Merck Research Site

Debate between Lord Lansley and Lord Vallance of Balham

Thursday 11th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her work over the past year as a Minister in two departments, which I think she did brilliantly. There are indeed other companies that are investing. In the same period, Moderna has invested £1 billion in the UK, and BioNTech has invested £2 billion in the UK. There is significant growth going on in Isomorphic Labs, one of the latest companies doing AI drug design. There are numerous examples of companies that are investing. We have a Life Sciences Sector Plan that has been welcomed by industry, and we know that as part of that the commercial environment for medicines in the UK needs to be improved.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, the UK is potentially the best location for life sciences investment in Europe, but it is undermined at present by the lack of agreement over the rebate under the voluntary pricing and access agreement. Will the Minister and the Government rapidly enter into mediation with the industry so that this can be resolved?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I reiterate my point about VPAG: it ended up in an unexpected place. It was negotiated in good faith by the previous Government and the industry, and the result was not the one that anyone expected. We are negotiating to try to get that in the right place. We got very close to a deal. That is clearly now complicated by a number of factors, including the prospect of tariffs from the US. We continue to talk to the industry regularly on all these matters.

AI: Cross-sector Legislation

Debate between Lord Lansley and Lord Vallance of Balham

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I can certainly give the noble Viscount an indication of the scope. As I have said clearly, this is not going to deal with regulation that can be done by existing regulators. The use of AI in existing areas is something for the regulators that are specialists in those areas. It will not deal with the AI assurance tools, which will be developed separately, but it will look at artificial general intelligence and the emergence of new, cutting-edge AI—the things that we know will cut right the way across other areas and require particular attention.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Kramer (LD)]

My Lords, perhaps the Minister could tell us why the UK did not sign the Paris declaration and which words the Government wanted removing from that declaration to make it acceptable.

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness and give her the precise details of that. However, I reinforce that the UK has been at the forefront of this, and the AI Security Institute is one of the most prominent actors in this space around the world.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

I am grateful. I draw the House’s attention to my register of interests. Is it the Government’s intention to use the powers in the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, when enacted, to bring in product requirements based on ISO 42001 relating to AI governance, as a mechanism to bring us some degree of AI assurance through regulation?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I referred to assurance tools, and that will be part of those. The noble Lord is quite right to raise the important area of standards, because they are critical here, and the UK is well linked to all the national and international standards bodies.