Queen’s Speech

Lord Sarfraz Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sarfraz (Con)]

My Lords, your Lordships’ House is full of one thing—semiconductors; computer chips. They are in our cell phones, in our laptops, in those screens, in the audio system. They are also in our vehicles outside, in our microwaves and washing machines at home and in every ventilator and every operating theatre across the country. We are a nation addicted to semiconductors, we cannot live without them, yet we are in the middle of a major global semiconductor crisis. There are simply not enough semiconductors being manufactured to meet global demand. This has very real implications.

Last month, BMW was forced to stop production in its Oxford Mini plant, and Jaguar Land Rover stopped production in two of its plants, in both cases because of a lack of semiconductors. Thousands of individuals work in these facilities. While we look ahead to a promising, packed legislative agenda outlined in Her Majesty’s gracious Speech, we must remember one thing—that all our ambitions in green technology, fintech, space ports, free ports and electric vehicles cannot be achieved without security of semiconductor supply. We design some of the best semiconductors here in the UK, but we do not make them. For the most part, semiconductors are made in east Asia. The two major UK chip designers are owned by Asian businesses. We are entirely dependent on a supply chain over which we have no control. This needs to change.

Today, a coalition of technology companies in the US has launched an alliance to promote domestic semiconductor manufacture. It has joined the President of the United States in asking Congress for $50 billion of funding to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the US. So, as we debate the Queen’s Speech, we must make sure we have the raw computing power we need to grow our economy. This is a matter of independence in technological sovereignty, just like energy security or food security, and should be recognised as such.