Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications of the proposed merger of Anglo American and Teck Resources for jobs in United Kingdom.

Answered by Lord Leong - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

His Majesty's Government are pleased that the UK will remain as the base for Anglo Teck's incorporation, tax and primary listing, recognising London's role as a global centre for mining finance. We also welcome the news that a corporate office will be retained in London and that Anglo Teck has committed to progress the development of the Woodsmith Project (a polyhalite fertiliser mine) in North Yorkshire, a significant investment in the region.

The Department for Business and Trade will continue to engage with both companies as plans for the merger, including jobs, develop.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the fair and ethical use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, including the protection of workers' rights and support for retraining.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The safe and ethical deployment of AI can drive innovation and productivity across the UK workforce.

The newly published trusted third-party AI assurance roadmap outlines the Government’s immediate actions to grow the UK’s assurance market. This includes convening a multistakeholder UK consortium and developing a skills and competencies framework to support the future professionalisation of assurance. This will help to embed criteria for professional practice, conduct and behaviour into this emerging industry. We will also launch an AI Assurance Innovation Fund to support novel assurance solutions to future-proof the market across eight industrial strategy sectors.

Alongside this, we are supporting the workforce to adapt to widespread AI adoption, including upskilling 7.5 million workers in essential AI skills by 2030.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they plan to take to ensure the safety of agentic artificial intelligence that is used by the Civil Service.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is committed to ensuring adoption of AI in an ethical, safe and responsible way to improve public service outcomes and boost public sector productivity.

The AI Playbook for the UK Government, published in February 2025, sets out practical guidance for civil servants on using AI technologies including agentic AI safely and effectively.

GDS’s Responsible Data & AI team supports the responsible use and development of AI through initiatives such as: the Model for Responsible Innovation, Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS), the Data Ethics Framework, and the Responsible AI Advisory Panel.

The AI Security Institute (AISI) was set up to equip governments with a scientific understanding of AI’s risks.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the new Defence Industrial Strategy on supply chains and local economic growth.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Defence Industrial Strategy will strengthen supply chains, drive innovation, and create high-skilled jobs through the launch of five Defence Growth Deals across the nations and regions of the United Kingdom, investing in measures to support supply chain resilience and the creation of the Defence Office of Small Business Growth. These measures will support national security while promoting local economic growth and resilience.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect graduate and entry-level jobs.

Answered by Lord Leong - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Economic growth is the central mission of this government and is vital to giving the next generation the opportunities to thrive.

The labour market is very strong by historical and international standards, and whilst there has been a downturn in graduate vacancies over the last 12 months, the employment rate for graduates in England has remained steady over the past 10 years at around 87% on average.

In June the Government published our modern Industrial Strategy, which will support good jobs and higher incomes across the country. This outlined interventions including £1.2 billion of additional investment in skills per year by 2028-29.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the report on the outcome of the Development Review.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

The development review was one of three internal review processes, commissioned specifically to inform departmental strategy alongside other inputs. We have subsequently launched the FCDO2030 programme, as set out in the FCDO's recently published annual report, informed by those internal reviews.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure fair access in the fintech sector following the selection of a provider, Etrading Software, for the UK's first consolidated bond trading tape.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consolidated tape tender process focused on the capabilities that a consolidated tape provider (CTP) would have to meet while remaining neutral about how providers would meet these standards.

The CTP is obliged to provide market data on a non-discriminatory basis and is required to offer individual and enterprise licenses for real-time and historical consolidated tape data to ensure that the widest possible set of potential users will be able to access consolidated tape data. This ensures fair access to market participants, including fintechs.

Further details can be found on the FCA website: https://www.fca.org.uk/markets/data-reporting-services-providers/bond-consolidated-tape

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of dropping consumer confidence among people aged over-65.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government monitors a wide range of indicators to assess the UK’s economic performance, including measures of consumer confidence. Consumer confidence, as measured by the Growth from Knowledge (GfK), reached its highest level of the year in August 2025. Official economic forecasts and assessments of policy impacts are set out in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook documents, the most recent of which was published in March 2025.

Consumer confidence is intrinsically linked to household finances and the broader economic outlook. The Government is committed to driving growth and raising living standards and has taken steps to support those aged over 65, including protecting the Triple Lock at the Budget in October 2024, which delivered a 4.1% increase in State Pensions in April 2025, benefiting over 12 million people. The Government has also extended the £3 bus fare cap and continues to take action to reduce inflation.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of reducing or removing the digital services tax.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK’s Digital Services Tax is a fair and proportionate approach to taxing business activities undertaken in the UK, and it remains the UK’s intention to repeal it once an international solution is in place. As the Chancellor has previously said, we will continue to make sure that businesses pay their fair share of tax, including businesses in the digital sector.

