Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to prioritise sight-loss conditions, including age-related macular degeneration, within (a) UK Research and Innovation's and (b) the Advanced Research and Invention Agency’s future biomedical research programmes.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), funds research into vision loss, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), through a range of schemes. This research spans discovery science and fundamental mechanistic understanding, through to new approaches for diagnosis and intervention. For example, MRC has committed over £4 million to Kings College University for a clinical trial to establish safety and efficacy of photoreceptor transplantation in retinal degeneration and AMD patients as a potential treatment of the condition.
The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has maximum autonomy over its research and project choice, and allocation of funding to research projects and different sectors will be decided by those with relevant technical expertise. ARIA has made nearly £530 million in funding available across its first 10 programmes, which includes biomedical research.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has plans to expand the use of satellite technology to improve rural mobile phone (a) connectivity and (b) coverage.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Satellite connectivity can complement the coverage provided by terrestrial mobile networks. Mobile network operators have already for example, used satellite services to provide backhaul to some Shared Rural Network sites where it is challenging to provide traditional fibre or microwave backhaul, and to increase network resilience. Many modern handsets already have text-based emergency satellite connectivity.
Ofcom recently consulted on proposals to authorise Direct to Device satellite services in certain mobile spectrum bands in the UK. These proposals could enable people to make satellite calls from their mobile phones, which may extend coverage to the most remote areas. This consultation is an important step towards enabling these services.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make it her policy to abolish Ofcom if its code of conduct for technology companies does not improve children's online safety.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The government is clear that we expect significant improvements in children's online safety as platforms comply with their duties under the Online Safety Act.
Ofcom's child safety codes include over 40 measures to hold platforms accountable, ensuring safer social media with less harmful content, protection from strangers, and effective age checks.
Ofcom are clear that they will take strong enforcement action if companies do not take the necessary steps protect children. Where we need to strengthen the law to protect children online, we will do so.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will commission research into (a) the types of (i) messages and (ii) videos promoted by TikTok to UK children and teenage users and (b) the role of promoting such content by malign state actors .
Answered by Feryal Clark
Child online safety is of the utmost importance to the government. Under the Online Safety Act, user-to-user services likely to be accessed by children must protect them from harmful content. Ofcom’s draft codes of practice include recommendations for services to meet these duties, including ensuring that algorithms do not target children with harmful content.
Any attempt by malign state actors to interfere in the UK’s information environment is unacceptable. The Foreign Interference Offence is a priority offence in the Online Safety Act, it requires all in-scope companies to take action against a range of state-linked disinformation and interference online.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will ensure that law enforcement agencies have sufficient resources and training to identify and prosecute creators of non-consensual deepfake content.
Answered by Feryal Clark
Non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes are degrading and harmful. We refuse to tolerate the violence against women and girls that stains our society, which is why we’ve brought forward legislation in the Data (Use and Access) Bill to ban their creation as quickly as possible.
The Home Office is funding the police to detect and remove illegal deepfake images and are working closely with them to improve officers understanding of this emerging threat.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will implement stronger penalties for creating non-consensual deepfake content.
Answered by Feryal Clark
Government is committed to tackling the harm posed by the creation of non-consensual intimate images. We are bringing forward legislation to criminalise this behaviour in the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The new legislation will ensure that offenders face the appropriate punishments for this atrocious harm.
The sharing of or threatening to share a deepfake intimate image without consent is already a criminal offence under the Online Safety Act and was designated as a priority offence in November 2024. Companies in scope of the Act’s illegal safety duties will be required to proactively tackle this type of content, preventing its proliferation online.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when he expects the report of the Independent Pornography Review to be published.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The Independent Pornography Review assesses the effectiveness of current pornography legislation, regulation, and enforcement. It is an important area of interest for this government. The Review has now just concluded. The government is assessing its findings and the final report will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will publish an annual list of (a) social media companies and (b) search services sanctioned for failing to prevent pre-teen access to pornography including details of those sanctions.
Answered by Feryal Clark
Under the Online Safety Act, publishers of pornography online and user-to-user services that allow sharing of pornographic content have a duty to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing this.
The Act requires Ofcom to produce and publish a report on in-scope services’ use of age assurance solutions, within eighteen months of these duties coming into force.
Ofcom has set out in its guidance on enforcement. This guidance includes the information Ofcom will generally publish when opening an investigation, including the identity of the subject and scope of the investigation.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to prevent social media companies adjusting network algorithms to promote actions by users (a) favouring political (i) candidates and (ii) outcomes and (b) who are potential national security threats.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The Online Safety Act gives platforms duties to tackle illegal content. The regulator, Ofcom, has outlined steps providers can take to fulfil these duties in codes of practice, including recommending steps for stopping illegal foreign interference and terrorism content being promoted via algorithms. These duties should be in effect by spring 2025.
The Act will also require all services to have clear, accessible Terms of Service (ToS) and will require Category 1 services to state what legal content for adults is not accepted. Companies must have effective reporting mechanisms, enabling users to raise concerns about enforcement of ToS, if they feel companies are not fulfilling their duties.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
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 trends in the level of reliance on Starlink in the (a) private and (b) public sectors; what steps he is taking to help increase competition in satellite technologies.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government acknowledges rapid evolutions in the global satellite communications sector. Monopoly rarely serves the public interest and a competitive market is important to ensuring public and private sector value. We are keen to secure UK leadership in commercial satellite communications, which is why the UK has: