Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what consultation her Department has held with civil society on the AI Safety Summit.
Answered by Paul Scully
The first major global summit on AI safety, hosted by the UK, will bring together key countries, as well as leading technology companies and researchers, to agree on the safety measures needed to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks emerging from the newest developments in AI technologies.
The Department is committed to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders as it develops AI policy and has, throughout consultation on the AI Regulation White Paper, engaged with a wide range of stakeholders across industry, academia, regulators and civil society. The feedback received will be factored in the Department’s response to the consultation and inform the development of the regulatory framework.
We are adopting this same spirit with regards to our international policy and the Summit, for which preparations are still ongoing. We look forward to sharing more information in due course.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many officials have been allocated to work on the Global Summit for AI Safety; and when she plans that the draft agenda for the Summit will be published.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety this autumn, bringing together countries to agree measures needed to mitigate the most significant AI risks. Officials across the Government are working to deliver the Summit, including teams in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as well as the UK’s diplomatic network, and work continues on the exact scope and outcomes. We look forward to updating the House further as our preparations for the Summit continue.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
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 risks of deepfake (a) audio, (b) photo and (c) video content to the conduct of future UK general elections.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to ensuring that people have access to accurate information. We are taking steps to promote trusted news sources to tackle the spread of disinformation and combat attempts to artificially manipulate the information environment. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Counter Disinformation Unit responds to periods of acute disinformation risk, including UK general elections.
The Government regularly meets with a range of social media platforms to aid our understanding of the spread of misinformation and disinformation on their services, including artificially manipulated media, and the range of steps they are taking to address this. This work includes encouraging platforms to ensure that their Terms of Service (ToS), policies and enforcement are fit for purpose, whilst still respecting freedom of expression.
The National Security Bill will give the UK more tools to tackle these threats, including a new offence of foreign interference. The foreign interference offence is a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill and as such will require digital platforms to proactively take action against a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked online interference, including digitally manipulated content where this has the aim of interfering with UK elections.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the consequences for her policies of (a) application rates and (b) funding awarded under the (i) Horizon Europe Guarantee and (ii) package of funding to cover the shortfall in EU funds in (A) 2021 and (B) 2022; and what estimate she has made of what the UK would have (1) paid to participate in Horizon Europe and (2) received back to date; and if she will publish that assessment and that estimate.
Answered by George Freeman
By 31st January 2023, the UK Government’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme had issued grants worth up to £750m to 1,548 successful applicants. The scheme is demand-driven, reflecting the success rate of UK applicants to the Horizon Europe programme. The UK remains first for successful proposals to Horizon Europe’s European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) schemes, maintaining our Horizon 2020 position.
On 21st November 2022, an additional £484m of funding was announced to support the UK’s R&D sector and bolster talent and investment in R&D infrastructure while delays to association continue.
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement covers the UK’s terms of participation in Horizon Europe.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to fund science and innovation to help achieve the Government's global science superpower aims.
Answered by George Freeman
As set out in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) 2023 priorities, we will optimise public R&D investment to support areas of relative UK strength and increase the level of private R&D to make our economy the most innovative in the world.
This, in part, will be achieved via the largest ever increase in public R&D budget over a Spending Review (SR) period. At the 2022 Autumn Statement, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer recommitted to increasing public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion per annum by 2024/2025.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of increases in the price of broadband packages on the ability of people to access essential online services.
Answered by Paul Scully
We recognise that this is clearly a difficult time for families up and down the country who are struggling to pay their bills as a result of the global rise in the cost of living.
On 23 January, the former Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport met with Chief Executives from major broadband providers at which she asked them to consider carefully the need, at this time, for above inflation price increases and highlighted the impact they may have on those already struggling to pay their bills.
My department has also negotiated a range of high-quality, low-cost broadband social tariffs for households in receipt of Universal Credit and other means tested benefits from as little as £12 per month. These are available in 99% of the UK and may represent a 50% saving from the average-priced broadband package.
Ofcom, the independent regulator, has a statutory duty to assess the affordability in the telecoms market. My department engages regularly with them on matters relating to the affordability of broadband and other telecoms services.
We encourage anyone who is struggling to afford their broadband service to contact their supplier and see what support is available.