Forecasts on tax revenues are published regularly by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of potential reform of the property taxation system and the ability of any reform to make housing more affordable.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government does not comment on speculation about tax changes. The Government keeps all tax policy under review and tax decisions will be made at the Budget, in the usual way.

As well as the Government’s commitment to delivering 1.5 million new homes, we are providing the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation, through confirming £39 billion for a successor to the Social and Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-36.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the Prime Minister's "Budget Board" will be able to improve economic coordination ahead of the November budget.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

At the Budget later this year, the Government will focus on building an economy that works for working people using investment and reform as our tools for renewal. The Government does not routinely comment on internal processes and meetings, including those in advance of fiscal events.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that one million households are now falling behind with their energy bills.

Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently.

The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030. This, combined with our Warm Homes Plan to upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run is how we will drive down energy bills and make cold homes a thing of the past.

We recognise that we need to support households struggling with bills whilst we transition to clean power by 2030. This is why we delivered the Warm Home Discount to around 3 million eligible low-income households last winter. On 19 June we announced that we are expanding the Warm Home Discount to around an additional 2.7 million households. This means that from next winter, around 6 million low-income households will receive the £150 support to help with their energy bill costs.

The Government's review of the 2021 fuel poverty strategy and the latest fuel poverty statistics confirm that a new plan is needed to accelerate progress to alleviate fuel poverty. The consultation closed on 4 April and we are considering the responses received. We are committed to publishing a new fuel poverty strategy this year. Our new fuel poverty strategy will be developed alongside our Warm Homes Plan and clean power mission, and our work to make the energy market fairer.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of abolishing 5-per-cent value added tax on domestic energy bills, in particular on the cost of living for households.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is supporting households with energy bills now whilst we transition to clean power by 2030. Gas and electricity are subject to a reduced rate of VAT at five per cent, rather than the standard 20 per cent.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Bank of England regarding slowing the Bank of England's bond-selling plan to help reduce UK government borrowing costs.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Bank of England has operational independence from the government to carry out its statutory responsibilities for monetary policy and financial stability. Monetary policy, including quantitative easing, is the responsibility of the independent Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. 
 
The separation of fiscal and monetary policy is a key feature of the UK’s economic framework, it is in line with international standards and essential for the effective delivery of monetary policy, so the government does not comment on the conduct or effectiveness of monetary policy.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Bank of England regarding proposals to cap individual holdings of stablecoins at £10,000–£20,000 and £10 million for businesses.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government recognises that facilitating stablecoin innovation is important for UK competitiveness, and continues to engage with the regulators, including the Bank of England, to ensure a coherent regulatory framework.

The government will bring forward legislation later this year to create a financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets in the UK, including stablecoins.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce inflation.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Bank of England has the responsibility of controlling inflation, and the Government fully supports them as they take action to return inflation sustainably to 2%. Alongside this, the Government is maintaining stable public finances, reducing borrowing year after year to ease pressure on prices. Borrowing is set to fall by almost a percentage point as a share of GDP this year compared with last, and by a further 0.8ppts next year. The Chancellor has asked departments to prioritise reducing inflation when developing policies for the Autumn Budget, ensuring decisions support stability and long-term growth.

The Government is supporting households with targeted measures to ease pressure on budgets. This includes increasing the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, extending the Household Support Fund with £1 billion a year for crisis support through councils, and expanding Free School Meals to all children with a parent on Universal Credit from 2026. The Warm Home Discount will be expanded to cover around 6 million households.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure consumer protection under the Financial Conduct Authority's plans to exempt cryptoasset providers from some traditional financial rules.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is bringing forward legislation this year that will create a comprehensive financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets. This regime will mean firms seeking to offer cryptoasset services to UK customers will need to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This new regime will build on existing UK protections provided by anti-money laundering regulations and financial promotions rules.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of job losses as a result of artificial intelligence replacing content moderation and safety roles at tech firms in the UK.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must protect all users from illegal content, and children from age-inappropriate content. The Act’s illegal content duties have been in force since March 2025, and the child safety duties since July 2025. Platforms are required to take steps to mitigate risks to users, including through implementing effective content moderation processes.

