their assessment of those responses, to that request. [T]

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

To date, the Department has received over 450 documents from 285 stakeholders across the UK. We are working through these inputs, which will inform the Government’s thinking. Several responses refer to the importance of private sector investment as a key lever for economic recovery and the critical role of Government in facilitating private R&D investment. We shall make further information available in due course.


Written Question
Public Sector: Artificial Intelligence
Wednesday 24th June 2020

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to put the guidance contained within A guide to using artificial intelligence in the public sector, published on 27 January, on a statutory footing. [T]

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Since the publication of the AI Guide, we have committed to updating and improving the guidance in order to support the public sector's adoption of AI and data technologies. This includes considering how best to ensure the safe and ethical use of AI and data technologies, including statutory or non-statutory mechanisms.


Written Question
Bus Services: Disability
Wednesday 22nd May 2019

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their Bus Services Act 2017: bus open data consultation response, published in January, why the provision of accessibility information “would be too great an implementation burden for bus operators”; and what assessment they have made of the impact of the lack of such information on those with disabilities.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Department for Transport consulted with bus operators, passengers and their representative groups to explore the technical feasibility of requiring operators and/or local transport authorities to provide accessibility data for both vehicles and stops. We came to the conclusion that the industry is not yet ready to meet this challenge and therefore have chosen to focus on only legally requiring the core data types for the Bus Open Data Digital Service.

Whilst we do consider accessibility information to be of great importance for public transport users, many operators would need to upgrade their systems in order to openly publish accessibility information, and many operators are not currently in a position to do so.

However, we are working with the industry to support the voluntary and open publication of accessibility information and at a later stage in the programme, after the core requirements have been successfully delivered, return to this important data type and consider whether it would be feasible to legally require the industry to openly publish accessibility information about vehicles.


Written Question
Speed Limits
Thursday 28th February 2019

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether current legislation and enforcement around speed limits is working; and what steps they are taking, if any, to ensure that particular design decisions, such as the removal of pedestrian crossings, does not increase the number of speeding vehicles.

Answered by Baroness Sugg

In November 2018, the Department published an evaluation into 20mph (signed only) limits: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/20-mph-speed-limits-on-roads.

It has long been thought that most residents and drivers support 20mph limits, and the study confirms this. The study looked at the enablers and barriers to implementing a successful scheme and found that early engagement and buy-in from other stakeholders, including cross-party support from local councillors; clear articulation of the scheme’s rationale, objectives and outcomes; and tailoring of schemes to local circumstances were crucial to a scheme being accepted by the public and delivered to the anticipated quality, programme and cost.

Design of streets in their care is a matter for local authorities, including installation or removal of pedestrian crossings. It is for them to decide if removing or altering a crossing is appropriate. In doing so they may consider the effect on factors such as traffic flow and speed and pedestrian movements. The Department is currently updating its guidance on designing traffic signals and pedestrian crossings, to be published later this year.

Enforcement of speed limits is a matter for the police.


Written Question
Work Experience
Tuesday 23rd October 2018

Asked by: Lord Holmes of Richmond (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Henley on 17 May (HL7805, HL7806, HL7807, and HL7809), what progress they have made in fulfilling their commitments, in particular the commitments to (1) hold a roundtable discussion with employers and leaders from sectors that commonly use interns, (2) update guidance for employers and workers on the rules for paying interns, and (3) publish further details on enforcement of the National Minimum Wage.

Answered by Lord Henley

The Government is clear that all interns who are conducting work should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage. We will publish updated guidance in due course to ensure employers are clear on their responsibilities. This guidance clarifies the checks employers need to make to ensure they are paying interns properly.

The Government has been focusing enforcement efforts towards employers of interns. HM Revenue and Customs have contacted over 2,000 employers found to be advertising on the internet for unpaid internships. Each employer is written a letter to make the law clear, and to set out the risk of further enforcement action. HM Revenue and Customs will shortly expand this approach. Government Ministers are planning a roundtable meeting with employers later this year.

The Government recently published National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage: government evidence on compliance and enforcement, 2017 to 2018. This is publicly available in the attached.