Procedural Flexibility: Scrutiny of AI and Emerging Technology

Baroness Harman Excerpts

Thursday 22nd October 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Senior Deputy Speaker]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. As I said, I was at a debate about this in Rome, where every speaker made that point. It is also true that the rate of change is happening so fast that we need to be cautious and think about the way we need to regulate this matter. A point made a number of times last week is that, internationally, we regulate air travel, and drugs and pharmacy. This issue is of equal importance, so I absolutely take the noble Lord’s point.

[Baroness Harman (Lab)]

Picking up on the question the noble Lord just asked, does the Senior Deputy Speaker agree that we need to look at overhauling the procedure of how we legislate on AI, because AI moves so fast? Even when agreement is reached about what needs to happen, the legislative process is so slow that, by the time the legislation has come into force, new problems have arisen. Does the Senior Deputy Speaker agree that there could be a joint committee of this House and the House of Commons that could have delegated powers to legislate on AI? That way, we would keep up with the speed of AI, which is currently bringing this legislature into disrepute, because we always seem to be behind the game.

[The Senior Deputy Speaker]

The noble Baroness makes a very fair point. This issue is not limited to AI; it affects many other areas. In my previous area of justice, there was a constant frustration that the legislative process was proceeding very slowly. Nevertheless, the noble Baroness makes a specific recommendation about creating a joint committee to look at AI, and I will bring it to the attention of the PPC.