AI Adoption across businesses, including tech or non-tech firms, is a key priority for this government, and this technology can play an important role in content moderation.

DSIT is working across government to plan for different scenarios, and is monitoring data to track and prepare for these. The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out how we will address key challenges and that includes giving people the skills to get those jobs and spread opportunity across the UK to fix the foundations of our economy to seize AI’s potential.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of employee monitoring tools.

Answered by Lord Leong - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Workplace monitoring technology has the potential to increase business productivity and improve efficiency, but it can also pose risks to workers’ when used disproportionately or without consideration of data protection, equality and employment rights.

The Plan to Make Work Pay makes clear workers’ interests will need to inform the digital transformation taking place in the workplace. We therefore committed to making the introduction of workplace monitoring technologies subject to consultation and negotiation.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of multinational companies to the UK's artificial intelligence capacity, and what steps they are taking to balance the role of those companies with the development of UK-owned artificial intelligence capacity.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The government's sovereignty strategy is pragmatic and focusses on building resilience and strategic advantage, rather than simply self-reliance. We want to ensure that the UK can use the best models in the world while protecting UK interests.

To achieve this, we are establishing strategic partnerships with the leading frontier model developers, for example our Memoranda of Understanding with Anthropic, OpenAI and Cohere, to ensure resilient access to and influence the development of their capabilities. We are also developing sovereign capabilities where it matters most by scaling onshore infrastructure, supporting the emergence of new national champions and increasing the talent pipeline in the UK.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure energy and planning infrastructure can support large-scale AI compute deployments without undermining commitments to clean energy and lowering energy costs.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

To meet the UK’s AI ambitions, we are committed to ensuring our energy system is equipped to support this growing demand in a clean, sustainable, and scalable way.

Through the AI Energy Council, we bring together leaders from both the AI and energy sectors, to discuss how to prepare the UK’s energy system to manage the growing energy demand of AI and aligning AI energy demand with Clean Power 2030 goals. The council will explore bold, clean energy solutions to ensure our AI ambitions align with the UK’s net zero goals.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen employment opportunities in sectors experiencing the sharpest decline in job opportunities.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Following a peak during the pandemic, vacancies are returning to their long-term average. There are currently 728k vacancies, slightly above the long-term series average of 696k.

We recognise the need to provide working-age adults with the support they need to pursue opportunities in the workforce, which is essential for economic growth.

We are already delivering the biggest overhaul of jobcentres in a generation, backed by £240 million investment to boost employment.

By bringing apprenticeships, adult further education, skills training, careers guidance, and Skills England under DWP’s remit, we’re creating strong pathways to support the millions of people across the country.

This will mean a greater focus on adult skills and career outcomes, getting people into skilled work in sectors that need labour – like construction.

Part of our approach is the use of DWP’s Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) that help employers with immediate and future employment needs by upskilling benefit claimants to fill local job vacancies.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the AI Growth Zone in north-east England delivers over 5,000 skilled jobs and attracts the forecasted £30 billion in private investment.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is establishing AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) to deliver the infrastructure needed for the UK to develop and deploy advanced AI at scale.

Following the announcement of the North East Growth Zone, we have established a taskforce which DSIT SoS will co-chair with the regional mayor (Kim McGuinness), including the region’s leading universities, businesses and skills providers. Alongside our existing engagement with partners, this taskforce will ensure we bring all the force of national government to work with regional and local government. We will lay the physical foundations and build data centres to launch careers in AI, ensuring this Growth Zone is about creating real opportunities for people across the region.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to develop workforce and education strategies in response to the growth of AI-native businesses with minimal staff.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government is taking steps to prepare the workforce for the future through its Industrial Strategy. We are ensuring that skills and employment support are aligned with key economic priorities, including transformative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).

The Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy will set out plans to build a system that provides the skills that learners need to thrive in work and life and supports delivery of the Plan for Change.

Digital skills are embedded across occupational standards, influencing T-Levels, Higher Technical Qualifications, and apprenticeships. From April 2026, new short courses will be introduced in England in areas such as digital and AI, funded by the Growth and Skills Levy.

Skills England has released three data-driven reports to support decision-making and development of targeted training solutions. These will ensure that skills provision meets economic needs, including in sectors most affected by AI, and will shape sector-specific packages responding to future workforce demands.

Blockchain Technologies APPG
Friday 26th September 2025

Found: **Key attendees** included parliamentarians (Lord Taylor of Warwick, Viscount Camrose, Alison Taylor