Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the market dominance of (a) Springer Nature and (b) other major academic publishers on access to publicly funded research.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK mandates open access to publicly funded research via funders such as UK Research and Innovation. Negotiations between Higher Education and academic publishers, including Springer Nature, are supported by Jisc. They seek value for money and off-set read subscriptions and publishing charges, while enabling open access in accordance with UK funder policies.
Jisc is negotiating new agreements with publishers in 2025. These focus on pace of change to open access models, financial sustainability, and equity to benefit wider audiences. Also, funders and universities, encourage a diversity of outputs from research, beyond publication, including preprints.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the Information Commissioner plans to review the data privacy practices of major academic publishers.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The ICO rigorously oversees and enforces compliance with UK data protection law across the whole economy where it relates to the processing of personal data. It does this in a range of ways, including by receiving complaints from members of the public, issuing guidance for organisations and where necessary investigating potential non-compliance. Whilst the ICO is not undertaking specific work to review academic publishers' privacy practices, this may change if evidence comes to light during the undertaking of its regulatory duties.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what plans he has to (a) improve and (b) standardise data collection for STEM careers.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
My department works closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England to ensure that data collection for STEM careers is standardised across government and has already started using the occupation classifications published by the DfE in March of this year. We will continue engaging with the DfE and the Office for National Statistics to improve these classifications, ensuring that Standard Occupational Classifications are updated to reflect new and emerging technologies and occupations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support the life sciences sector to develop drugs to eliminate TB.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to renewing UK leadership in Life Sciences, working in partnership with industry to drive innovation and treatments in key disease areas which help patients.
The Medical Research Council have funded a project at University College London to develop new antibiotics for the treatment of TB. Our Joint Global Health Trials Scheme is also collaborating between MRC, FCDO, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Welcome Trust on a project specifically looking to improve outcomes for children with TB. We will continue to work with and support the sector in developing treatments for diseases such as TB.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support the life sciences sector to develop new drugs to tackle malaria.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UK Research and Innovation’s Medical Research Council (MRC) supports the development of anti-malaria drugs through its Research Boards, Translation portfolio, and participation in the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership.
The MRC contribution for active projects totals £10.93m, including £3.84m for academic-led translational projects. For instance, the University of Liverpool, in collaboration with the Medicines for Malaria Venture, has been awarded £1.12m to lead on a multinational, interdisciplinary programme to develop a drug capable of curing malaria in a single or three daily doses treatment regime.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Education Secretary on the potential merits of teaching awareness of social media.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is working to make the internet safer, through the Online Safety Act to ensure platforms limit harmful content and by helping citizens gain skills to navigate the online world.
Digital and media literacy skills are taught through several compulsory subjects within the school curriculum. This includes evaluating digital content, the implications of sharing personal data, harmful content and contact, cyberbullying, and over-reliance on social media. DSIT and DfE ministers collaborate to ensure these skills are integrated into education policy. The Government has also commissioned an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review which will consider digital and critical thinking skills.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to increase the use of digital technologies across Government; and what steps he plans to take to improve the training for such technologies.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are fully committed to the goal of driving a modern digital government and harnessing data and technology to help deliver the government’s five missions.
To achieve this goal, this government is creating a new digital centre of government within DSIT, bringing together several expert teams. The new digital centre of government will champion digital and data across government, accelerating the use of digital technologies in order to deliver a modern digital government that gives citizens a better experience. This modern digital government will also build on existing programmes such as the Digital Excellence Programme and Tech Track to recruit, develop and retain digital talent across government.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the Online Safety Act 2023 to help tackle online grooming.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The strongest protections in the Online Safety Act are against child sexual abuse and exploitation. The higher the risk on a service, the more measures and safeguards they will need to take to keep their users safe from harm, and prevent their services being used as a platform to groom and exploit children
Ofcom, the online safety regulator, has strong powers to combat this kind of abuse and will keep its codes of practice to tackle illegal harms under review.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of AI on public sector productivity.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) is working with departments to assess the potential of digital transformation on key public facing services, and to improve them. CDDO continues to assess the potential impacts of AI on public service productivity, and is collaborating with departments to explore AI opportunities aimed at enhancing Civil Service productivity, looking to then trial the products to assess the real-world impact.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 support businesses secure their digital infrastructure against the provision of technological services from companies deemed a potential threat to national security.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The security of UK businesses and their digital infrastructure is a priority for the government and a key part of the National Cyber Strategy. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) works with Ofcom, UK technical authorities (the National Cyber Security Centre & National Protective Security Authority) and industry to identify risks and secure telecoms network infrastructure.
The UK Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 sets out one of the world’s toughest telecoms cyber security regimes and places stringent obligations on public telecoms networks providers to protect networks against security threats. The Act also created new national security powers to control the use of high-risk vendors in the UK’s telecoms network. The government encourages businesses to improve their digital infrastructure security through the Cyber Essentials scheme and the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018.