Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve timescales for cases in the Court of Protection.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

HMCTS is working to increase overall system capacity to reduce processing times. Measures taken include a targeted action plan to allocate additional administrative resources in response to higher demand, as well as training and upskilling new staff. Additional judicial sitting days have been added to support performance improvement. HMCTS is also working on improvements to the new case management system, to help reduce overall end-to-end processing times.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill on the EU’s data adequacy decisions in relation to the UK.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The CSR Bill updates the UK’s cyber resilience framework set out in the NIS Regulations 2018 and does not impact the UK's key data protection legislation. It includes a range of measures that affect the Information Commission in its capacity as a NIS regulator, but not its capacity as the UK data protection authority.

The European Commission’s draft decision from 24 June 2025 on UK adequacy concludes that the UK continues to provide an essentially equivalent level of data protection. The government does not consider there to be specific developments that pose substantive risks to the EU adequacy decisions being renewed by the EU’s deadline for adoption of 27 December 2025.

DSIT consulted with the Information Commission during the development of the Bill in accordance with its obligations under Article 36(4) of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with AI companies on the potential risks of the provision of advice by AI programmes that would otherwise be provided by a regulated individual or entity.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

We regularly meet with industry stakeholders, including AI firms, on potential risks that AI poses to businesses and the public.

There are a range of existing rules that already apply to AI systems to address risks, with the UK’s expert regulators empowered to apply rules in their own areas of competence. The government will act where these laws are not enough to ensure safe use.