Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when her Department will publish a response to the Technical consultation on a Community Wealth Fund in England, which closed on 19 October 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government is grateful to all those who took the time to respond to the technical consultation. Officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are carefully considering all of the responses received. The government response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the correspondence from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care to the hon. Member for South Shields of December 2023, for what purpose her Department requested personal identifiable data from the Department for Work and Pensions on people who are eligible for Healthy Start.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The Department of Health and Social Care does not receive personal data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on those eligible for the Healthy Start scheme. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) runs the scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. The Department is continuing to work closely with the NHS BSA and the DWP, in order for the NHS BSA to receive the personal data held by the DWP for those potentially eligible citizens, as soon as possible. The NHS BSA will use this data to reach out to those eligible, who are not currently in receipt of Healthy Start, to encourage them to apply for the Healthy Start scheme.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the correspondence from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care to the hon. Member for South Shields of December 2023, whether her Department has received personal identifiable data from the Department for Work and Pensions on people who are eligible for Healthy Start.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The Department of Health and Social Care does not receive personal data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on those eligible for the Healthy Start scheme. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) runs the scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. The Department is continuing to work closely with the NHS BSA and the DWP, in order for the NHS BSA to receive the personal data held by the DWP for those potentially eligible citizens, as soon as possible. The NHS BSA will use this data to reach out to those eligible, who are not currently in receipt of Healthy Start, to encourage them to apply for the Healthy Start scheme.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the potential merits of automatically enrolling eligible people in the Healthy Start scheme.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
There are no plans for specific discussions on this point. The NHS Business Services Authority operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. The Healthy Start scheme has recently transitioned from paper vouchers to a prepaid card. All applicants to the Healthy Start scheme, where they meet the eligibility criteria set out in the Healthy Start legislation, must accept the terms and conditions of the prepaid card at the point of application. As the prepaid card is a financial product and cannot be issued without the applicant accepting these terms, the NHS Business Services Authority is not able to automatically provide eligible families with a prepaid card.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence during the debate on Nuclear Test Veterans: Medical Records of 28 November 2023, Official Report, column 245WH, whether his Department has examined the 150 Atomic Weapons Establishment files.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
I personally examined all 150 records at the Atomic Weapons Establishment on 18 March. I will update the House on plans for their release in due course.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 21 of the report entitled A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation: Government response, CP 1019, published on 6 February 2024, whether the (a) lead AI Ministers and (b) new Inter-Ministerial Group to drive effective coordination across government on AI issues have met.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Shadow Minister (Culture, Media and Sport)
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of defence capabilities in his Department incorporate artificial intelligence as of 6 March 2024.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The term Artificial Intelligence includes a broad family of technologies (from advanced automation to machine learning or symbolic logic-based systems), some of which have been in widespread use for decades. It is therefore not possible to provide accurate statistics on the proportion of Defence capabilities that incorporate such technologies.
While the Defence AI Centre is monitoring over 250 R&D projects across Ministry of Defence that apply different AI technologies to their respective context, we do not currently collect statistics on the proportion undertaken by SMEs. Work is underway to better understand our total AI investment across the Defence enterprise; over time this should allow more granular reporting of supplier metrics.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of AI-related projects in his Department are undertaken by SMEs.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The term Artificial Intelligence includes a broad family of technologies (from advanced automation to machine learning or symbolic logic-based systems), some of which have been in widespread use for decades. It is therefore not possible to provide accurate statistics on the proportion of Defence capabilities that incorporate such technologies.
While the Defence AI Centre is monitoring over 250 R&D projects across Ministry of Defence that apply different AI technologies to their respective context, we do not currently collect statistics on the proportion undertaken by SMEs. Work is underway to better understand our total AI investment across the Defence enterprise; over time this should allow more granular reporting of supplier metrics.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of apprenticeships undertaken in artificial intelligence related positions in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Halfon
There were 350 starts on the level 7 Artificial Intelligence Data Specialist standard in the 2022/23 academic year. Data for 2023/24 has not yet been finalised as we are part way through the academic year. Other apprenticeships may also contain elements relating to artificial intelligence.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what benchmark criteria his Department is using to assess the effectiveness of implementation of the Defence Artificial Intelligence Strategy, published in June 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Ministry of Defence is developing specific targets for core enablers that are necessary to adopt AI at scale across the organisation (people, processes, technology, and data). The AI Delivery Group (AIDG) - chaired by our Second Permanent Secretary - is overseeing this work, balancing centrally driven activities with the recognition that some areas of Defence will move faster than others and we cannot risk stifling the pace of innovation through an overly regimented programme management approach.