Oral Answers to Questions
Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Peter Kyle
I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s recognition that I have a personal commitment to Northern Ireland, which I recently visited for the second time. This Government are committed to cyber-security right across the United Kingdom. The budgets for it and their application are subject to Barnett consequentials. I know that he will be working with the devolved Administration to ensure that that money is spent wisely, and in central Government they will have the partner they need.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Feryal Clark)
DSIT works closely with other Departments, including the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to align AI energy demand with future energy planning to ensure long-term sustainability. We understand that AI is an energy-hungry technology, which is why we have set up the AI energy council. Through that council, we are assessing ways to address the growing energy demands of AI and AI sustainability, including by exploring bold clean energy solutions, from next generation renewables to small modular reactors.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy
We know that AI has the power to transform civilisation, but its huge drain on the environment is a problem. For example, ChatGPT has an estimated 57 million daily users, but for every five to 50 questions it is asked, 500 ml of water are used to cool down its data centres. The Minister has explained some of the work that is being done and I understand that the AI energy council is looking at energy solutions to align the Government’s AI ambitions with our net zero goals, but with the increased incidence of drought and the overall climate emergency, what steps are the Government taking specifically to manage water consumption and sustainability with their AI ambitions?
Feryal Clark
I assure my hon. Friend that the Government are committed to ensuring that AI development aligns with sustainability goals. We welcome the advances in cooling technologies, such as dry cooling and closed-loop systems, in addition to promoting the use of renewable energy resources. I chair the AI Ministers group, which brings together Ministers from all Departments to co-ordinate cross-cutting challenges, including water consumption.
Oral Answers to Questions
Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts(6 months, 1 week ago)
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Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)
The Deputy Prime Minister (Angela Rayner)
I have been asked to reply. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has attended the G20 summit, strengthening the UK’s ties with major economies to drive jobs and security at home.
This week marks 1,000 days of Putin’s barbaric war in Ukraine. We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. This week also marks Equal Pay Day. I am extremely proud that this Government have introduced the Employment Rights Bill, strengthening the rights of working women and making work pay.
This morning, I will have meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall have further such meetings later today.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy
I recently met members of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, who highlighted a loophole in the Human Tissue Act 2004 allowing human remains to be auctioned, frequently disguised as modified items or replicas. Such items have included a foetal skeleton posed under a glass dome, a human thigh bone turned into a cane, a human jawbone necklace and the varnished skull of a six year old, and are often from indigenous communities in Africa and Asia, having been stolen during colonial expeditions. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that it is abhorrent for human remains, regardless of their origin or age, to be sold by auction houses and on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, eBay, Etsy and Gumtree, and will the Government take action to end that depraved practice?
The Deputy Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for raising that sensitive issue. It is absolutely horrifying to hear her account of it, and I agree that it is abhorrent. Although the Human Tissue Authority strictly regulates the public display of human remains, with fines or imprisonment for breaches, it does not cover sales or purchases. However, I will ensure that a meeting is arranged with the appropriate Minister to discuss the troubling cases that my hon. Friend raises.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts(2 years, 2 months ago)
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Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)
Just because, unlike the previous Budget, this one has not unravelled in about 20 minutes and led to panic selling in financial markets, the Government should not think that they have vastly redeemed themselves. We now know that the Chancellor’s flagship childcare policies will see nurseries going out of business. The fuel duty levy freeze makes a mockery of any commitment to net zero emissions targets. The removal of the cap on pension pots will affect hardly any consultant doctors at all. Instead, it is a general giveaway to very high earners, and one that protects them from inheritance tax to boot. Most egregiously of all there is a £29 billion handout to businesses, the same businesses that are already swimming in profits because of price gouging and profiteering. We know that this policy will not boost investment, because it has been tried before and failed.
All that has a context. The context is the worst fall in living standards in living memory and a wave of industrial disputes that the Government provoked. The response from Ministers is to claim there is no money left or that paying public sector workers would be inflationary, but it is the price gouging and profiteering by firms that is inflationary. That is not just something you hear me say on a picket line, Mr Deputy Speaker; the Bank for International Settlements research says it, too. This is the central bank for central banks, and no one has ever been stupid enough to claim that it is a left-wing or radical body.
The Chancellor’s policy choice was very simple: to reward those who are responsible for inflation with a multibillion pound handout of taxpayers’ money, and to punish those struggling with that inflation with derisory and insulting pay offers. The Chancellor decided that there was £29 billion left for the profiteers, but, remarkably, that there was no money left for inflation-matching pay rises. The sheroes and heroes of the pandemic are meant to get by on claps. He is a Robin Hood in reverse, stealing from the poor and low-paid, and giving to fat cats, their shareholders and the rich.
This is simply repeating the austerity policy that has hobbled the economy ever since 2010. The Resolution Foundation says that the policy has left British workers £11,000 worse off on average. The Office for Budget Responsibility is very clear about the damage the Budget will do to living standards. It says there will be a record fall in living standards over the two years to the end of March 2024 and that real household disposable income per person is on course to fall by 5.7% over the next two years—the biggest two-year drop since records began in 1956.
There was also nothing in the Budget to address the crisis in public services. In fact, spending on public services as a proportion of GDP is expected to decline in each of the next five years. In a stagnating economy, that means real hardship for millions. There are only even more cuts for local authority services, too.
Government Members may be interested to know that I believe we have seen exponential growth in two areas: privatisation and deregulation. That is warmed-over Thatcherite nonsense. If they believe that Thatcherism worked, they are as deluded as some Members have pointed out today. We are going to see life expectancy falling, poverty growing, child hunger rising and an increase in the number of food banks. This Budget will only ensure that those inequalities continue to grow.