Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking steps to prevent and restrict social media sites from being used for child sex trafficking activity.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) is an abhorrent and serious crime and tackling it online is an absolute priority for this Government. The Online Safety Act places its strongest protections around children, imposing robust legal duties on online services to prevent their platforms from being used to groom, exploit and sexually abuse children.
Ofcom has set out measures in its codes of practice, including automated detection, moderation, and anti‑grooming safeguards. These duties have been in force since March last year. Ofcom keeps its approach under review, is consulting on further measures and has already carried out enforcement with a particular focus on CSEA.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 proportion of companies paying ransoms to hackers following cyber-attacks; and what steps her Department is taking to improve cybersecurity across industry sectors.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government considers ransomware a serious threat to the UK’s national security and economic prosperity. The Home Office recently consulted on a package of proposals to reduce the threat ransomware poses to the UK economy and will continue to develop these measures in collaboration with industry. Due to under-reporting there is no single authoritative estimate of ransomware payment rates. Recent industry reports suggest that payment rates are declining. The government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey finds around half of businesses (52%) have a rule or policy to not pay ransomware demands.
Improving cyber security across industry sectors is critical to national security and the resilience of our wider economy. The government has developed a wide range of free tools, guidance, training and standards to help organisations of all sizes implement cyber security measures. The government's highly effective Cyber Essentials scheme helps organisations implement critical cyber security controls and protect against the most common cyber attacks. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will boost UK cyber defences and protect our essential and digital services. In October government ministers and senior security officials wrote an open letter to the UK’s leading companies urging them to take three specific actions to improve their cyber resilience: use the government’s Cyber Governance Code of Practice, register for the National Cyber Security Centre’s Early Warning System, and adopt Cyber Essentials in their supply chains. In 2026 the Government will publish a new National Cyber Action Plan that will set out how we will respond to the growing cyber threat and work with industry to raise cyber resilience levels across the economy.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 impact of rising energy prices on the AI sector in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are focused on continuing to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI and data centre infrastructure.
Through the AI Energy Council, we are already bringing together energy system bodies and leading technology companies, including NESO, EDF, Microsoft and Google, to address the energy implications of AI growth and ensure the system is ready to support future demand.
Alongside this, the Government is bringing forward a consultation on discounting data centres' energy costs for eligible projects in areas with excess electricity supply, including Scotland, Cumbria and the North East.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 ensure that inward investment agreements for new datacentres include binding requirements on energy efficiency, renewable power sourcing and heat‑recovery obligations; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential environmental risks arising from the absence of a single cross‑government standard for datacentre sustainability.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to ensuring that new data centres and AI infrastructure are developed responsibly, with due consideration of environmental impacts.
UK data and AI infrastructure is subject to the UK’s environmental and planning frameworks, which require assessment of impacts such as energy use. Larger data centres, which will be able to apply through the recently introduced Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project route, will also be subject to these requirements.
DSIT works closely with DESNZ, DEFRA, and MHCLG to ensure that the UK’s data centre growth align with wider policy objectives, including on sustainability and Clean Power 2030 ambitions. The AI Energy Council, co-chaired by Secretaries of State for DSIT and DESNZ, brings together regulators, energy companies and tech firms to address the growing energy demands of AI in a sustainable and scalable way.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions her Department has had with AI companies on ensuring that AI chatbots do not promote or encourage self-harming behaviour.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I meet regularly with civil society, industry and Ofcom to discuss online safety, including the risks of AI chatbots.
AI services allowing users to share content with one another or that search the live web are covered under the Online Safety Act and have a duty to protect users from illegal content, and children from harmful content.
To build on this, I have made encouraging self-harm a priority offence under the Act and in-scope chatbots will need to have measures in place to prevent users from encountering this content.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to introduce a mandatory ID submission for people creating online accounts on anonymous websites.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has no plans to mandate the new digital ID for creating online accounts on anonymous websites. We will be consulting on other ways people might want to use this ID by the end of the year, such as when verifying their age for accessing certain websites - but there are no plans to make that mandatory.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 help tackle inequalities in access to digital technologies in (a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Preston; and what estimate she has made of the number of households without internet access in (i) the North West, (ii) Lancashire and (iii) Preston.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government has been clear that no one should be left behind in the digital age. We will take steps to ensure support for the most urgent priorities. For example, we are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to bring gigabit-capable broadband to hard-to-reach communities.
According to thinkbroadband.com, only 0.5% of premises in the North-West, 0.6% in Lancashire, and less than 0.1% in Preston are unable to access a decent broadband connection of 10Mbps download, 1Mbps upload. These premises may be able to request an improved connection through the Broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) if their current connection falls below these speeds.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions officials in her Department have had with social media companies on safeguarding users from scams; and what steps she is taking to protect users from scam content.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Shadow Minister (Education)
My department has regular meetings with online platforms on a number of issues. The Government is committed to protecting users from online scams and fraud, which is why new regulations were introduced through the Online Safety Act.
The Act gives user-to-user and search service providers new duties for tackling fraudulent content. They will need to conduct risk assessments and ensure they put in place systems and processes that proactively tackle it. The largest user-to-user and search service providers have additional duties to proactively tackle fraudulent advertising.
Ofcom will set out details about how providers can comply with their duties in codes of practice.