Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on requiring government data and functionality to be exposed through application programming interfaces; and what the timetable is for mandatory e-invoicing by government suppliers.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has been working to define the detailed form of the API mandate announced in the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government. We intend to publish this mandate, including requirements on exposing data and functionality where necessary, in early 2027 following a pilot phase working with a selection of public sector organisations.
As announced at Budget 2025, the government will require all VAT invoices to be issued in a specified electronic format from April 2029, known as “e-invoicing”. An Implementation Roadmap will be published at Budget 2026 which will provide more clarity on the timelines.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for each tool in the Humphrey suite and for Extract and GOV.UK Chat, (a) whether it is live, in beta, transferred or retired, (b) how many users it has and (c) what its cost to date has been.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) tools currently in production use are Consult, Extract, Minute and Parlex. Since September, these tools have together recorded more than 1,000 sign-ins each week. These products are developed and operated through shared multidisciplinary teams and infrastructure, meaning costs are not separately attributable to individual products. Evaluations of Consult and Extract have been published on the i.AI website. https://ai.gov.uk/insights].
GOV.UK Chat is in early Beta stage and available in the GOV.UK App. GOV.UK Chat has been developed within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants, with the costs of development forming part of GDS’s wider budgets. It has answered questions from more than 36,000 users since its release in April 2026. The Government Digital Service plans to further scale up usage of GOV.UK Chat in 2027, adding agentic capabilities that make it easier for citizens to get what they need from government.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which AI tools developed by the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence are in production use; how many users each has; what each cost to develop and operate in 2025-26; and what evaluation of each has been published.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) tools currently in production use are Consult, Extract, Minute and Parlex. Since September, these tools have together recorded more than 1,000 sign-ins each week. These products are developed and operated through shared multidisciplinary teams and infrastructure, meaning costs are not separately attributable to individual products. Evaluations of Consult and Extract have been published on the i.AI website. https://ai.gov.uk/insights].
GOV.UK Chat is in early Beta stage and available in the GOV.UK App. GOV.UK Chat has been developed within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants, with the costs of development forming part of GDS’s wider budgets. It has answered questions from more than 36,000 users since its release in April 2026. The Government Digital Service plans to further scale up usage of GOV.UK Chat in 2027, adding agentic capabilities that make it easier for citizens to get what they need from government.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Answer of 12 October 2026 to Question HL3587, how many of the vulnerabilities that the AI Security Institute identified pre-release in 2026 were fixed before release.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Through its relationships with the world’s leading AI developers, the AI Security Institute (AISI) is able to identify vulnerabilities in new models through pre-deployment testing. Testing results are then shared with developers so that they can improve their safeguards. For example, our biosecurity red-teaming across OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent and GPT-5 revealed more than a dozen vulnerabilities, including universal jailbreak patterns. OpenAI addressed these through engineering fixes, policy updates and improved monitoring. By conducting safeguards red-teaming, we support developers to incrementally improve models through strengthening their overall defensive systems, rather than patching specific vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether his Department has sought advice from the Government Digital Service, Government Cyber Unit, or the National Cyber Security Centre regarding its procurement of AI products, models, or services.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Yes. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade draws on advice and guidance from the Government Digital Service (GDS), the Government Cyber Unit and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) when procuring AI products, models and services. This includes GDS guidance on the use and procurement of AI across government, including the AI Playbook for the UK Government, and NCSC guidance on the secure development and deployment of AI. The Department also works with these bodies to share information on risks and emerging threats, and buys through cross-government commercial frameworks to secure value for money.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many secondees from AI developers worked in the AI Security Institute on 1 October 2026.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
On 1 October 2026 the AI Security Institute had no secondees from AI developers. The AI Security Institute has trusted, voluntary relationships with the world’s leading AI developers. This collaborative approach lets us keep pace with a fast-moving technology and adapt as it evolves.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many AI accelerator procurements have been conducted using the competitive flexible procedure since the commencement of the Procurement Act 2023; what projects those procurements related to; and in how many cases suppliers were compensated for participation in completed stages of those procurements.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Currently, approximately a quarter of contracts are completed using the competitive flexible procedure and each contracting authority makes a decision on how to structure the tender. Information on individual procurements conducted under the Procurement Act 2023 is in the public domain - under the Procurement Act 2023, the Government is committed to ensuring high standards of transparency, accessibility, and digital inclusivity across public procurement. Notices and procurement documents published by contracting authorities on the central digital platform, Find a Tender, are publicly accessible and provided completely free of charge.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Cabinet Office news story, Dr Jade Leung appointed Vice-Chair of the AI Security Institute and Security Advisor to the AI Taskforce, of 23 September 2026, whether the Prime Minister intends to appoint a new Prime Ministerial adviser on AI.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
A new Adviser on AI to the Prime Minister will be appointed in due course.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any Cabinet Office Civil Service staff assisting the Minister for AI have been appointed without open competition, through Civil Service recruitment principle exceptions.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
To date, none of the staff assisting the Minister for AI have been appointed into the Cabinet Office through Civil Service recruitment principle exceptions, without open competition.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the readiness of operators of critical national infrastructure to meet the post-quantum cryptography migration milestones set out by the National Cyber Security Centre; and how that readiness is monitored.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is responsible for monitoring post-quantum cryptography (PQC) readiness across critical national infrastructure (CNI).
DCMS and NCSC are working closely with lead government departments to assess the readiness of operators of critical national infrastructure to meet the post-quantum cryptography migration milestones. Readiness varies both across and within CNI sectors, but all are aware of the need for PQC migration and planning is underway. Lead government departments will continue to work with their sectors to monitor readiness, and DCMS will monitor the overarching readiness in order to assess progress and the need for any potential future interventions.