Artificial Intelligence: Global Governance
Debate between Lord Ranger of Northwood and Baroness Lloyd of Effra(1 month, 1 week ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
The convention on AI is flexible and does not create new human rights obligations. Contracting states are given broad discretion when it comes to selecting the appropriate form of implementation, including sector-led regulation. That fits with our mission to highlight the benefits of AI for working people in a way that recognises that regulation largely is based on a sector-based approach.
Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)
My Lords, as we know, and as I have said quite often in this House, the UK AI sector for SMEs is booming. Thousands of new businesses have set up in the UK over the last few years, and the UK can be proud of that on the global stage. With the last Prime Minister, and maybe the new Prime Minister, searching for growth, when will the Government meet organisations such as SMEs, particularly around the challenges of procurement into government? I declare my interest as a co-founder of the Business AI Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation that champions 300 UK AI businesses.
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
The noble Lord is right to pay testament to the strength of the UK economy and sector in both AI adoption and in new businesses taking opportunities, whether in law tech, fintech, or health and life sciences, to name a few. I am sure that colleagues in the department will be happy to meet the organisations he mentions. We meet other alliances such as those who represent start-ups and scale-ups in the UK. As he mentions, they are a source of growth and employment here.
Sovereign AI Fund
Debate between Lord Ranger of Northwood and Baroness Lloyd of Effra(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
Public procurement through G-Cloud must deliver value for money, security, and effective public services. Suppliers are not selected or excluded purely on the basis of nationality where they meet operational security and value for money obligations. The commercialisation of the sovereign AI fund to make the Government an early customer for strategically important UK start-ups is ongoing across technical, commercial and government leads to ensure that a robust, flexible, and scalable option is available.
Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)
My Lords, perhaps I could highlight that the biggest challenge I see is not just initial funding. We welcome what the sovereign AI fund will do to provide compute and help commercialisation at a start-up moment for British AI companies, but the tragedy that we are seeing right now is losing those companies to international funders and overseas platforms. Once they reach a point for scaling, what will the fund or the Government do to help retain them, so they remain headquartered in the UK and continue to succeed commercially here?
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
The noble Lord is right. Our ambition is to make the UK the best place to start, to scale and to stay. That is not just for the AI sovereign fund, important though that is, but for the ecosystem. That is why we are investing in public compute, so that firms here will be able to access it, why we have our ambition for UK procurement and why we are looking at measures such as AI growth zones: to make this country one of the most attractive, as we can see from the amount of foreign direct investment that is already coming into the UK.
British Business Bank
Debate between Lord Ranger of Northwood and Baroness Lloyd of Effra(4 months, 3 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
My noble friend is right to mention consistency with the industrial strategy. It was only in October last year that the Government gave the British Business Bank a new mandate, including to align with the industrial strategy’s priority sectors and making available £4 billion to support those areas. In setting out the priority sectors, the Government have outlined ways in which they expect the British Business Bank to meet that—for example, using specialist fund managers or tailored approaches for the specific financing and other requirements of those subsectors. Creative UK has committed to providing a single gateway to help those creative industries that need access to finance to navigate between the various sources of finance available from the Government.
Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)
My Lords, I am a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee. We recently produced a report, Bleeding to Death, which I hope the Minister has seen, looking at the scale-up ecosystem of the UK and particularly the role of the British Business Bank. It concluded that we are in a doom loop. We do not have the scale or competitiveness, despite the extra investment in the British Business Bank. One of our recommendations was to bring different funds together, such as Innovate Finance, the National Wealth Fund and the British Business Bank. Have the Government looked at that recommendation?
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
As I said, we are helping businesses navigate the way—for example, through the business growth service, which enables businesses to access all the types of finance and support that they need, including UK export finance and other facilities with the Government. For the creative industries, Creative UK has committed to taking that role to help those businesses navigate the way through. On supporting businesses and the VC ecosystem, there is a lot of activity with the new investor pathways programme to provide £400 million of cornerstone investments into VC funds.
Artificial Intelligence Legislation
Debate between Lord Ranger of Northwood and Baroness Lloyd of Effra(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
My noble friend highlights one of the important points made during the passage of the Bill. The whole swathe of those discussions, both at technical level and with parliamentary colleagues, is intended to have the views of rights holders and other actors on the table, so that we can work through these at the same time as the AI developments are happening in real time.
Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)
My Lords, I note my register of interests, specifically as an adviser to SMEs in AI—VED 3, Automated Analytics and Scrumconnect—and as part of the AI APPG. Let me bring some good news to the House: the UK AI sector is booming. Nearly half of UK businesses’ resilience budgets are now going on AI, agentic AI and technology. This investment been supported by the UK Government’s sector-led, principles-based approach to AI regulation, designed to foster innovation and ensure safety. As the Minister confirms, I hope this flexible model will continue and be central to our strategy. Is the Minister aware that recent analysis shows that the EU’s AI Act has contributed to a 20% decline in AI formations in the region, and up to a €500,000 annual compliance cost for high-risk systems, disproportionately affecting SMEs and deterring investment—outcomes the UK has wisely avoided?
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
The noble Lord makes an extremely good point about the way in which we regulate. The UK has a bespoke approach. It is obviously important that we continue to work with other countries, as AI development is not something that happens only in the UK. Therefore, there is an element of needing to talk to the US and the EU, for example, about the developments. The noble Lord is absolutely right that our approach here is designed to safeguard security, build trust and get the economic benefits for the people of the UK.