Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for competition and market access of the integration of AI tools into digital platforms; and what steps they are taking to ensure fair competition and effective regulation in digital markets.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to delivering a competitive and prosperous digital economy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is responsible for assessing and addressing competition in digital markets. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act provides the CMA with powers to ensure the most powerful technology firms treat businesses and consumers fairly.
On 31 March the CMA announced a package of actions on business software and cloud services, in part to enable it to ensure a level playing field as AI is rapidly embedded into everyday business software tools.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risks to the UK's supply chains of essential goods, including food, fuel and medicines, arising from the conflict in the Middle East; and what steps they are taking to strengthen resilience and contingency planning.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
DBT continuously assesses supply chain risks, mitigations, and potential interventions. The UK’s economic fundamentals remain strong. Supply of inputs and commodities remains stable and generally well diversified.
As the UK imports very low amounts of petrol, diesel and crude oil from the Middle East, we have not experienced supply issues. The Middle East is not a major source of UK food imports. Government does not currently expect any impact on food availability for consumers.
Government has already acted to strengthen UK economic resilience, including expanding the forthcoming British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) and restarting production at the Ensus plant.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the UK economy of the conflict in the Middle East, including impact on energy prices, trade and inflation; and what steps they are taking to ensure economic resilience.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
Government is closely monitoring the potential impact of disruption to trade and the wider economy. As with the conflict itself, there remains uncertainty about the scale and duration of the resulting economic and trade shock.
The UK has a diverse and resilient energy system, and Government has already taken action on energy prices, including allocating £50m for heating oil support for low‑income households and expanding the forthcoming British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS).
Rapid de-escalation in the Middle East remains the best way to protect the UK economy. Government continues to work internationally to support a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for competition and market access of the integration of generative AI tools into search engines; and what steps they are taking to ensure fair access for content providers and smaller firms in digital markets.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the UK’s independent competition authority and is responsible for operating the digital markets regime. It has designated Google with strategic market status in general search and search advertising services. Developments in generative AI were considered during the designation investigation. The CMA is now considering imposing conduct requirements to increase competition.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of AI in the fashion industry to reduce unsold inventory and improve supply chain efficiency; and what support is available to retailers to adopt such technology to enhance productivity and sustainability.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The fashion industry is increasingly using AI to improve demand forecasting, reduce unsold stock and increase supply chain efficiency, thereby supporting productivity and sustainability. Businesses can access support to adopt AI through programmes such as Made Smarter and Innovate UK, alongside wider productivity, digital adoption and skills initiatives, helping businesses invest in technologies that improve efficiency while reducing waste and environmental impact.
The government supports responsible and ethical AI adoption across our world leading creative industries, enabling organisations and freelancers to improve productivity, reach new audiences and develop new products and services.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of AI tools integrated in e-commerce platforms in supporting productivity growth of small and medium-sized enterprises; and what impact that assessment has on their strategy for digital adoption by UK businesses.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
AI tools integrated into e-commerce platforms can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to become more productive by automating routine tasks and improving data-based decision-making, for example on marketing, customer service and stock management.
The Department for Business and Trade is committed to increasing SME digital capability and AI confidence and is implementing the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce recommendations to address barriers such as lack of information, resources and skills. This includes convening industry roundtables to partner on delivering more, running local digital adoption pilots to test what support works best as well as linking up with the Business Growth Service to improve SME access to existing support.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of digitalisation and automation on recruitment patterns in the UK financial services sector; and what steps they are taking to ensure that higher education and professional training pathways meet changing skills demand in this regard.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Setting the UK’s financial services sector up with the skills and talent it needs is an important pillar of the Government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy.
The Economic Secretary commissioned the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC) to produce a report on how the skills system can drive growth and productivity by supporting more effective adoption and innovation of AI and other disruptive technologies. The FSSC have committed to reporting back by the end of the year.
We work closely with employers, sector bodies and providers to ensure training aligns with labour‑market demand, including through Local Skills Improvement Plans. Our reforms to higher technical education, including the rollout of Higher Technical Qualifications and the expansion of degree apprenticeships and modular learning through the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, are improving the quality and flexibility of skills pathways.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of AI adoption on the productivity and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and what steps they are taking to support the responsible uptake of AI tools by SMEs.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Adoption of Artificial Intelligence by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) can unlock significant productivity gains. An OECD paper published last year estimates that AI could increase UK annual labour productivity growth by 1.4 to 2.7 percentage points over 10 years. This has been estimated by DSIT analysts to be equivalent to £55 billion to £140 billion economic (GVA) growth.
It is important for government to support with this, in partnership with industry. That is why the Department for Business and Trade created the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce and are working to deliver on their ten recommendations, including a series of industry roundtables and local-level pilots to tackle barriers SMEs face when adopting digital technologies including AI.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of financial services firms in promoting the adoption of AI tools among UK small and medium-sized enterprises; and how this is being considered in government policy on SME digitalisation.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Adoption of Artificial Intelligence can unlock significant productivity gains. It is important for government to work in partnership with industry, including financial services firms, to support Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with this.
The Department for Business and Trade created the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce and are leading a series of roundtables to tackle barriers SMEs face when adopting digital technologies. Members include Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Mastercard and Visa.
Innovate UK’s Next Generation Professional and Financial Services programme supports digital innovation and adoption across financial services. Within this, the Future Finance strand accelerates uptake by providing targeted support to Financial Services firms.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to support industrial competitiveness and manage price pressures.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Through our modern Industrial Strategy we are making it easier and simpler for companies to do business, giving them the stability to make long-term investments. We are proactively dealing with the challenges businesses face, expanding access to finance, supporting skills and access to talent, and transitioning to cheaper energy through our clean power mission.
We are reducing the administrative costs of regulation on businesses by 25% this Parliament, and we have already identified £1.5bn of administrative burden savings. To crowd in the private investment crucial for firms starting and scaling, we are providing the British Business Bank with £4bn additional capital to support investment into the Industrial Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors. The new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) aims to reduce electricity costs by c.£35/MWh for over 7,000 manufacturing businesses, bringing prices closer to those in other major European economies. The consultation on BICS closed on 19 January and the Government will confirm details of scheme design and eligibility in due course, ahead of an April 2027 launch date.