Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2025 to Question 66043, what steps her Department is taking to develop its understanding of the risks posed to young people by artificial intelligence on social media platforms; and what further measures are being considered to help tackle AI‑generated harms, including their potential impact on young people’s wellbeing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Children have the strongest protections under the Online Safety Act. Its duties apply to AI-generated content in the same way as other content, requiring regulated services to tackle illegal AI content and protect children from harmful AI content on their platforms.
In March, the Government launched a consultation and National Conversation on children’s digital wellbeing, seeking views on harms (and mitigations) linked to AI chatbots and social media. This closes on 26 May.
The government is also strengthening the criminal law, through the Crime and Policing Bill we will criminalise deliberately modifying or adapting AI models to generate child sexual abuse material, and bring unregulated AI chatbot services into scope.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2025 to Question 68225, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward further legislative proposals on animal sentience in addition to the provisions of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022; and what steps his Department is considering to help increase animal sentience protections.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department published the Animal Welfare Strategy on 22 December 2025. The Strategy sets out the priority issues Government will address, focusing on the changes and improvements it aims to achieve by 2030.
The Animal Welfare Strategy will deliver further ambitious improvements for sentient animals, including through legislation where necessary. While the Government has no immediate plans to bring forward additional legislation on animal sentience beyond the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, it will keep the legislative framework under review as the Strategy is delivered and consider further action where appropriate.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in pursuant to the Answer to Question104912, what recent progress her Department has made on updating the Early Years Foundation Stage framework; and whether she plans to introduce new (a) statutory requirements, (b) strengthened inspection processes and (c) mandatory CCTV in early‑years settings.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
We keep the early years foundation stage (EYFS) frameworks, under ongoing review. The EYFS frameworks can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.
Following safeguarding updates in September 2025, we are working on making the safe sleep requirements clearer by adding the essential details in the frameworks themselves. Subject to the parliamentary and legislative process, the updated frameworks would come into force from September 2026.
Ofsted began inspecting under the revised education inspection framework in November 2025 to assess whether providers are meeting statutory EYFS requirements and taking appropriate action to keep children safe. Settings now receive an Ofsted report card following an inspection.
As of April 2026, we are funding Ofsted to inspect all new early years providers within 18 months of opening and to move towards inspecting all providers at least once every four years, compared to the previous six-year window. Ofsted is also receiving further investment to improve inspection quality and consistency through stronger quality assurance and targeted inspector training.
The EYFS requires providers to have safeguarding policies that address the use of mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities. An expert advisory panel has been established to review how CCTV and digital devices are used in early years settings from a safeguarding perspective.