Oral Answers to Questions

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Thursday 12th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

The Government are rightly trying to protect children’s safety online, but AI smart glasses risk undermining some of those protections. Children and adults, particularly women, are being filmed without their consent and the footage is being posted online and used to train AI. In the Westminster Hall debate I secured last week, the Minister for Safeguarding said that the Government are looking at options to restrict the use of smart glasses. Will the Minister for Online Safety confirm what measures are being explored and when they will be laid before this House?

[Ian Murray]

Through the course of the consultation with Members, society and the industry on the under-16 social media ban, a lot of issues have arisen across the age ranges regarding smart glasses and some of the harms of new technologies. We are actively looking at what needs to be done in that area, particularly with smart glasses. It is a security issue and a safety issue; indeed, it is a consent issue. Smart glasses should not be any different from any other issues regarding people’s consent for using their images online and what is being done with those images.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

The National Centre for Arts Education is trying to improve music education by improving access to continuing professional development for teachers, but CPD cannot reach schools that do not have a music teacher, and these days many schools tragically do not have one. School is a key pathway into the creative industries for children of all backgrounds, so will the Secretary of State work with the Department for Education to restore the music PGCE bursary and support the Liberal Democrat call for 1,000 new music teachers, so that the National Centre for Arts Education can succeed in its mission?

[Lisa Nandy]

My right hon. Friend the Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Online Safety and I strongly believe that all children in this country deserve the right to live a richer, larger life through access to art, music, sports and culture. Over the last couple of decades, we have shamefully seen those opportunities stripped out of both our classrooms and our communities. I am working with the Education Secretary on reforms to the curriculum that will put art, sport, music, dance and drama back at the heart of the curriculum, where they belong. We are complementing that with a programme of work in our communities, including building music studios in libraries and other initiatives, and I would be delighted to work with the hon. Lady on that agenda.