Emily Darlington
Main Page: Emily Darlington (Labour - Milton Keynes Central)Department Debates - View all Emily Darlington's debates with the Northern Ireland Office
(2 days, 10 hours ago)
Commons ChamberI welcome the opportunity to promote Northern Ireland’s tech companies here in the Chamber today. More than 1,500 international companies have set up operations in Northern Ireland. They tell me that this is due to the Government support, the strong working between the Government and the Executive, the dual market access, the unique concentration of tech companies, the academic support from Ulster University and Queen’s University and, above all, the people. Northern Ireland has a workforce with industry-ready skills and innovation in their DNA.
Does the Minister agree that the strength of Northern Ireland’s tech sector means that it can play a huge part in becoming an AI superpower, supported by this Government? However, as we have heard in the Northern Ireland Committee, chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi), there is a huge link between online safety and the rates of domestic abuse that we are seeing in Northern Ireland. Can the Minister comment on how we can support and develop the sector while keeping women and girls safe?
We know that violence against women and girls is an epidemic, and online safety is an important part of that. Coupled with Northern Ireland being an AI superpower, as my hon. Friend rightly says, there are opportunities for AI companies, many of which I have met, to work on the tech to ensure that perpetrators are caught, that justice is done and that we ensure that online safety is taken extremely seriously. The work that will be done in the industrial strategy to promote AI work—with the new AI growth zones, for example—can ensure that we lock that in.